HOMILY THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT CYCLE A March 12, 2023

 HOMILY   THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT   CYCLE A    March 12, 2023

 In the Gospel today, Jesus is thirsty.  But FOR what is He thirsty???   Not for water, but for the faith of the woman of Samaria. 

The woman of Samaria is an unlikely candidate for Jesus’ thirst.  First of all, she is not a Jew but a Samaritan.  Jews viewed Samaritans as heretics, traitors and enemies.  Yet, Jesus thirsts for her faith.   //

Secondly, she was obviously a woman.  Women did not count for as much as men in that day and society and culture.  They were decidedly second class, if even that.  They were of less importance than men, so much so that they were routinely ignored and not even noticed. 

But Jesus notices.  The fact that she is clearly a woman does not bother or matter to Jesus.  He thirsts for her faith.  He ardently wishes to give her living water.   //

And third, she was not an upstanding moral character. She had had five husbands, and the man she was currently with was not her husband.  She was a woman of, dare I say, loose morals.  Hardly an outstanding example of virtue.  Nonetheless, Jesus longs and yearns and thirsts for her faith.  He wishes to give her the deep meaning and sense of wholeness she so clearly lacks. 

Jesus thirsts and longs for her faith, and Jesus also longs and thirsts for your faith in Him. 

And it does not matter to Jesus in the least your religion, race, nationality, ethnicity, political party, gender, or favorite sports team.  Jesus yearns and longs for your faith in Him. 

We try in so many ways to quench our thirst for life, for meaning, for identity, for hope, for love.  Only Jesus gives us the water of eternal life.  “Whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst: the water I shall give will become in him or her a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

That calls for an AMEN.