Praying with the Sunday Gospel 3rd Sunday of Lent
Praying with the Sunday Gospel
3rd Sunday of Lent – year A
John 4:5-42
“A spring of water welling up to eternal life”
Jesus came to the Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well is there and Jesus, tired by the journey, sat straight down by the well. It was about
the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘What? You
are a Jew and you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?’ – Jews, in fact, do not associate with
Samaritans. Jesus replied:
‘If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you: Give me a drink, you
would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.’
‘You have no bucket, sir,’ she answered ‘and the well is deep: how could you get this living water?
Are you a greater man than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself with
his sons and his cattle?’ Jesus replied: ‘Whoever drinks this water will get thirsty again; but
anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again: the water that I shall
give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life.’
‘Sir,’ said the woman ‘give me some of that water, so that I may never get thirsty and never have
to come here again to draw water.’ ‘Go and call your husband’ said Jesus to her ‘and come back
here.’ The woman answered, ‘I have no husband.’ He said to her, ‘You are right to say, “I have no
husband”; for although you have had five, the one you have now is not your husband. You spoke
the truth there.’ ‘I see you are a prophet, sir’ said the woman. ‘Our fathers worshipped on this
mountain, while you say that Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.’ Jesus said:
‘Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know: for salvation
comes from the Jews. But the hour will come – in fact it is here already – when true worshippers
will worship the Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants. God
is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.’
The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah – that is, Christ – is coming; and when he comes he
will tell us everything.’ ‘I who am speaking to you,’ said Jesus ‘I am he.’
At this point his disciples returned, and were surprised to find him speaking to a woman, though
none of them asked, ‘What do you want from her?’ or, ‘Why are you talking to her?’ The woman
put down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tell the people. ‘Come and see a man who
has told me everything I ever did; I wonder if he is the Christ?’ This brought people out of the
town and they started walking towards him.
Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, do have something to eat; but he said, ‘I have
food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples asked one another, ‘Has someone been
bringing him food?’ But Jesus said: ‘My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to
complete his work. Have you not got a saying: Four months and then the harvest? Well, I tell you:
Look around you, look at the fields; already they are white, ready for harvest! Already the reaper
is being paid his wages, already he is bringing in the grain for eternal life, and thus sower and
reaper rejoice together. For here the proverb holds good: one sows, another reaps; I sent you to
reap a harvest you had not worked for. Others worked for it; and you have come into the rewards
of their trouble.’
Many Samaritans of that town had believed in him on the strength of the woman’s testimony when
she said, ‘He told me all I have ever done’, so, when the Samaritans came up to him, they begged
him to stay with them. He stayed for two days, and when he spoke to them many more came to
believe; and they said to the woman, ‘Now we no longer believe because of what you told us; we
have heard him ourselves and we know that he really is the saviour of the world.’
Hearing!
“Speak Lord your servants are listening”
Slowly read the Gospel passage; listening carefully to the story.
Read it intentionally, so as to perceive the small details we can
miss on an initial reading. These small details might be the bridge
between the Gospel Story and the story of your life.
- What phrase of word resonated with you in your reading of this
text?
Happening
Through the lens of the Gospel we now look with compassion
at the story of our lives
Having listened to the text of the Gospel now let it speak to the
text of your life story. Become aware of where this Gospel story
is already alive in your life or in your community. Or maybe you
notice where it is absent in your life? Where might this Gospel
story be inviting life and hope into aspects of your life that long
for resurrection and new life?
Hoping
What do you want to say to the Lord in light of what you
have shared, or what you have heard others share during
this time of prayer?
The Gospel always leads us to places of hope, possibility, and new
beginnings. It awakens us too where and what we should be
grateful for. It leads us to where God is waiting and inviting us to
grow in freedom, inner peace and maturity as a disciple. What
prayer is in your heart as you draw to a close this period of
prayer?