Jesus, the Rock; The woman at the well

Today is the third Sunday of Lent. The theme of the Scriptures is on the glory of God that cannot be perceived by the senses buy only by faith. The beauty and order of the natural world is grasped by the senses which in turn can lead us to God, but the essence, the very being of God, once lost by sin and reestablished for us by the sacrifice of god’s Son is gained only by our participation in sanctifying grace. Water is the sign of that gift of grace.

The first reading from  Exodus and the gospel about the woman at the well make this clear.

St. Paul encapsulates the reality of this great gift in the first words from his letter to the Romans in chapter five, “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith, to this grace in which we stand.”

We thank God for this faith, for this access, for this gift which must be increased in us. But which can also be lost or diminished. St. John the Baptist at the river where he was baptizing said of Christ, “He must increase, I must decrease.”

The Catholic Church, militant, suffering and triumphant, is the person of Christ. Through His Church is channeled Divine, Saving grace through the seven sacraments, the first of which is baptism. Through water and the Holy Spirit one becomes a member of the mystical Body of Christ. With and through the Holy Eucharist and the sacrament of confirmation we complete our imitation into the fullness of faith in the Catholic Church.

Even though the stain and guilt of original sin is removed by baptism, the tendency to sin called concupiscence remains in all of us. We all sin. Against God’s goodness in one way or another and so we have the sacrament of penance or reconciliation to restore grace in those cases in which it has been lost since baptism. And it strengthens us to continue to persevere.

The reality of purgatory enters into consideration here as although sin is forgiven, the temporal punishment due to sin remains as part of God’s justice. It is satisfied in this life by prayer, penance and good works or in purgatory after death If need be. Only saints will see the beatific vision.

The sacrament of the anointing of the seriously ill or of those in danger of death is made available by the Church in an appropriate manner.

The two remaining sacraments, those of matrimony and of Holy orders, are for the strengthening of those vocations that bring forth life both natural and supernatural.

We have, all of us, natural life of which the duration is short. 70 years or 80 for those who are strong. But it is the presence of supernatural life and its increase in our souls that we must be concerned for.

“For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffer the loss of his own soul?” This is the will of God, Your sanctification. 1Th 4:3

Jesus said “I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” It is not natural life of which he speaks but rather supernatural life that takes root here and now and like the mustard seed growing within us unto eternal life. Through the life of God is contained sanctifying grace.

In the first reading from Exodus we find the people and Moses in the desert after their escape from 430 years of slavery in Egypt. They are complaining “Why did you ever leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst…? They were concerned for the survival of natural life and its comforts. Not the life that was promised by God that had to be attained by trial and sacrifice and self denial in the Promised Land.

Moses had interceded for them with God who had sent manna from heaven and quail when they wanted meat and now they demanded water in the desert. Moses said, “What shall I do with this people? A little more and they will stone me!” The Lord God Yahweh told Moses to go to the rock with staff in hand, “I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb. And strick the rock and water will flow from it.” He did so and water flowed for the people to drink.

This is reminiscent of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s instructions to St. Bernadette to eat grass and to dig in the ground for water and to wash where there was no water. Water flowed and has been flowing freely for last 150 years, for the people to drink, and be healed. (27,000 gallons a day)

In St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 10:4 He says, “for I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized in Moses, in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food (for they drank from the spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.)

Woe be to him who says that Jesus Christ is not the only Son of God, of the same being and essence, of the same spirit and substance of God the Father, Jesus Christ is Lord in the Holy sacrifice of the mass it is the same Christ on Calvary who offers Himself to His Father in heaven for our sins and the sins of the world and then feeds us with bread the true bread from heaven. His own body blood soul and divinity.

In the Gospel we find Jesus in Samaria at Jacob’s well talking to a woman at high noon, a time of day when there are no shadows. Jesus asks for a drink from an enemy of the Jews and a woman who questions Him. He replies that if “you knew the gift of God who asks you for a drink you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” He then goes on to explain her whole life to her.

The conversation starts on the natural level “You do not even have a bucket” and to the statement of Jesus, “The water I shall give will become in Him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” She says, ”Give me this water so I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
When Jesus tells the woman about her five husbands, a fact she has been hiding even from herself she goes into the town to tell the people to come and see a man who told me everything I have done.” Jesus had brought her to the point where she wondered if he could be a prophet and now she says, “Could he possibly be the Christ?”

This is the mustard seed of faith growing into spirit and truth and leading to a change into and development of supernatural life.

Jesus is the gift of God to each one of us. He is the rock that quenches our thirst. He is the true bread come down from heaven.

Everyone who drinks this water will never thirst and will have eternal life.