HOMILY FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

Fr Billy Swan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBbQviu1baw

Dear friends. The symbol of water is at the centre of both the first reading and the Gospel today. Once again, like so many passages from Scripture, they have both a literal meaning and a deeper spiritual meaning, both of which are very important.

First, the literal meaning and the need for fresh water, without which we die. Because of our levels of rainfall in Ireland, the availability of clean, fresh water is something we take for granted. We turn on the taps and it is there. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many in other parts of the world. The reality for the world’s poorest people is that they often depend on rainfall to grow food to feed their families and to earn a living.

In many places like Rwanda that is featured on the Trocaire Box this year, severe drought has led to the devastation of crops and the arrival of famine. This Lent, Trocaire is appealing for our support in developing access of the world’s poor to clean supplies of water. It also appeals for our conversion and commitment to climate justice. Let us pledge our support to Trocaire’s campaign. The smallest amount can make a big difference. Remember the Lord’s words: ‘a cup of cold water given in my name will not go without its reward’ (Mark 9:41; Matt. 10:42).

Then there is the deeper spiritual meaning of the human being’s thirst for the living water of God Himself. But before we start with our thirst for God, what is even more important to acknowledge is God’s thirst for us. On the cross just before he died, Jesus cried out ‘I thirst’. After his loss of blood, Jesus thirsted for water but most of all, he thirsted for our love. God thirsts for human love. That is why he asked the woman at the well: ‘Give me something to drink’. On the cross, when Jesus said ‘I thirst’, he expressed his desire and God’s desire for our love. It is as if God’s thirst for us can only be satisfied by our thirst for him: ‘O God you are my God for you long. For you my soul is thirsting like a dry weary land without water like a dry weary land without water’. We can easily betray or at least lose our way by forgetting or ignoring him who thirsts for us. What shall we give to him who thirsts for us? A cool drink, we call it love, to quench the thirst of him who first loved us. In the words of St Augustine: ‘Prayer happens when God’s thirst for us meets our thirst for him’.

Then there is our thirst for God, his love, truth and mercy. St Theresa of Avila once wrote that ‘the soul is never content with anything less than God meaning that only a deep relationship of friendship with Him can truly satisfy us. For if we try to quench that thirst with substitutes, then our thirst will never be satisfied and we will never be happy.

That is why the prophet Jeremiah chastised the people in these words: ‘My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken me the spring of living water and have dug their own leaky cisterns that can hold no water. (Jer.2:13).

The Gospel today is an invitation in this season in Lent, to dive deeper – to take the time to pray, to desire a deeper intimacy with God and commitment to his kingdom: ‘Let anyone who believes in me come and drink…from his heart shall flow streams of living water’ (John 7: 37-38; cf. John 4: 10-14). Faith in him creates a spring of living water which never runs dry.

Finally, today’s wonderful Gospel is about mission as the people of the Samaritan town declare that they now believe not just because of the woman’s witness but because they have seen for themselves. St John XXIII once described the parish as ‘The Village Fountain where everyone can come and slake their thirst’. What a beautiful image of how every parish should be! Perhaps our role then is to direct others to where living water is found here in the family of the Church, in the sacraments and in God’s Word. Let our parish be a place where people come and find the living water for which we long.