The liturgy of this Friday of the Third Week of Lent is deeply inserted into the context of the preparation of the catechumens for baptism on Easter night, marking a crucial phase in this time of purification and enlightenment. Traditionally, the stational liturgy in Rome takes place in the basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, a place full of profound early Christian symbolism. The choice of this sanctuary is not accidental, as hagiographical tradition and local history report the existence of a spring near the stational church which, according to a venerable Roman legend, miraculously gushed forth suddenly so that its crystalline waters could serve for the baptism of Saint Hippolytus, administered by the martyr Saint Lawrence himself. This historical and legendary element permeates the whole spirit of this day, reminding the faithful and the catechumens that true life springs from the fountains of salvation opened by Christ. The Church, like a solicitous mother, intensifies her rites of scrutiny and instruction, using the rich images of the Old and New Testaments that speak of struck rocks, living waters, purification, and new life, to instruct those who will soon descend into the baptismal waters and to renew in those already baptized the awareness of their own spiritual rebirth. It is a day of intense calling to interior conversion, where the natural and material thirst of the human body is elevated by liturgical pedagogy to the category of the ultimate symbol of the spiritual thirst that every soul has for the living God.
📖 Introit (Ps 85, 17; 1)
Fac mecum, Dómine, signum in bonum: ut vídeant, qui me oderunt, et confundántur: quóniam tu, Dómine, adjuvísti me et consolátus es me. Ps. Inclína, Dómine, aurem tuam, et exáudi me: quóniam inops et pauper sum ego.
Show me, O Lord, a sign of your goodness, that those who hate me may see it and be confounded: because You, O Lord, are my help and my consolation. Ps. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear me, for I am needy and poor.
📜 Reading (Nm 20, 1-3. 6-13)
In diébus illis: Convenérunt fílii Israël adversum Móysen et Aaron: et versi in seditiónem, dixérunt: Date nobis aquam, ut bibámus. Ingressúsque Móyses et Aaron, dimíssa multitúdine, tabernáculum fœ́deris, corruérunt proni in terram, clamaverúntque ad Dóminum, atque dixérunt: Dómine Deus, audi clamórem hujus pópuli, et áperi eis thesáurum tuum, fontem aquæ vivæ, ut, satiáti, cesset murmurátio eórum. Et appáruit glória Dómini super eos. Locutúsque est Dóminus ad Móysen, dicens: Tolle virgam, et cóngrega pópulum, tu et Aaron frater tuus, et loquímini ad petram coram eis, et illa dabit aquas. Cumque edúxeris aquam de petra, bibet omnis multitúdo et juménta ejus. Tulit ígitur Móyses virgam, quæ erat in conspéctu Dómini, sicut præcéperat ei, congregáta multitúdine ante petram, dixítque eis: Audíte, rebélles et incréduli: Num de petra hac vobis aquam potérimus ejícere? Cumque elevásset Móyses manum, percútiens virga bis sílicem, egréssæ sunt aquæ largíssimæ, ita ut pópulus bíberet, et juménta. Dixítque Dóminus ad Móysen et Aaron: Quia non credidístis mihi, ut sanctificarétis me coram fíliis Israël, non introducétis hos pópulos in terram, quam dabo eis. Hæc est aqua contradictiónis, ubi jurgáti sunt fílii Israël contra Dóminum, et sanctificátus est in eis.
In those days, the children of Israel gathered against Moses and Aaron, and preparing a revolt, they said: Give us water to drink. Moses and Aaron left the midst of the people, entered the tabernacle of the covenant, and falling prostrate to the ground, cried out to the Lord and said to Him: Lord God, hear the cry of this people and open to them your treasure, the fountain of living water, to satisfy them, so that they may cease murmuring. And the glory of God manifested itself over them. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Take the rod and gather the people, you and Aaron, your brother, and speak to the rock before them; and it will produce water. When you bring forth water from the rock, all the people will drink, and also their animals. Moses then took the rod that was before the Lord, as He had commanded him, and gathered the people before the rock, saying to them: Hear, rebels and unbelievers. Can we perhaps bring forth water from this rock for you? Moses then raised his hand and having struck the rock twice with the rod, a copious amount of water gushed forth from it so that all the people drank, as well as the animals. Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: Because you did not believe in me to glorify me before the children of Israel, you shall not bring this people into the land that I will give them. This is the water of contradiction, where the children of Israel murmured against the Lord, and in which He was sanctified before them.
