THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR A 2026
CHRIST THE WELL OF LIFE-GIVING WATER
1ST Rdg Ex.17:3-7, Ps 96, 2nd Rdg Rom. 1-2 5-8, Gospel John 4: 5-42
On the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, we were given the Christian Mandate for lent, the three pillars: Prayer, Fasting and Alms giving. Sr. Miriam Hieldband explained the purpose of these pillars as:
i. Prayer: Healing our relationship with God.
ii. Fasting: Healing our relationship with self.
iii. Almsgiving; healing our relationship with others respectively
I would like us to reflect on the first: healing our relationship with God in the light of the readings of today.
The Image of a Well
What is a well? A well is a source of water. Three things characterize a well; a source/spring, reservoir(tank) and outlet/purpose (a life giving river for aquatic life and vegetation or usage by animals and people).
Those who have grown up in towns and cities might not have seen what a well is. Today we have taps that flow up to our bedrooms. The day the tap runs dry is the day one knows that the tap is not the source of the water it brings. There is a well somewhere that forms a river and feeds a lake from where water is pumped into our taps or a borehole from which the water is pumped.
Growing up as a child I was obsessed with wells. I realized the importance of wells because during the dry seasons people spent the whole night in the well lining up to fetch water. When one well dried up they moved to another until the rain season was back. I took interest in the names of the wells in my village and realized they were names of people who dug or sunk them. The wells kept alive the memory of these people most of whom had long died. These wells had a source/ spring, often dug besides hills near swamps, they were very deep with enough space to collect water, they always had an outlet to share the water with the rest of creation and of course for domestic use.
So I also wanted to be remembered and hence I dug a well. Unfortunately, my well never lasted due to the following reasons: choice of site that was my mother’s garden; there was no spring for a source but rain water that had logged the surface, the depth was shallow, the purpose was not really for water but rather self-centered desire for fame. Since it was in my mother’s garden when I went to school I came back three months later to find my well-ploughed and crops planted.
The well on which Jesus sat during his conversation with the Samaritan woman.
This well is unique and it is called the well of Jacob. Whereas there is well dug by Abraham (Gen 21: 22-34), and the wells of Isaac (Gen 26). There is no mention of the well of Jacob in the book of Genesis. This is important because it helps us to start seeing this well from its spiritual significance. Both Samaritans and Jews recognized Jacob as their father and hence the well of
Jacob unites the two groups. Jesus sits on this well. This is very symbolic because he takes the place of the well, he becomes the well himself. “Jesus said to her If you knew the gift of God and who it is saying to you give me a drink you would ask him and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Give me this water, that I may not thirst nor come here to draw”.
From this point, the focus shifts from the thirst of Jesus to the thirsts of the woman, her sins: prostitution, married five times; idolatry, the five husbands could be the different gods she worshiped; and the effects of these sins, social exclusion. Jesus helps her to recognize her thirsts and as the conversation continues Jesus reveals himself to her, “I am the messiah.” She received life giving water from the eternal source and from that time her life transformed completely. She immediately became a well of life giving water to the entire village. Spiritually a well is therefore a source of deep, abiding and life-giving spiritual nourishment that gives wisdom, healing and divine presence.
Our Wells
“Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give shall never thirst; the water I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Like the Samaritan woman and the Israelites in the desert, we are invited to encounter God/Jesus through our thirsts. What do we thirst for? And in which ways do our thirsts manifest themselves? The evil in the world today are all manifestations of thirst, the wars and merciless killings, human trafficking, domestic violence, abuse of children and vulnerable adults and destruction of mother earth are indications of our need to encounter Jesus. Coming closer home, we gathered here, what are the manifestations of the thirst in us? The scandals; sexual, financial etc; Addictions: social media, pornography, alcoholism, sex etc. Vices in our communities: gossips, judging others, slandering, power struggles, abuse of juniors, failure to keep the evangelical counsels etc. Jesus would tell us woe to you hypocrites. However the same Jesus invites us into a dialogue.
We are not doomed, lent is an invitation to go down to the well and have an honest conversation with Jesus. In this conversation let us tear down all the defences we use, such as pretence, spiritualizing (so long as I attend Mass and pray the divine office), rationalizing (it is human nature) and allow the Lord to walk us through our story.
It is from our own stories that we shall experience the healing power of God. This calls for a personal encounter with God that will lead to a conversion and a new deeper understanding of ourselves as beloved children of God, as brothers and sisters. Therefore, our own stories are our wells that once healed and connected to the eternal spring leads to transformation and holiness for us and for others. Remember God can command water from a rock. (Ex. 17: 3-7) This is the invitation to all Christians but especially we religious to become wounded and healed healers and not wounded injurers.
In our wells, let Christ become and always remain our source/spring. Our bodies, faith, hope and love as St Paul says in Rom. 5:1-8 become the reservoir/tank of the water from the spring and our words and actions become the outlet through which we share life giving water with the rest of creation especially the poor.
Mark O. MHM
