Sunday 3rd of Lent. Cycle A.
The Gospels of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sundays of Lent in Cycle A, taken from John, present Jesus as the source of living water (the Samaritan woman), light of the world (the healing of the man born blind), and life (the raising of Lazarus). Three symbols of our strongest needs (water, light, life) and how Jesus can fill them.
Three water carriers, three types of water, and a drunkard
The readings for next Sunday speak of three famous figures (Jacob, Moses, Jesus) relating them to the gift of water. Throughout much of the world, drinking a glass of water poses no problems: it is enough to turn on the tap or pour from a jar. But there are still millions of people who live the tragedy of thirst and know the wonderful gift that a water source represents.
In the Gospel, the Samaritan woman recalls that the patriarch Jacob gave them a splendid well, from which water can still be drawn after so many centuries. In the first reading, Moses quenches the people’s thirst by striking the rock. Returning to the Gospel, Jesus promises a spring that lasts eternally.
Apparently, the same problem and the same solution. But they are three very different waters: that of Jacob lasts for centuries, but does not quench thirst; that of Moses quenches thirst for a short time, at a specific moment; that of Jesus quenches a very different thirst, springs from him and transforms into a fountain within the Samaritan woman. This miracle is infinitely superior to that of Moses: that is why the Samaritan woman, when she finishes talking to Jesus, leaves the jar at the well and goes to the town. She no longer needs that water which must be collected every day; Jesus has given her an interior spring.
¿Y el borracho? No lo menciona ningún texto. Pero podemos intuirlo en la lectura de Pablo a los romanos.
Historical and communal interpretation
Perhaps the primary intention of the narrative was to explain how the first Christian community was formed in Samaria. That region was despised by the Jews, who considered it corrupted by numerous pagan cults. Indeed, in the 8th century B.C. the Assyrians deported many Samaritans and replaced them with five villages that introduced their gods there (2 Kings 17:30-31); these would be the five husbands the Samaritan woman had previously, and the sixth (“the one you have now is not your husband”) would be Zeus, introduced later by the Greeks.
However, while the Jews hate and despise the Samaritans, Jesus appears in their region and himself founds the first community there. The Samaritans end up accepting him and give him a typical title of theirs, which is used only here in the New Testament: “the Savior of the world.” In that first Samaritan community, what Jesus says to the disciples is fulfilled: “one is the sower, another the reaper.” He himself was the sower, and later missionaries reaped the fruit of his activity. But the account highlights the important role played by a woman who brought her countrymen into contact with the person of Jesus.
**Individual Interpretation**
There are two details that obligate completing the communal reading with a more personal reading. The first is the curious reference to the Samaritan woman’s jar. She brought it to fetch water; in the end, after speaking with Jesus, she leaves it in the well. She no longer needs that water; Jesus has given her a different one, which has become a spring within her.
The second detail is the close relationship between Jesus’ promise of giving water, his subsequent invitation during the feast in Jerusalem: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink” (John 7:37-38), and what happens at Calvary, when they pierce him with a spear, and from his side flows blood and water (John 19:34). The central theme is no longer now the foundation of a community, but the close relationship of any believer with him, of that person who has their material thirst quenched, even through the daily effort of seeking water, but who feels a different thirst, a dissatisfaction that is only filled through direct contact with Jesus and faith in him.
Another water and another bread
A final detail regarding the enormous symbolic wealth of this episode. The Samaritan woman forgets to drink. Jesus forgets to eat. Although the disciples urge him to do so, he has another nourishment, just as the woman has another water.
What is that water that Jesus has given to the Samaritan woman? Upon rereading the story, it is noted that the woman is changing her image of Jesus. At first, she considers him a simple Jew, who does not deserve great respect. Later, she discovers him as a prophet, knowledgeable of hidden things. Later she wonders if he might not be the Messiah, someone who deserves all her consideration, even if he destroys her previous religious convictions; someone who reveals to her the right relationship with God.
In the Old Testament, the metaphor of thirst and water is sometimes used to express the desire for God: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul after you, O God” (Psalm 42). This new knowledge of God and of Jesus is the water that the Samaritan woman has taken away, the one who does not need the old jar, which can be left forgotten by Jacob’s well.
Three police officers die to save a drunk (Romans 5:1-2.5-8)
It happened in La Coruña in the early hours of January 27, 2012, when a Slovakian university student, having had more than a few shots of tequila, insisted on swimming in the sea at night despite the sea conditions advising against it. As he was drowning, three police officers jumped into the water to save him. All three drowned, as did the young man. I am outraged by these irresponsible people who cause the death of innocent people, better than them.
But this fact brings to my mind the words of Paul: “For a good man someone might even be willing to die; but the proof that God loves us is that Christ died for us when we were still sinners.” We resemble the drunken college student; if we foolishly risk our lives, no one should lose theirs to save us. Yet that is precisely what Jesus did, and what we will celebrate at the upcoming Easter feast. Something we can never properly thank him for.
José Luis Sicre
English version translated with AI