WEEKLY REFLECTION – This weekend, just as in that Samarian afternoon, Jesus comes into our life, halfway through our Lenten journey, telling us, as He did to the Samaritan woman: “Give me a drink” (John 4:7). Saint John Paul II said: “His material thirst symbolizes a far deeper reality: it expresses His ardent desire that His dialogue partner and her fellow-citizens will open themselves to faith.” Even today Jesus continues to “thirst”, namely, to desire humanity “thirst” for our faith and love, “thirst” for our response of faith before so many Lenten invitations to conversion, to change, to reconcile to God and our brothers, to prepare ourselves, as much as we can, to receive a new life of resurrection in the nearing Easter.

“I am he, the one who is speaking with you.” (John 4:26): this direct and clear acknowledgment by Jesus of His mission, which He had never done before with anybody else, shows likewise God’s love, a love that undergoes more in quest for the sinner and promise of salvation, that will abundantly satiate the human desire for true Life. This is why, further down in this same Gospel, Jesus will proclaim: “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture says: ‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him.’” (John 7:37b-38).