84. Third Sunday of Lent

Meditations no. 130 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Jesus Christ came into the world to save us.

During their long journey through the desert lands of Sinai, the people of Israel camped in a place where there was no water to drink. The people were disheartened by the inhospitable surroundings and wearied by the journey; and they complained against Moses, saying: Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? Moses prayed to God, and his prayers were answered. The Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand the rod with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” This rock from which the children of Israel quenched their thirst was a figure of Jesus, the Redeemer, the Messiah: The rock was Christ.

The Gospel account of our Lord beside the well makes this very clear. Jesus came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Our Father invites us: Recollect yourselves and go over the scene slowly in your minds. Jesus Christ, perfectus Deus, perfectus homo, perfect God and perfect Man, is tired out from his travels and his apostolic work. Perhaps there have been times when the same thing has happened to you and you have ended up worn out, because you have reached the limit of your resources. It is a touching sight to see our Master so exhausted. He is hungry, too - his disciples have gone to a neighbouring village to look for food. And he is thirsty.

But tired though his body is, his thirst for souls is even greater. So when the Samaritan woman, the sinner, arrives, Christ with his priestly heart turns eagerly to save the lost sheep, and he forgets his tiredness, his hunger and his thirst.

Jesus is the true source of the living water and he does not hold anything back, giving himself to us right up to his holocaust on the Cross. This is because, as he tells the Samaritan woman, whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Our Lord knows that human beings are thirsting for God, and that that thirst cannot be quenched by the waters of this earth. The things of the earth can only give temporary satisfaction, and they leave a bitter aftertaste. Jesus Christ has come to bring us the water of life, grace, happiness and joy. To the poor Samaritan woman who goes to the well to fill her water-jar, he declares: If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

In Christ, the promises of the Old Testament have been fulfilled. He came to quench our thirst, to open for us the way to happiness. All we have to do now is ask him with faith: Lord, give me this water so that I may not thirst.

He took our weakness upon himself: perfectus Deus, perfectus homo.

One aspect of the passage we are now considering is very illuminating. The Evangelist tells us that Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour, about midday. Jesus Christ, perfectus Deus, perfectus homo, perfect God and perfect Man, shows himself to us like that, so that we are not put off our course by the normal demands of our poor nature; so that we learn how to forget them, or at least put them in second place compared with the good of all souls. We need to set such demands aside in order to do the Work which God has entrusted to us, and learn how to love his most holy will, constantly drawing strength from that desire.

We read in the Letter to the Hebrews: For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning. St Augustine comments that we see how Jesus was both strong and weak. He was strong because “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made”, and he did everything without getting tired. What greater strength is there than that of the One who did everything without a trace of tiredness? Now do you want to know his weakness? The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The strength of Christ created you; the weakness of Christ redeemed you. The strength of Christ made that which did not exist beforehand. The weakness of Christ ensured that that which already existed should not perish. He made us with his strength and he saved us with his weakness.

Our Lord sometimes permits our human nature to weigh on us more heavily than usual. As our Father wrote, whenever we get tired - in our work, in our studies, in our apostolic endeavours - when our horizon is darkened by lowering clouds, then let us turn our eyes to Jesus, to Jesus who is so good, and who also gets tired; to Jesus who is hungry and suffers thirst. Lord, how well you make yourself understood! You show us that you are just like us, in everything but sin, so that we can feel utterly sure that, together with you, we can conquer all our evil inclinations, all our faults. For neither weariness nor hunger matter, nor thirst, nor tears… since Christ also grew weary, knew hunger, was thirsty and wept. What is important is that we struggle to fulfil the will of our heavenly Father.

The Humanity of our Lord is the way. Falling in love with Jesus Christ so as to live his life.

My children, our vocation is to follow Christ … And to follow him so closely that we live with him, like the first Twelve; so close to him that we identify with him, that we live his Life, until a moment comes, if we haven’t hindered it, when we can say with St Paul: It is now no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me.

To live the life of Christ is not just a nice phrase. It is a goal that we attain when we fall in love with Jesus Christ; when we try to contemplate him, which means looking at him lovingly; when we struggle to be united to him, living our vocation with determination. If you truly love Jesus Christ and truly experience this dedication and love, when you feel like it or when you don’t, when it’s raining and when the sun is shining, outside and at home, day and night, at work and at rest: then love will shine through it all, and with love will come joy; and likewise the sense of responsibility I have spoken about so often. And that will help you become saints, and identify completely with the Lord.

Our plan of life, together with the formation we receive, leads us to follow Christ’s life closely, to relate to him in his most holy Humanity. Because when you love someone, you want to know all about his life and character, so as to become like him, our Father wrote. That is why we have to meditate on the life of Jesus, from his birth in a stable right up to his Death and Resurrection … For we do need to know it well, to have it in our heart and mind, so that at any time, without any book, we can close our eyes and contemplate his life, watching it like a movie. In this way, the words and actions of our Lord will come to mind in all the different circumstances of our life.

But our Father has also taught us that it is not a matter of just thinking about Jesus, of recalling some scenes of his life. We must be completely involved and play a part in his life. We should follow him as closely as Mary his Mother did, as closely as the first twelve, the holy women, the crowds that pressed about him. If we do this without holding back, Christ’s words will enter deep into our soul and will really change us.

And if at any stage we feel overcome at the thought of this goal - Christ living in me - and also when we feel the weight of our own wretchedness, our poor flesh, our vileness, our poor clay, we still keep in mind that our call is from God, from Jesus Christ, who is God and Man, and who understands me because he is my Father, my Brother, my Friend: .

Our Blessed Lady, in whose womb the Son of God chose to become man, and who was so close to him in every way for more than thirty years, will teach us to fall more and more in love with our Lord’s most holy Humanity.