JN.4 : 5 – 42 (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/031520.cfm)
Today’s thought on my desktop calendar reads “True independence is found in dependence on the Lord”.
With the readings for today, the Third Sunday of Lent, this inspirational thought could not suit better. “If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts”, but instead open your ears and listen to what he has to say to us.
In life today, there is so much going on that we do not have time to sit and listen to the call of Christ in our lives. Life is so busy with the constant connectedness to society through our smartphones, and the constant need to be somewhere at a certain time and not stopping. What is wrong with being in the here and now? What is wrong with daydreaming?
With being in that here and now and silent, we get to hear the birds chirping in the trees, the wind rustling through the air and the sea crashing against the rocks. We get to be present with God’s Creation.
In today’s Gospel, we see a Samaritan woman at the well with Jesus; he was asking her for water from the well. She was puzzled at this man, a Jew, asking her, a Samaritan, for water, when their ancestors did not see eye to eye. Are we sometimes like that? Do we treat others less well because they are different to us?
Jesus said to this woman that, if she knew what the gift of God was, she would have been given living water. Upon hearing this she asked, where she could get this water, and Jesus replied, Believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
She put her faith in this man she met at the well, trusted that he was the messenger of God and relied on his word. When we think of the message that my desktop calendar has for today, ‘True independence is found in dependence on the Lord’, this woman was in the message that we see in today’s Gospel.
Are we ready to place all our dependence on the Lord so that we can find our independence to live the message of Christ? Are our hearts hardened to feel this love of Christ and keep it to ourselves, instead?
We should be able to shout our faith in Christ from the mountains, and live independent and fulfilled lives in Christ, sharing the good news that he entrusts to us when we go to the well of Christ.
Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay
Anita-Marie McGlynn
