Third Sunday of Lent
Exodus 17:3–7
Psalm 95:1–2, 6–7, 8–9
Romans 5:1–2, 5–8
John 4:5–42
Grumbles and complaints are often a mask for something deeper. Everything depends on the real circumstances of the one who is expressing dissatisfaction.
We often tell children that God gave us two ears and one mouth so we are meant to listen twice as much as we speak. When we listen and pay close attention to the real need that is being expressed in a grumble or a complaint – whether our own or another’s – we might discover that we can “go deeper” into the true nature of things.
In Samaria, Jesus is hungry and thirsty. The disciples are sent to find a way to satisfy the grumbles of the stomach. The thirst remains, and Jesus is next to the place where thirst can be quenched – Jacob’s well – if only a bucket were handy.
A woman with a bucket comes along, and Jesus crosses over into an encounter that is unexpected and that satisfies the deepest hungers and thirsts of His heart and hers.
The people of Israel in the desert recall their time of slavery in Egypt as a time of plenty, compared with what they experience in a moment of thirst. Their complaint is taken out against their leader, who does what he should. He takes it to God, but he also takes it personally, crying out: “What shall I do with this people? A little more and they will stone me!”
Moses serves in a priestly role, as a bridge between God and His people, standing before God on the people’s behalf. He strikes the rock with his staff, and water pours out.
The same staff held back the waters at the crossing of the Sea of Reeds, a dramatic moment in their Exodus. The thirst of the people is satisfied, but there is a deeper meaning. “Strike at the Rock and Wisdom shall pour, water and living flame.”
When Jesus speaks to the woman of Samaria, His true thirst is to be understood and accepted as He reveals Himself. The disciples have missed it. The woman, whose life has made her vulnerable and yet who is perceptive in a way that the disciples are not, is the first to hear the truth that Jesus is Himself the One Whose coming is expected.
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am He, the One speaking with you.’” She becomes a missionary, leaving behind her bucket and her thirst and filling the hungers of the Lord’s own heart.
As we continue the journey of Lent, we are invited to become more aware of our own hungers and thirsts, the deepest longings of our hearts. The Responsorial Psalm reminds us to listen deeply to the voice of God speaking to us through our experience: “If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”
When we do this, we come to understand the meaning of our grumblings and complaints and learn to cooperate more fully with God’s grace to discover the relationship that will satisfy. Knowing Who God is, we come to know who we are.
Who is crying out a complaint that masks a need for something more from you? Have you opened your heart to the deeper need, or are you “stuck” in your own complaint? How is God inviting you to listen to the cry of His people? What is the true cry of your own heart?
Strike at the rock!