Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent, March 8th, 2026

The details of the narrative about the Samaritan woman are designed to bring us comfort and reassurance as we try to live out our Christian calling during Lent and throughout the year. (Jn 4:5-15,19b-26,39a,40-42) 

Even those among us who rely ever more heavily on technology and on scientific progress are painfully aware of how fragile and insignificant we truly are.  

Even as we benefit from the advancements of science and medicine, we keep experiencing, deep inside our heart, a longing for the absolute, for the divine, for what enables us to soar above our mortality and our inadequacies. 

We long for God; we need him very close to us—every moment of our life. 

The Hebrews of old had the very same need for God’s closeness, most likely intensified by their prolonged stay in the desert with little or no water, with want for food, for shelter, for safety.  

We can make ours their existential question: “Is the Lord in our midst or not?”  Can we count on the Lord to care for us, to be there for us, to protect us, to watch over us, to solve the problems we cannot tackle on our own? 

Today, we find out that even if we, like the Samaritan woman, do not verbalize such existential questions, the Lord still answers them. 

There was no contentment, no stability in her adult life.  She had gone through five husbands; now she was shacking up with yet another man.      

Her neighbors had shunned her and were talking about her so much that she had to draw water in the heat of noontime, all alone.  

Biblical scholars are quick to point out that, back then, while the village well was accessible to both men and women, women could go to draw water only in the morning and/or evening; the men could go the rest of the day. So, wrong time, wrong place for her.     

Her life was a mess, and even sadder, she was getting used to it. On that day, too, she was at the wrong place at the wrong time and, worse yet, talking to a stranger. 

Her heart was too heavy for her to ask the question: “Is the Lord with me or not?” 

But the Lord chose to be tired, thirsty, sweaty, caked with dust to answer the question she had stopped asking a long time before. 

Here is the first, very comforting lesson for us: a true believer can never speak of coincidences.  There are no coincidences with our most loving God; no such thing as a break, good fortune, fortuitus chances.           

Our Lord longs to be close to us, to meet us at our level, with the state of mind we happened to be in, to offer us his gift of living water, the refreshing gift of his presence, of his care, of his grace. 

One inescapable conclusion: Our life unfolds, moment after moment, before his loving and caring and protective and enlightening, and comforting presence. 

Truth be told, the Lord goes literally out of his way to be in our midst. 

How comforting, how reassuring!  Yet, like that messed-up woman of Samaria, we might try to wiggle out of God’s penetrating gaze and healing presence by asking serious questions about religious matters. 

We should never feel uncomfortable in God’s presence, under his scrutiny.  Can the One who made our heart not know what is in it?  And we should never be afraid of silent recollection to probe its recesses.   

The Lord is found and worshipped in the knowledge of his grace, of his Spirit and in truth, in brutal honesty about the condition of our soul, which he desires to heal and to fill with his love. 

The gift of living water is the Lord’s very life.  It was poured first into our hearts at Baptism.  It is a gift so precious and so needed that it can be poured in them anew through all channels of grace available to us. With every new pouring, it enables us to feel secure, to love and to serve as we enjoy the Lord’s presence. 

This is such a unique sensation that the Samaritan woman stopped wondering if the Lord was with her or not. 

Our quest, too, should end because God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). We cannot alter this fact. We must simply accept it and enjoy it.