READINGS FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT, YEAR A, SUNDAY 8TH MARCH, 2026.
First Reading: Exodus 17: 3-7
Psalm: 94
Second Reading: Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
Gospel: John 4:5-42
REFLECTION BY FR CORNELIUS NWAOGWUGWU, CM.
JESUS CHRIST, THE LIVING WATER.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
A sincere welcome to the Third Sunday of Lent, Year A. Life sometimes can be uncertain. We need a sacred time and space to reflect on the uncertainties of life. Lent offers us the opportunity to pray for the courage to renew our trust and dependency in the loving care of Jesus Christ, the Living Water. This will help us to walk towards changing our lives to make a difference and to recognise order in nature and live in harmony with it and with our Lord eternally.
My reflection today focuses on Jesus Christ, the Living Water. To deepen our focus on this reflection, water will be used as a symbol to express a specific aspect of the life of Jesus Christ. This will help us to understand that symbols carry meaning that depend upon one’s ideologies, circumstances, identity and cultural background. This reflection will affirm that symbols make our understanding of life easy and help us in our journey through life.
Water is a symbol of life. There are many discoveries about water in the human body. It has been said that water composes 75% of our brain, 83% of our blood, 75% of our muscles and 22% of our bones. These discoveries explain the value of water to the human body. It means that water keeps alive the human body. In respect of this, Jesus uses water as a symbol to visualise an image or a sign to represent an idea of a deeper indicator of universal truth beyond our physical comprehension.
Today’s liturgical readings reveal a deep human longing, in search for meaning. The search for security and connection with God are naturally infused in us. Our souls naturally yearn for God. Psalm 42 captured this view clearly. It says, “As a deer longs for running streams, so longs my soul for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, the God of life; when shall I go to see the face of God? (Psalm 42: 1-2). Our souls ache for God, the way a thirsty deer longs for flowing water.
In today’s First Reading from the Book of Exodus, the Israelites thirst in the desert and cry out, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Their physical thirst mirrors an inner emptiness that no earthly source can satisfy. (Exodus 17:3-7).
Today’s Psalm echoes this restlessness, reminding us that only God can steady a troubled heart. Only God’s presence can satisfy our deepest hunger and restore our weary hearts. (Psalm 94).
In the Second Reading, St. Paul in his letter to the Romans shifts the focus from human anxiety to divine generosity. St. Paul insists that through Jesus Christ we have peace, not because we earned it, but because God loved us “while we were still sinners.” This love is like a spring that never dries up. This love is poured into our hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 5:1-2, 5-8).
Jesus affirms this divine truth in today’s Gospel according to John. Jesus narrates the story of a Samaritan woman who came to draw water from the well. Jesus told her about the “living water” that sustains the human soul. In contrast, the Samaritan woman came to draw water that sustains only our physical life but the water that Jesus promised to give her sustains not only physical life but also our spiritual lives. In this context, we can be physically and spiritually thirsty. Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. She comes seeking ordinary water but discovers the One who offers “living water” that renews life from within. Her encounter shows that Christ meets us in our thirst, our questions and even our failures. Jesus Christ does not condemn us, He transforms us. Jesus said “anyone who drinks the water that I will give will never be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14).
As the Living Water, Jesus says: “I have come so that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10). Again, Jesus says: “I am the Way; I am the Truth and Life.” (John 14:6). In his Confession, Peter calls Jesus, “the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16). Jesus Christ is the Living Water that gives meaning to our search for the essence of our existential realities to life. Hence, to drink the living water is to let Jesus Christ fill the deepest places of our being, turning our deserts into wells of hope, courage and new life.
Jesus Christ refers to himself as the true and living water. Jesus Christ is indeed the water of life that sustains our souls. It means that our souls need Jesus Christ in order to live. Jesus Christ nurtures and cares for our souls. Jesus gave the Samaritan woman water that quenched both her physical and spiritual thirst. In the same way, Jesus will satisfy our thirst for water if we ask for it just as the Samaritan woman asked and she received the living water. Jesus made a difference in her life. Jesus will also make a difference in our lives if we drink Him as the Living Water. Jesus Christ gives meaning to our security.
During this Lent, we are urged to make a difference to other people around us by our exemplary lives based on respect, justice, peace, compassion, forgiveness, care and unconditional love now and forever, Amen.
Fr. Cornelius Nwaogwugwu, CM.