Bread From Heaven
Meditations on the Sunday Gospel for the Year of the Eucharist
Third Week of Lent
Beginning Sunday February 27th, 2005
The Word
of the Lord
THE BACKGROUND
      The Samaritan people were of Jewish ancestors who had intermarried
with pagan people during the time when many of the Israelites of Palestine
and especially Jerusalem had been exiled during the Babylonian exile (8th
century B.C.)
      As a result of their intermarrying they also began to practice a mixed
religion of Judaism and other elements of some of the different pagan cults.
Unlike the Jews, they did not regard the Temple as the center of worship.
The Samaritans worshipped at the site of an old mountain shrine on Mt.
Gerizim. This is why Jesus points out that “You people worship what you do
not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from
the Jews.” In conversing with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus has
broken several Jewish traditions which discouraged men from speaking with
women in public, sharing with Samaritans, or associating with publicly
known sinners.
Jesus the
Apostles and You
      Imagine yourself as one of the townsmen watching this
scene take place from the window of your room. There
would be a certain amount of shock as you watch a Jewish
man begin speaking with a notorious Samaritan woman.  
As you overhear their conversation, you become intrigued
by their talk of “living water.” At first, you assume that
“living water” means running water, such as in an
underground river. Before long you begin to wonder if this
is some kind of code they are talking in. On one level it
makes sense, but you intuit that there is a deeper
meaning.  What goes through your mind as you listen to
talk of “living water”?  Do you wonder at his words of
worshipping in “spirit and in truth”? What goes through
your mind as she describes to you and the rest of the
townsfolk her encounter with Jesus?
TALKING WITH GOD - Lord, when the woman first encounters you she refers
to you as a Jew. After speaking with you briefly she realizes you are a
gentleman and calls you “sir”. Before long, after you reveal her sin she calls you
“prophet.” After you admonish her about worshipping the True God, she calls
you “Messiah.” Finally, after leading you to others, they call you “Savior of the
World.” Where am I at on this path? So often I say you are “Lord” and “Savior”
but do my actions say the same? Am I at the point of sharing you with all of my
neighbors? Or am I at the beginning, respecting you as a kind and gentle man,
but no more? Lord reveal to me where I am at on this path of recognition. Give
me the grace and humility to be honest with myself, so that from this point on
the path I can begin to grow in my awareness of who You are.
Conversation Starters with God:
       Lord, I want to be able to say with my life “I know You are the Savior of the World.” Not in
words alone, but by the actions of my life. You reveal that it is a pathway to that point. You
revealed through this Gospel, that you confront us at each step with another truth about
ourselves and wait until we can accept it. Like the woman in the story, reveal my sins to me
and give me the grace to accept your word as that of a prophet. [pause and listen]

      Lord, before the woman could call you “Messiah” you first had to confront her with her
false worship. Reveal what I falsely worship. Reveal what principles I operate by which put
you not first on my list but behind other things. [pause and listen]

      Lord, before the woman and the others could call you “Savior of the World” they had to
spend time with you. Reveal to me the ways I can spend more time with you. Reveal to me
the ways I can recognize and seek to recognize your presence in my daily life more. [pause
and listen]
QUOTES ON THE
EUCHARIST
LET US PRAY - Father, all-powerful and
ever-living God, we do well always and
everywhere to give you thanks through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
      When he asked the woman of Samaria
for water to drink, Christ had already
prepared for her the gift of faith.  In his
thirst to receive her faith he awakened in
her the fire of your love.  With thankful
praise, in company with the angels, we
glorify the wonders of your power.
(Preface for Third Sunday of Lent)
"To keep me from sin and
straying from Him, God has
used devotion to the Sacred
Heart of Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament. My life vows
destined to be spent in the
light irradiating from the
tabernacle, and it is to the
Heart of Jesus that I dare go
for the solution of all my
problems,"
- Blessed Pope John XXIII
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Meditation in Word Format
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 his
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."         - John 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42