Today the symbol of life-giving water, both in a physical and spiritual sense, is present in this Sunday’s scriptures.
In the first reading, we hear the story of the Israelites complaining that they will die of thirst in the desert. Instructed by God, Moses strikes the rock in Horeb with his staff, and water pours out of the rock for the Israelites to drink. We hear a parallel story about water in the Gospel the familiar story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus asks her for a drink of water from the well. There follows a conversation between the woman and Jesus about the defined differences between Samaritans and Jews and the cultural social distancing that existed between them. Jesus then tells her that he can offer her water in which her thirst will be satisfied for ever. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:5-42, NAB) Of course, the woman asks Jesus to give her that water so that her thirst would be satisfied and she would never have to draw water from the well ever again.
This Gospel story is packed with so much it can be hard to focus on just one part, however, I would like to focus on the story of the life giving water about which Jesus speaks. I would like to build on that which I have homilized for the past two weeks of Lent.
In the readings of the first Sunday of Lent we hear the story of Adam and Eve and the fall of humankind. In their quest to become gods, like God, they eat from the tree of knowledge only to find in their nakedness, that they already had the divine presence of God dwelling in them. Their greed blinded them from discovering that divine presence within them.
In the readings of the second Sunday of Lent, we hear the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus. On the top of that mountain, the divine presence of God was revealed in the person of Jesus as a bright, dazzling light. This divine light dwells within us now. The Gospel challenges us to reflect on our lives and find that impedes that divine light within us.
The focus on that everlasting water about which Jesus speaks stands out for me this year more than ever. Upon hearing this story over the years of my life, I always thought that this everlasting water was something from which one could only draw after our human life ended. This year I have come to an entirely different conclusion, namely, that this water is already available for us from which to draw. This well of everlasting water is not some physical entity that exists outside us. This well from which we can satisfy our thirst for ever dwells within us.
Paul in his letter to the Romans speaks of this everlasting water. “The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5-8) Paul goes on to say that this love, this grace of God, was not earned by us. Rather, God’s love and grace has been poured abundantly into our lives freely by God.
Jesus calls upon us to draw deeply from this well of grace in our lives now in the present. Don’t wait for some future time, but draw deeply from this well of God’s never-ending grace in our lives. At times of crises, like we are experiencing right now during this COVID-19 pandemic, we are to draw frequently from this water of God’s love and grace and drink deeply of it. This well will sustain us during the crises in our lives and will sustain us into everlasting life.
The time is now to drink deeply from the well of God’s love and grace within us. As Marty Haugen wrote so beautifully in the fourth verse of his hymn, “Gather Us In” (© GIA Publications, Inc,) “Not in the dark of buildings confining, not in some heaven light years away, but here in this place, new light is shining, now is the Kingdom, now is the day.”
My friends, let us not put off drawing from the love and grace of God in ourselves. Let us tap into that love and grace immediately. It is a well of love and grace that will never be depleted, but will only grow all the more as we continue to drink deeply from it.
