Third Sunday of Lent/A
Massimo Palombella
Today’s Gospel (Jn 4:5-42) narrates Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman that took place in a town called Sicar.
It is interesting to note, among other things, that there are different levels within the dialogue between the two interlocutors, Jesus and the woman. The woman does not grasp the challenges of Jesus – who at one point reveals himself as the Messiah – and continues to reason and respond about concrete, punctual, ‘banal’ things, just as the disciples do in relation to eating and food.
It can also happen to us that we fail to grasp the profound challenges that the Lord puts before us and we continue to live in that existential laziness generated fundamentally by fear of facing the truth, of going where we perceive ourselves to be weak, of letting reality touch our lives.
The Lord awaits us beyond our defences, our fears. He awaits us in our interiority where we can slowly find that living water which alone can give order, fills and heals our life.
The text of today’s Communion antiphon is taken from the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John (Jn 4:13-14) with the following text:
Qui biberit aquam quam ego do, dicit Dominus Samaritanae,
fiet in eo fons aquae salientis in vitam aeternam.
(Whosoever drinks the water that I shall offer”, said the Lord (to the Samaritan woman),
“shall have within him a spring of water welling up unto eternal life).
The attached music, in Gregorian chant, is taken from the Graduale Triplex published in Solesmes in 1979. The interpretation is by the Cantori Gregoriani choir conducted by Fulvio Rampi. The music track can be found on the CD “Dominus Redemptor – Passio Domini Nostri” published by SLG, LLC in 2009.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
