THIRD
SUNDAY OF LENT-CYCLE A – 2020
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The third, fourth
and fifth Sundays of Lent will teach us about one of the signs of baptism.
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These readings
are found only in the liturgical year A, all of them are baptismal readings.
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During these 3 Sundays, the catechumens will celebrate
the scrutinies, which are penitential rites to help the catechumens in their
journey towards the Sacraments of initiation.
FIRST READING – Ex 17:3-7
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In chapter 15
there is another scene about water, in that scene they cannot drink because the
water is bitter.
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In chapter 17 the
people are exhausted and thirsty, they
want water.
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They do not
attack Moses, but God. They think that God
is not able to take care of them in the wilderness.
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Their concept of
God is very primitive; God is he who solves all the difficulties. As the people
of Israel walk the journey of faith, they will learn little by little who God
is. Their prophets will tell them that God wants to have a loving personal
relationship with the People and with each one of the members of the people of
Israel. Still more, God wants to have this relationship with each human being.
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Moses asks God,
and God, as always, answers like a loving and caring parent.
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Take the elders,
so they will be witnesses of what I will do, and struck the rock with the rod
with which you struck the river.
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And water flows
in abundance.
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The last sentence
of this Sunday’s reading tells us the real meaning of the quarrel, they doubt
about God
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Does their
behavior resemble ours?
RESPONSORIAL PSALM Ps 95
If today you hear his voice, harden not
your heart
Come let us sing joyfully to
the Lord
Let us acclaim the Rock of
our salvation
Let us greet him with
thanksgiving;
Let us joyfully sing psalms
to him.
If today you hear his voice, harden not
your heart
Come; let us bow down in
worship
Let us kneel before the Lord
who made us
For he is our God
And we are the people he
shepherds, the flock he guides.
If today you hear his voice, harden not
your heart
Oh, that today you would
hear his voice
Harden not your hearts as at
Meribah
As in Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted
me
They tested me though they
had seen my works.
If today you hear his voice, harden not
your heart
SECOND READING –
Rom 5:1-2. 5-8
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In the preceding
chapters Paul has explained how do we reach salvation
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In the chapters ,
which will follow after this reading, Paul will concentrate in explaining what
salvation is.
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In this fragment
of his letter, Paul switches from the word faith to the word life.
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The word life has
a physical meaning in Rom 7,1-3
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Apart from those
two verses, life has a variety of meanings
which we know through the words
used by Paul:
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Peace, in the
sense of the Hebrew word shalom, which is the fullness of all that is good and
the absence of anything bad. The true shalom will be reached only in Heaven.
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Grace, gift. We
called grace the gift to participate
into God’s life during our earthly journey.
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Hope, which enables us to continue with joy
our journey even among the hardships of life.
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Love which God
has poured out into our hearts
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The Holy Spirit
whom the Father has given to us.
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The death and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us when we were still
sinners.
GOSPEL: John 4:5-42
Jesus is going from
Jerusalem to Galilee; he had to pass through Samaria.
At the town of Sychar
he stops and sits at the well Jacob had given to his sons.
He is tired, hungry
and thirsty. His disciples had gone to
the town to buy food.
Dialogue with the Samaritan woman:
The woman comes to the well at noon, this is not the
normal time to go to the well, but maybe her life was not accepted by the other
women, thus she used to come at noon when nobody was there. Jesus says “give me a drink”
The woman answers, “You are a man and a Jew, I am a
Samaritan woman. (A man was not supposed to speak in public with a woman and
much less with a Samaritan woman. Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans)
Jesus says: if you knew whom it is that is asking for
a drink, you would ask him instead.
The woman recognizes something different in this man:
Sir, you do not have a bucket…. Jesus is willing to drink from the woman’s
bucket. This is truly, what the Son of God has done; share our bucket-our life
becoming human one like us.
Jesus tells her that anyone drinking the water from
the well will continue to be thirsty; he can give her living water, which shall
become a spring within her, leaping up to eternal life.
The woman wants this water, but she is still at the
material level, if this man gives her that kind of water she will not have to
come back to well every day.
Jesus wants to take the woman a step further, “go tell
you husband and come back here”
The woman is drawn to the light although she is still
reluctant, this man knows her life. How much she has been looking to satiate her
thirst of love, always in the wrong place.
Jesus tells her you are right you have had 5 husbands
and the one you have now is not yours.
The woman says “Sir you are a prophet”
She engages in a conversation over the place of
worship, maybe she is embarrassed by what Jesus has told her, she still fights
against the light, which is given to her.
The true worshiper will worship the Father in Spirit
and truth, because God is Spirit.
The woman now talks about the Messiah
Jesus makes to her the greatest revelation “I who speak
to you, am he”
The scene is changed
now.
- The disciples come back; they do not ask even being surprised to see him talking to a woman.
- The woman leaves her bucket, she does not need it any more, she has finally found peace and reconciliation within herself, she already has the fountain of water promised by Jesus, her joy is complete. She wants to share it with the people of her town “come to see a man who has told me the things I ever did, could he be the Messiah?”
- Meanwhile the disciples want Jesus to eat, Jesus, as he did with the woman talking to her about the living water, he speaks to the disciples about another bread, the bread of the will of the Father. (In the first temptation he answered “not only of bread…. But the will of God.)
- He explains to them that they have been sent to reap what others had worked. In the Church, each one has its own mission given by the Lord, and all together we do the will of the Father.
- The people from the town come and on listening to Jesus, they believe in him.
CLARETIAN CORNER
The more we went into that immense sea of waters the more my spirit
plunged into the immense sea of God , when I looked at myself within the heart of my God and Lord more clearly than in a mirror. God was so pleased in this way
of considering his infinite greatness that often times He made me feel the
tenderness of his most holy arms with which His holy Majesty pressed my soul
within his sacred heart…. The immensity of the sea reminded me of the immensity
of God and those skies so wide brought to my mind the immense spaces of the
glory of the saints. Venerable María Antonia Paris, Foundress of
the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 159.
Fire that always
burns, love that is always on fire and is never lukewarm, enkindle in me the
fire of your love, so that I may love you. I love you, Jesus, with all my
heart, with all my soul, with all my strength. I would like to love you more
and that all love you. I would like to love you for me and for all your
creatures. Most Holy Virgin Mary, grant me the grace that all be saved and no
one be condemned. St.
Anthony M. Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Prayer.
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