Homily: Third Sunday in Lent
March 8, 2026
My dear brothers and sisters, we are on the third Sunday of our Lenten journey. The readings of today center on the theme of living water. In the first reading, the Israelites in their journey to the Promised Land thirsted for water to a point that they complained against Moses and against God that they were brought out in the wilderness to die of thirst. In the gospel reading, we saw the encounter between Jesus and the woman of Samaria. This Samaritan woman came to draw water from Jacob’s well, she needed water. We all also need water. Water is a matter of life and death.
From this need we all have of natural water, Jesus speaks of the living water. If natural water is so important for life, the living water that God gives is so much more important for our everlasting survival. Our human life can be likened to this journey of the Israelites from slavery to the Promised Life. In this journey we sometimes can experience the aridity and fatigue of life: poverty, loneliness, pain, the loss of meaning and hope, to a point that we can even wonder as the Israelites did on their journey, “is the Lord among us or not?” Brothers and sisters, the Lord is among us, we are not to lose hope like some of the Israelites of old.
The solution to our problem will come when we return to Jesus the source of the living water. In the gospel of today, Jesus says, “the one who drinks of the water that I will give will never be thirsty, the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” We all need to quench our thirst from this spring of living water. In Ezekiel chapter 47, the prophet Ezekiel was shown a vision of a spring of water flowing from the sanctuary and flowing into Arabah. Wherever this water coming from the sanctuary enters, whether the sea or the river or the lake, all stagnant waters become flesh, all living creatures there rejuvenate with life, the trees at the banks of the rivers become evergreen and grow abundance of fruits, their leaves become medicinal curing all kinds of diseases.
The season of Lent is a time for us to swim in this river flowing from the sanctuary, so that our spiritual life will be rejuvenated. Jesus is inviting us to come, no matter the condition, let us come, just as the word of God tells us in Psalm 23:2, Jesus “will make us lie down in green pastures and lead us beside running waters.” This Samaritan woman in the gospel looked like the most unlikely person to be offered the living water for so many reasons. First, she was a Samaritan, while Jesus was a Jew, these two races had nothing in common. Among the Samaritans, she was a woman, in these ancient cultures, women are not to be seen talking to men that way in the public. Even the disciples of Jesus were surprised that Jesus was speaking with a woman. Then among the women, she seemed to be a harlot too, she has had five husbands and he with whom she was living was not really her husband. Notwithstanding all these obstacles, Jesus was there for her. Jesus was like, forget those challenges, ‘just come and drink the aqua vita-the water of life.’
From this woman’s behavior we get an idea of how growth in spiritual life should be when we come nearer to God and open our heart. In this discourse she had with Jesus, we can see that she first called Jesus a ‘Jew’, afterwards, she called him ‘Sir’. As they discussed further, she called him a ‘prophet,’ further still, she called him ‘the Christ.’ She acknowledged Jesus as the One who read her conscience. Lastly, through her, many learned that Jesus is ‘the Savior of the world.’
This is spiritual growth, our own relationship with God should be a forward movement and not be a retrogression, that is a growth in the opposite direction. What we see in the modern times is spiritual retardation or more of spiritual dwarfism, in the elementary and grade 7 and 8 of the reception of the First communion and Confirmation, the zeal to come to Jesus in the church is high. Towards the end of high school, it gradually drops only to special ceremonies like Christmas and Easter and by the time the person goes higher to College or University, he/she turns into a full-blown atheist. Brothers and sisters, Jesus is thirsting for our souls, Jesus tells this woman, ‘give me a drink.’ Jesus continues with this request even while hanging on the cross, He said, ‘I thirst.’ Jesus is thirsting for our gift of love; He is thirsting for our soul. We can quench this divine thirst when we sincerely commit ourselves to doing His holy will.
