3rd Sunday of Lent

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 quarrelled there and

tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD in our midst or not?"

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.

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 is 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. "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 who is speaking with you." Many of the Samaritans of that town began

to believe in him.

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."