Leaving our Water Jars Behind:
The Third Sunday in Lent 2026
March 8, 2026
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Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-8; John 4:5-42
The overwhelming theme in this passage is that we thirst and that God is the only reality that quenches our real thirst. Moses deals with the grumbling Israelites as they stumble through the parched desert. God provides a supply of water from a rock to settle their physical thirst. We are not in our right minds if we are thirsty, and many of us do not hydrate well enough. The Israelites hardened their hearts of Meribah and Massah and they doubted God’s care.
The woman at the well was spiritually thirsty and the encounter with Jesus revealed the depth of her desires for God and for liberation. The conversation with Jesus reveals her identity, her mission, and her redemption. She becomes the person she was designed to be from the beginning without shame, without regret, and with great courage. Jesus also becomes the person he was designed to be when he lay on the cross and yelled, “I thirst.”
A detail in the Gospel that strikes me as important is that this woman left behind her water jar. She was full, full of her restored personhood. She was spiritually filled. Her conversion was complete through that encounter with Jesus. This is the invitation for Lent for us because we fill ourselves with so many things that do not satisfy. We remain thirsty until we have this needed encounter with Christ.
We consume in order to be nourished, and we miss the mark. We thirst because our needs are not met. What are some of those things that we seek? Affirmation and acceptance, the pursuit of success and a sense of belonging, positive regard and respect from others, control over people and situations, intimacy and meaningful relationships, and so much more. We thirst for many needs that remain unmet. We have been trying to drink many things that are not God, and we remain restless. We try to pray, we fast, we do good works, and we have to let “thirst” become our prayer because only God can provide this living water.
The woman at the well had to stay in conversation and her sarcasm moved to sincerity. That’s what we want. Authenticity. To be seen and known. To be valued. To be embraced at our core. The living water that we seek is a real encounter with God that moves us to stay in the conversation. We want a meaningful relationship with God in which we can relate comfortably and often. We want to feel the presence of God so we know we are on the right track. We need to stay open enough to receive what God wants to generously give to us. God’s grace is a gift to us. Jesus reminds the woman, and us, If you knew the gift of God…” All we have to do is ask.
Our work is to believe in these words of the Gospel: Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one speaking with you.” Our belief helps us to worship in spirit and in truth, and we can be like the faithful woman at the well. We can leave our water jars behind.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (2 Kings 5) Naaman, the king of Aram, contracted leprosy. A captured girl wanted him to present himself to the prophet in Samaria. Naaman was instructed to wash seven times in the Jordan River and his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child.
Tuesday: (Daniel 3) Azariah asked for the Lord’s deliverance. He asked that the Lord deal with them in kindness and with great mercy.
Wednesday: (Deuteronomy 4) Moses spoke to the people asking them to hear and heed the statutes and decrees he received from the Lord. Do not forget the things the Lord has done.
Thursday: (Jeremiah 7) They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.
Friday: (Hosea 14) Return to God, who forgives all iniquity. The Lord will heal their defection and love them freely for his wrath is turned away from them.
Saturday: (Hosea 6) Come, let us return to the Lord. It is love that I desire, not sacrificed, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Gospel:
Monday: (Luke 4) Jesus reminded people that a prophet is without honor in his own land and he called the mind the story of Naaman, the foreigner from Syria, who was cured.
Tuesday: (Matthew 18) Peter asked Jesus about forgiveness. He said to forgiven seventy-seven time because unless each person forgives from the heart, he will not be forgiven.
Wednesday: (Matthew 5) Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Each commandment is to be observed; the one who does it will be the greatest in the Kingdom.
Thursday: (Luke 11) Jesus drove out a demon that was mute and was then accused of being in league with Beelzebul. Jesus explained to them how that does not make much sense.
Friday: (Mark 12) A scribe asked Jesus to declare which is the first commandment. Love the God with you whole soul and your neighbor like yourself. The scribe was well pleased.
Saturday: (Luke 18) Jesus told a parable about prayer to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. The one who is humble is favored by God.
Saints of the Week
March 8: John of God (1495-1550), was a Portuguese soldier of fortune who was brought to Spain as a child. He was a slave master, shepherd, crusader, bodyguard and peddler. As he realized that he frittered away his life, he sought counsel from John of Avila. He then dedicated his life to care for the sick and the poor. He formed the Order of Brothers Hospitallers and is the patron saint of hospitals and the sick.
March 9: Frances of Rome (1384-1440), was born into a wealthy Roman family and was married at age 13. She bore six children and when two died in infancy, she worked to bring the needs of the less fortunate to others. She took food to the poor, visited the sick, cared for the needy in their homes. When other women joined in her mission, they became Benedictine oblates. She founded a monastery for them after her husband's death.
This Week in Jesuit History
- March 8, 1773. At Centi, in the diocese of Bologna, Cardinal Malvezzi paid a surprise visit to the Jesuit house, demanding to inspect their accounting books.
- March 9, 1764. In France, all Jesuits who refused to abjure the Society were ordered by Parliament to leave the realm within a month. Out of 4,000 members only five priests, two scholastics, and eight brothers took the required oath; the others were driven into exile.
- March 10, 1615. The martyrdom in Glasgow, Scotland, of St John Ogilvie.
- Mar 11, 1848. In Naples, Italy, during the 1848 revolution, 114 Jesuits, after much suffering, were put into carts and driven ignominiously out of the city and the kingdom.
- March 12, 1622. Pope Gregory XV canonized Sts Ignatius, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila, and Philip Neri.
- March 13, 1568. John Segura and five companions set sail from Spain for Florida, a fertile field of martyrs. (Nine Jesuits were killed there between 1566 and 1571.)
- March 14, 1535. Ignatius received his degree from the University of Paris.
