In this week's edition of There's More in the Gospel than Meets the Eye,
Jill Bevilacqua and Seàn-Patrick Lovett bring us readings and reflections for the
Third Sunday of Lent. Listen:
Gospel Jn 4:5-15, 19B-26, 39A, 40-42
Jesus came to a town
of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son
Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there
at the well. It was about noon. A woman of Samaria 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, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan
woman, for a drink?” —For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.— Jesus
answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to
you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘ you would have asked him and he would have given you
living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and
the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater
than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with
his children and his flocks?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who
drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall
give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring
of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this
water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.
“I
can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but
you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe
me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this
mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand; we
worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour
is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit
and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit,
and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” The woman said
to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when
he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one
who is speaking with you.” Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe
in him. When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days. Many more began to believe in him because of
his word, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your
word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior
of the world.”