3rd Sunday of Lent

Some of the readings for this Sunday are disturbing, reminiscent of the hellfire and brimstone of my youth; children punished for the iniquity of their parents, overturned tables in the temple, misunderstood meaning of Jesus’ words. Thankfully there are other writings highlighted that help me to balance the seeming threat in Exodus 20: 1-17 and the righteous anger in John 2: 13-25.

“Zeal for your house will consume me” spoken by Jesus predicting his upcoming crucifixion also invites me to consider whether I have zeal for the house of God. Could that zeal draw me out of myself to act for peace wherever I see violence ?

I also found comfort in Psalm 84:3 “The sparrow finds a home and a swallow a nest for her young by your altars oh Lord”.

We are living in an all too violent world. Sadly, that’s nothing new, but that violence doesn’t need to consume us. If you have coffee in a cup & someone bumps into you what’s in the cup will spill out. On this difficult week of my Lenten journey I choose to cultivate a spirit of peace so that when violence bumps into me I will offer love.  Won’t you join me?

Maureen Condon, CSJ Associate

Lent 3 - Jesus is Thirsty

JESUS IS THIRSTY (John: 4:1-42)

Image: Unsplash/Jimmy Chang

Jesus and his disciples are leaving Judea where Jesus had turned water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana, and where he made a lot of enemies by cleansing the temple of its money-changers, and where John the Baptist had been baptizing with water.  Jesus’ followers were also baptizing with water. 

While these events may not have occurred simultaneously in John’s Gospel, we can be sure that Jesus was tired and thirsty when he and his disciples reached Jacob’s well in the land of Samaria on their way to Galilee.

“Will you give me a drink?” Jesus said to the Samaritan woman.  She obviously had to be asked and did not anticipate that here was a thirsty man waiting for a helping hand to relieve his thirst.  She saw only a Jewish man who would reject, with contempt, a Samaritan woman. 

Surprise!  Jesus uses his thirst to reveal his weakness and invites this woman at the well to thirst for water to drink so that she will never be thirsty again.  As we continue to read Chapter 4 in John’s Gospel we see that many Samaritans in the town believed in Jesus on the strength of the woman’s word of testimony: “He told me everything I ever did.” 

Jesus’ thirst at the well eventually transformed the entire town into “thirsty” believers;  Jesus really is, “the Savior of the world”.

-Sister Elaine Cole, CSJ