Weekly Catholic Bible Study

Oratory of Divine Love Reflection 770: Persevere : (Exodus 17 : 3-7 ; Romans 5 : 1-2, 5-8 & ; John 4 : 5-42)

 

[Exodus]

In those days, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?” So Moses cried out to the LORD, “What shall I do with this people? a little more and they will stone me!” The LORD answered Moses, “Go over there in front of the people, along with some of the elders of Israel, holding in your hand, as you go, the staff with which you struck the river. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb. Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for the people to drink.” This Moses did, in the presence of the elders of Israel. The place was called Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled there and tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD in our midst or not?”

 

[Romans]

Brothers and sisters: 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, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For Christ, while we were still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

 

[John]

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” —For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.— Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?”

Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.”

Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one speaking with you.” At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?” The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ?” They went out of the town and came to him. Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” So the disciples said to one another,  “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest. The reaper is already receiving payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.

For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.” Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me everything I have done.” When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

 

 

Fellow pilgrims, the liturgy of this 3rd Sunday of Lent, recognizes that we are about half-way in our Lenten journey, tries to help us with some insights into our lives, and exhorts us to seek out more zealously whatever can assist us on the rest of the way. So, today is good time to assess how much we have persevered in our Lenten observances, how much we are renewed in spirit, how much we have disciplined the body through our mortifications, penances, fasting, prayers, and almsgiving; and then reach out to Jesus for more grace and strength.

 

As it is, God continues to talk to us in the Scriptures today, encouraging our Lenten exercises by reminding us that it is only in God that we get the full satisfaction of all our thirst and hunger. This is signified by the water God gave to the Israelites through Moses at Massah and Meribah when they were thirsty, as they journeyed to the Promised Land (Ex 17:3-7). This is also seen in Jesus’ reply to the Samaritan woman, whom he told that if she had known the gift of God and who was asking her for a drink that she would have asked him, and he would have given her the life-giving water (Jn 4:10). Also, we see this in God’s gift of his Son who died for us when we are still sinners (Rom 5:5-8); a gift God bestows on us because he loves us.

 

Jesus manifested this largeness and magnanimity of God’s love by dying to bring us salvation. As we know: “It is a difficult thing that someone should lay down his life for a just man… It is precisely in this that God proves his love for us: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5: 7-8). Thus, one lesson here is that all who reach out to Christ for the grace that draws to eternal life will surely receive it like the Samaritan woman. For as we journey to the Promised Land, we have deep human longings for God and life, as seen in the deep longings of the Samaritan woman.

 

Our human longings can only be fully satisfied by something eternal, signified by the life-giving water of Jesus. Think of the woman in the gospel, who already had 5 husbands and was living with another man that was not her husband. This in a way pointed to when we seek to satisfy those inner longings by ending up with the pursuit of merely material things, without realizing that the yearnings may have spiritual origin, and can only be satisfied by God. So, Jesus tells us as he told the woman, that he is the fountain of living water and when we have him as a spring within us, we cannot thirst again (Jn 4:14). For at that point, we will know him more, know

ourselves better, and also bring others to know him, as the woman did (Jn 4:28-30). And what better way to fill this inner yearning than to persevere with others in fellowship and participation in the Lenten sacrificial observances like attendance to the Sacraments, Synod Consultation, and Stations of the Cross.

 

Fr. Francis Chukwuma

 

Prayer: “Dear Lord, as I begin this Lenten journey on Ash Wednesday, I come before You with a humble heart. Help me to reflect on my life, my sins, and my need for Your mercy. As I receive the ashes, remind me of my mortality and the call to repentance. May this day mark the beginning of a deeper relationship with You, as I seek to turn away from sin and embrace Your love.”

 

Quote from a Saint: “If you suffer with Him, you will reign with Him. If you cry with Him, you will have joy with Him. If you die with Him on the Cross of tribulation, you will possess the eternal dwelling place in the splendor of the saints.  And your name, written in the Book of Life, will be glorious among men.” - Saint Clare of Assisi

 

Questions for reflection:

1. How well do you persevere in your Lenten practices?

2. Have you ever had a Lent where you stuck to your practices up until Easter?

3. During Lent do you often find yourself having to begin again or asking Jesus for more graces to help you persevere?

4. How well do you discipline your body with prayer, fasting and almsgiving?

5. Is God the source of your full satisfaction or are there earthly things that help you find fulfillment?

6. Are there things of this world that are giving you more satisfaction than God? How can lessen your dependence upon them in order to open yourself up more to God?

7. Do you reach out to Christ for more graces to help you on the journey of your life?

8. Do you regularly pray the Stations of the Cross?

 

-Benjamin & Kristen Rinaldo, CfP