During certain liturgical seasons- Lent being one of them- the Church endeavors to tightly harmonize all the scriptural readings for Sundays. Hence, it is important to consider more than just the Gospel. In normal times, beginning this Sunday (i.e., the Third Sunday of Lent), communities who have members of the Elect begin celebrating the Scrutinies. As a result, at least at the Mass during which the Scrutiny is celebrated, every year we read the readings for Year A of the lectionary. This year it presents no wrinkle because it is Year A.
And so, for the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent, in conjunction with the celebration of the Scrutinies, not only is the same Gospel read but the same reading from the Hebrew Bible and same epistle reading are also proclaimed.
The harmony between our first reading for the Third Sunday of Lent, taken from the seventeenth chapter of Exodus, and the Gospel are clear. The Psalm from which the Responsorial is taken is also easily harmonized because it cites the event that occurred at Meribah and Massah- the place of dispute and testing. Let's note that Israel failed the test. Lest you become puffed up, you fail too. In my view, it is very important to "fail" at Lent, particularly if you are approaching it as a time of self-improvement. But just as God does not spurn Israel for its failure, God does not spurn you or his sometimes unfaithful bride, the Church, for failures.
But what about the epistle reading, taken from the fifth chapter of Saint Paul's Letter to the Romans?
Too often, Catholic preachers actively avoid this Pauline passage (and many others- like one the week before last) because it refutes that moralism they wish to preach. Truth be told, the moralism doesn't hold up very well against the episode of the Samaritan woman at the well either. So, before turning to Paul, let's look at Jesus's encounter with the Samaritan woman.
To summarize: Jesus was somewhere he shouldn't have been (Samaria), speaking with someone with whom he should not have anything to do (not just a woman, or a Samaritan woman, but this particular Samaritan woman). On the telling found in Saint John's Gospel, Jesus knows about this woman's troubled past and yet is eager not only to engage with her but to reveal to her who he is. To know who Jesus is means to know what his mission is: salvation (which, he points out, "is from the Jews")1.
In essence, his question to her is "Are you thirsty?" Indeed, she is thirsty for the living-giving water. This water is not something offers in addition to or apart from himself. It is nothing other than his very self for the redemption of the world. Typical of John's Gospel, how Jesus speaks of redemption is bringing God's creation to its completion. Does he not tell his disciples: "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work"?2
Note something else: Jesus does not place conditions on the life-giving water he offers this Samaritan woman. In other words, she does not fall down on her knees, or prostrate herself before him, begging for forgiveness. Jesus does not instruct her to separate from the man with whom she is apparently living and to whom she is not legally and lawfully wed. One might say Jesus shares his knowledge of her intimate life as a way of verifying his claim to be the Messiah- the one who is coming. Not to judge or condemn her, even to "convict" her in her own mind and heart.
Christ and the Woman at the Well, by Il Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), ca. 1640-1641
If we want to draw a "lesson" from this encounter it must be something like "evangelism is neither an apologetic nor a morality. Timothy Radcliffe wrote about this very well:
The Church has nothing to say about morality until our listeners have glimpsed God’s delight in their existence. People often come to us carrying heavy burdens, with lives not in accord with the Church’s teaching, the fruit of complex histories. We have nothing to say at all until people know that God rejoices in their very existence, which is why they exist at all. Jesus is the incarnation of God’s pleasure in us, in everything that we are, body, mind and soul3Jesus came to save you, to allow and enable you to become who God created you to be. In short, he came to complete or to finish you. This is good news, indeed!
Because Jesus is the life-giving water, it is not enough merely to take a drink, let alone a mere sip. No, when you are baptized you are fully and completely immersed in him. And to be immersed in Christ is to be immersed in the Paschal Mystery. To be immersed in the Paschal Mystery is to be immersed in the very life of God: Father, Son, and Spirit.
This, by a circuitous route, brings me to our reading from Saint Paul. Our epistle reading begins: "Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."4 Setting aside a huge discussion on the nature of justification, it is faith in Christ that "justifies." That said, it is important not to lose sight of the fact faith is a gift from God.
The Preface for the Eucharistic Prayer specific to the Mass at which the first Scrutiny is celebrated (or all Sunday Masses during Year A) for the Third Sunday of Lent puts faith as a divine gift into bold relief: "For when [Jesus] asked the Samaritan woman for water to drink, he had already created the gift of faith within her and so ardently did he thirst for her faith, that he kindled in her the fire of divine love"5
During Lent don't try to save yourself. Don't try to earn what you already have and could never merit. Jesus's temptations in the desert do not serve as a template for your own life. If you're anything like me (human, all too human), nine out of ten times you'll give in to the temptation. The one time you do not you will wind up being so very proud of yourself that it obliterates whatever resisting the temptation may have merited. In short, you are not your own Jesus, your own Savior. Saint Paul succinctly points out that "while we were still helpless, [Jesus] died at the appointed time for the ungodly."6 Who are these ungodly for whom Jesus died? You and me, my friend, you and me.
Like the thirsty Samaritan woman Jesus engaged at Jacob's well, Jesus freely offers you himself because he is God's love incarnate. "God proves his love for us," Paul continues, "in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us" 7 Because of this "we have peace with God"8 It is through Jesus Christ that "we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand" 9
So much for moralism! As preached in far too many Catholic churches, particularly during Lent, such moralism would likely make even Saint Augustine's caricature of Pelagius blush.
1 John 4:22.↩
2 John 4:34.↩
3 Timothy Radcliffe, What is the Point of Being a Christian?, Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition, Location 1154 of 4497.↩
4 Romans 5:1.↩
5 Roman Missal, "Third Sunday of Lent- Preface 'The Samaritan Woman.'"↩
6 Romans 5:6.↩
7 Romans 5:8.↩
8 Romans 5:1.↩
9 Romans 5:2.↩
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