Third Sunday of Lent Reflections

“Access to clean water is a pressing concern in today’s world. Water and thirst are also key themes in our readings. Exodus and the Gospel begin with people thirsting, the desperate kind of thirst that comes from trekking through the scorching midday heat of a desert climate. In this context, clean, flowing water equates to living water, and to find it is something of a miracle.

“Yet our texts push these themes of thirst and water further. What would it mean to imagine this desperate thirst in terms of our desire for God? What would it mean to recognize that faith is as essential for life as access to clean, flowing water? As we come closer to renewing our baptismal promises on Easter, our readings offer a space to reflect on thirst and the essential need for water. How do we satisfy this need, for ourselves and for others?”

—- from: Ponder, Contemplative Bible Study (Year A), Mahri Leonard-Fleckman, Liturgical Press, 2022

Last Sunday evening along with our faithful catechists, I joined our Candidates for Confirmation and First Eucharist for a special service called the Rite of Calling to Continued Conversion. The service, held at Holy Cross Church (on the Mesa), brought together parishes from Santa Barbara to Lompoc and was presided over by Bishop Slawomir Szkredka.

The journey of our brothers and sisters toward the Easter Sacraments reminds us of our own baptism and our dependence on the Spirit and Communion. Our essential need is for love, that movement beyond ourselves in Christ toward others, especially those in need of life’s essentials. In the Gospel the water of connection, relationship, dialogue, and community moves across political boundaries and social barriers. A Samaritan woman meets Jesus and a new life begins; a new circle opens.   

- Father Dan ofm