by | Mar 11, 2023 | Evangelium

SUNday  12  MARCH

3rd Sunday of Lent,

Psalter week III

Entrance Antiphon: Cf. Ps 24: 15-16

My eyes are always on the Lord, for he rescues my feet from the snare. Turn to me and have mercy on me, for I am alone and poor.

Collect

O God, author of every mercy and of all goodness, who in fasting, prayer and almsgiving, have shown us a remedy for sin, look graciously on this confession of our lowliness, that we, who are bowed down by our conscience, may always be lifted up by your mercy. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

First reading: Exodus 17: 3-7   

Tormented by thirst, the people complained against Moses. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt?” they said. “Was it so that I should die of thirst, my children too, and my cattle?”  Moses appealed to the Lord. “How am I to deal with this people?” he said. “A little more and they will stone me!” the Lord said to Moses, “Take with you some of the elders of Israel and move on to the forefront of the people; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the river, and go. I shall be standing before you there on the rock, at Horeb. You must strike the rock, and water will flow from it for the people to drink.” This is what Moses did, in the sight of the elders of Israel. The place was named Massah and Meribah because of the grumbling of the sons of Israel and because they put the Lord to the test by saying, “Is the Lord with us, or not?”

Psalm 94(95): 1-2, 6-9

R/ O that today you would listen to his voice! ‘Harden not your hearts.’

Come, ring out our joy to the Lord; hail the rock who saves us. Let us come before him, giving thanks, with songs let us hail the Lord.

Come in; let us bow and bend low; let us kneel before the God who made us: for he is our God and we the people who belong to his pasture, the flock that is led by his hand.

O that today you would listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the desert when your fathers put me to the test; when they tried me, though they saw my work.

Second reading: Romans 5: 1-2, 5-8

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith we are judged righteous and at peace with God, since it is by faith and through Jesus that we have entered this state of grace in which we can boast about looking forward to God’s glory. And this hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us. We were still helpless when at his appointed moment Christ died for sinful men. It is not easy to die even for a good man – though of course for someone really worthy, a man might be prepared to die – but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.

Gospel Acclamation: Jn 4: 42, 15        

Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God! Lord, you are really the saviour of the world: give me the living water, so that I may never get thirsty. Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!

Gospel: John 4: 5-42    

Jesus came to the Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there and Jesus, tired by the journey, sat straight down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman 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, ‘What? You are a Jew and you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?’ – Jews, in fact, do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus replied: ‘If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you: Give me a drink, you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.’ ‘You have no bucket, sir,’ she answered ‘and the well is deep: how could you get this living water? Are you a greater man than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his sons and his cattle?’ Jesus replied: ‘Whoever drinks this water will get thirsty again; but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life.’ ‘Sir,’ said the woman ‘give me some of that water, so that I may never get thirsty and never have to come here again to draw water. I see you are a prophet, sir. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, while you say that Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.’ Jesus said: ‘Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know: for salvation comes from the Jews. But the hour will come – in fact it is here already – when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants. God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah – that is, Christ – is coming; and when he comes he will tell us everything.’ ‘I who am speaking to you,’ said Jesus ‘I am he.’ Many Samaritans of that town had believed in him on the strength of the woman’s testimony when she said, ‘He told me all I have ever done’, so, when the Samaritans came up to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed for two days, and when he spoke to them many more came to believe; and they said to the woman, ‘Now we no longer believe because of what you told us; we have heard him ourselves and we know that he really is the saviour of the world.’

Prayer over the Offerings

Be pleased, O Lord, with these sacrificial offerings, and grant that we who beseech pardon for our own sins, may take care to forgive our neighbour. Through Christ our Lord.

Communion Antiphon 

For anyone who drinks it, says the Lord, the water I shall give will become in him a spring welling up to eternal life.

Prayer after Communion

As we receive the pledge of things yet hidden in heaven and are nourished while still on earth with the Bread that comes from on high, we humbly entreat you, O Lord, that what is being brought about in us in mystery may come to true completion. Through Christ our Lord.

Prayer over the People

Direct, O Lord, we pray, the hearts of your faithful, and in your kindness, grant your servants this grace: that, abiding in the love of you and their neighbour, they may fulfil the whole of your commands. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Meditation

Brothers and sisters, on this third Sunday of Lent, Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well invites us to get rid of the prejudices that we hold within ourselves. This encounter invites us to clean up our relationships with, and our considerations of one another. Cleansing our eyes and seeing the other as a brother or sister allows us to break down the barriers of racial, cultural, religious or tribal differences. It allows us to discover that the other is not an enemy to be fought or avoided, but a brother to be met who can quench our dry lives with the living water of joy and salvation that comes from God. The Samaritan woman and the Samaritans understood this, and so they experienced in Jesus the joy of this true encounter. May the Lord grant us this same grace for the advent of peace among men.