OMELIE / Omelie EN

08 mar 2026

08/03/2026 - 3rd SUNDAY OF LENT - Year A

08/03/2026 - 3rd SUNDAY OF LENT - Year A

1st reading Ex 17:3-7 from Psalm 94 2nd reading Rom 5:1-2, 5-8 Gospel Jn 4:5-42

Thirst! Thirst for water and other thirsts of the human heart: this is the problem addressed and resolved in the sacred pages we have heard.

The people led by Moses are thirsty, in the literal sense of the word. They are in the desert and cannot see an oasis, there is no source of water: both men and livestock are suffering. Everyone reacts by complaining and lamenting the past, even though it was a past of slavery. Even Moses complains to God this time, asking, “What shall I do for this people? A little more and they will stone me!” Moses himself gives in to the pressure of the people this time: he believes that he himself is the protagonist and that he must be the saviour of the situation. He does not ask God, ‘What will you do?’, but rather, ‘What shall I do?’ He forgets that it is God who holds everyone's life in his hands. Both the people and Moses forget the great wonders they had already witnessed and benefited from. God had intervened in much worse situations: why complain to him? Why does no one think to ask him with humility and simplicity and renewed trust for a new intervention of his merciful love?

God intervenes again this time through the obedience of Moses, who only has to strike the rock with the same staff he had raised over the Red Sea to pass through on dry land.

This place of water from the rock will remain in the memory of the people as the place of Moses' sin: he doubted, he did not show trust in their God, forgetting that he is capable of hearing prayer. This episode is also prophetic: it prepares us to understand Jesus!

And we come to him: he is alone in Sychar, in Samaria. His disciples, worried, have all gone to buy food. Jesus is left alone at the well, and he is thirsty. However, he does not complain about his loneliness or his thirst: he waits for God to provide.

A woman arrives with what she needs to draw water: Jesus sees her as an angel of God and, with humility and simplicity, asks her to draw water for him. It is precisely his humility that touches the woman's heart, as she would have expected a pretentious attitude, given that all Jews boast superiority over the Samaritans. She expresses her surprise to him. He seizes the opportunity and, still with humility, affirms the superiority of the Jews, but a superiority that makes them servants of the thirst that all men suffer, even the Samaritans. All men thirst for eternal life, and where does this come from? It is brought by the Jews themselves: they do not even know it, but it is one of them who can give divine life to all: he himself is eternal life, the gift that satisfies every thirst of the human heart.

To help her understand, Jesus touches on the thirst for affection that she herself suffers from. Her husbands did not satisfy her, and now neither does her partner. She understands: if he speaks of true love, he is a prophet of God. And a true prophet recognises and knows how to distinguish the true God from the deities who would like to resemble him. It is the right moment: Jesus reveals himself, slowly, without forcing the issue. He speaks to her about the way to worship God, who does not need places to be loved by men, but needs their hearts. He is not a God like other gods, because he is capable of love and meets men in their lives. God is a Father, and we meet him “in spirit and truth”.

The woman does not understand, but she knows that the Messiah will come, and he will make known the true God and how to encounter him. At this point, Jesus reveals himself to her, the Samaritan woman rejected by five men and dissatisfied with the sixth: ‘I am he, who is speaking to you.’

Now the woman feels useful and makes herself useful to the whole city. She invites everyone to see and meet a man who has made her understand her own life, including the fundamental mistake she has made: putting herself in the hands of men instead of in those of God, the only one capable of loving like a father. The thirst of men receives an answer, receives true water, which does not need jars to draw it. The well is in their midst, it is Jesus himself.

Moses' staff is no longer needed. The inhabitants of Sychar understand this: they invite Jesus to stay with them for two days, so that they can all quench their thirst with his words. And his words transform them. The woman helped them, yes, but now they declare that they believe that he is ‘the Saviour of the world’ because they have listened to him. Prophecy for us: what others tell us about Jesus is too little, indeed useless, if we do not listen to him personally. It is not enough to know that there is water; we must draw it to quench our thirst. St Paul also tells us: ‘We are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’.