The Woman at the Well

For many reasons, Lent is my favorite season in the church calendar. Growing up, I would look forward to the different songs that we would sing in Lent. Most specifically, Lent was marked musically by the coming of “Create in Me,” Psalm 51, which we would sing each Sunday after the first reading. But I think there are many reasons I love the liturgical season of Lent. One of them is the depth of the readings of Lent.

In Exodus today, Moses felt helpless at the grumbling of the people whose thirst was not quenched in the desert. How often I feel a similar feeling to Moses each day at work, when I cannot provide the legal help people are needing – I cannot quench their thirst for justice and fairness, but can at least try to provide dignity in the process. In the story today, Moses turns to God, cries out for help, and God provides a spring of water. He quenches their thirst and restores faith in the people. It is a good reminder to me that I must trust God in times of need and continue to give what I can to the clients of Bread for the City.

I love when the Church echoes a message from the Old Testament to the Gospel reading in Mass. Today’s Gospel was from John – Jesus meets the woman at the well in Samaria. It is a Gospel story that captivates me each time I hear it. Jesus speaks with the woman, asking for a cup of water. He in turn tells her he alone can quench her thirst… he is the living water. He is more than the spring of water God provided Moses and the people in the desert, for as he says, that water leaves one thirsty for more. The woman’s life is transformed because she experiences this living water. She leaves to tell all in the town because she realizes Jesus knows “everything that she has ever done” and truly is that living water. It is a story that continues to give me comfort and connects me, especially in times of desolation.

When I think of this story, I imagine a well, outside the city limits. I see the woman come up to the well. There is a slight wind and it picks up sand and carries it across the desert. Looking away from the city, all one can see is sand, sand for many miles, sand stretching far past the well. There is Jesus sitting at the well, without his bucket. He is waiting for the conversation with the woman.

I think what I like about the Lenten stories is that they take me on a journey with Jesus. As he prepares for his death, his encounters with people become so authentic. The story of the woman at the well is more than a sermon or a physical healing. Rather, in his authentic conversation with the woman, he gives her a healing of the heart and sends her on her way to continue to grow and spread his message to others.