📖 Gospel (Jn 4, 5-42)
In illo témpore: Venit Jesus in civitátem Samaríæ, quæ dícitur Sichar: juxta prǽdium, quod dedit Jacob Joseph, fílio suo. Erat autem ibi fons Jacob. Jesus ergo fatigátus ex itínere, sedébat sic supra fontem. Hora erat quasi sexta. Venit múlier de Samaría hauríre aquam. Dicit ei Jesus: Da mihi bíbere. (Discípuli enim ejus abíerant in civitátem, ut cibos émerent.) Dicit ergo ei múlier illa Samaritána: Quómodo tu, Judǽus cum sis, bíbere a me poscis, quæ sum múlier Samaritána? non enim coutúntur Judǽi Samaritánis. Respóndit Jesus et dixit ei: Si scires donum Dei, et quis est, qui dicit tibi: Da mihi bibere: tu fórsitan petísses ab eo, et dedísset tibi aquam vivam. Dicit ei múlier: Dómine, neque in quo háurias habes, et púteus altus est: unde ergo habes aquam vivam? Numquid tu major es patre nostro Jacob, qui dedit nobis púteum, et ipse ex eo bibit et fílii ejus et pécora ejus? Respóndit Jesus et dixit ei: Omnis, qui bibit ex aqua hac, sítiet íterum: qui autem bíberit ex aqua, quam ego dabo ei, non sítiet in ætérnum: sed aqua, quam ego dabo ei, fiet in eo fons aquæ saliéntis in vitam ætérnam. Dicit ad eum mulier: Dómine, da mihi hanc aquam, ut non sítiam neque véniam huc hauríre. Dicit ei Jesus: Vade, voca virum tuum, et veni huc. Respóndit múlier, et dixit: Non hábeo virum. Dicit ei Jesus: Bene dixísti, quia non hábeo virum: quinque enim viros habuísti, et nunc, quem habes, non est tuus vir: hoc vere dixísti. Dicit ei múlier: Dómine, vídeo, quia Prophéta es tu. Patres nostri in monte hoc adoravérunt, et vos dícitis, quia Jerosólymis est locus, ubi adoráre opórtet. Dicit ei Jesus: Múlier, crede mihi, quia venit hora, quando neque in monte hoc, neque in Jerosólymis adorábitis Patrem. Vos adorátis, quod nescítis: nos adorámus, quod scimus, quia salus ex Judǽis est. Sed venit hora, et nunc est, quando veri adoratóres adorábunt Patrem in spíritu et veritáte. Nam et Pater tales quærit, qui adórent eum. Spíritus est Deus: et eos, qui adórant eum, in spíritu et veritáte opórtet adoráre. Dicit ei mulier: Scio, quia Messías venit (qui dícitur Christus). Cum ergo vénerit ille, nobis annuntiábit ómnia. Dicit ei Jesus: Ego sum, qui loquor tecum. Et contínuo venérunt discípuli ejus: et mirabántur, quia cum mulíere loquebátur. Nemo tamen dixit: Quid quæris, aut quid loquéris cum ea? Reliquit ergo hýdriam suam múlier, et ábiit in civitátem, et dicit illis homínibus: Veníte, et vidéte hóminem, qui dixit mihi ómnia, quæcúmque feci: numquid ipse est Christus? Exiérunt ergo de civitáte, et veniébant ad eum. Intérea rogábant eum discípuli, dicéntes: Rabbi, mandúca. Ille autem dicit eis: Ego cibum habeo manducáre, quem vos nescítis. Dicébant ergo discípuli ad ínvicem: Numquid áliquis áttulit ei manducáre? Dicit eis Jesus: Meus cibus est, ut fáciam voluntátem ejus, qui misit me, ut perfíciam opus ejus. Nonne vos dícitis, quod adhuc quátuor menses sunt, et messis venit? Ecce, dico vobis: Leváte óculos vestros, et vidéte regiónes, quia albæ sunt jam ad messem. Et qui metit, mercédem áccipit, et cóngregat fructum in vitam ætérnam: ut, et qui séminat, simul gáudeat, et qui metit. In hoc enim est verbum verum: quia álius est qui séminat, et álius est qui metit. Ego misi vos métere quod vos non laborástis: alii laboravérunt, et vos in labóres eórum introístis. Ex civitáte autem illa multi credidérunt in eum Samaritanórum, propter verbum mulíeris testimónium perhibéntis: Quia dixit mihi ómnia, quæcúmque feci. Cum veníssent ergo ad illum Samaritáni, rogavérunt eum, ut ibi manéret. Et mansit ibi duos dies. Et multo plures credidérunt in eum propter sermónem ejus. Et mulíeri dicébant: Quia jam non propter tuam loquélam crédimus: ipsi enim audívimus, et scimus, quia hic est vere Salvátor mundi.
At that time, Jesus came to the city of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. There was Jacob's well. Tired from the journey, Jesus sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria coming to draw water, Jesus said to her: Give me a drink. (His disciples had gone into the city to buy food.) Then the Samaritan woman said to Him: How is it that You, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, who am a Samaritan woman? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her: If you knew the Gift of God, and who it is that says to you: Give me a drink, perhaps you would make this same request of Him and He would give you living water. The woman replied: Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep; where then do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his flocks? Jesus answered and said to her: Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again, for the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of living water welling up to eternal life. The woman said to Him: Sir, give me this water so that I may not thirst anymore and may not have to come here to draw it. Jesus said to her: Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said: I have no husband. Jesus said to her: You have said well that you have no husband; for you have had five, and the one you are living with is not your husband; this is true. And the woman answered Him: Sir, I see that you are a Prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you say that Jerusalem is the place where one must worship. Jesus said to her: Woman, believe Me: the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation comes from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and has now come, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Such are the worshipers the Father seeks. God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to Him: I know that the Messiah (who is called Christ) is coming. When He comes, He will announce all things to us. Jesus said to her: I who speak to you am He. At that moment His disciples arrived and were amazed that He was speaking with a woman. None of them, however, said to Him: What are you asking? or: Why are you talking with her? Leaving her water jar there, the woman went into the city and said to the inhabitants: Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done; could this be the Christ? So they left the city and came to Jesus. Meanwhile, His disciples urged Him, saying: Rabbi, eat. But He said to them: I have food to eat that you do not know about. The disciples said to one another: Could someone have brought Him food? Jesus said to them: My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, to accomplish His work. Do you not say: Four months more, and the harvest will come? Behold, I tell you: Lift up your eyes and see the fields that are already ripe for harvest. And he who reaps receives a reward and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that he who sows may rejoice together with him who reaps. For in this the saying is true: one sows, and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor. Now many Samaritans from that city believed in Him because of the woman's word, who gave this testimony: He told me everything I have ever done. Coming to Him, the Samaritans asked Him to stay there. And Jesus stayed there for two days. And many more believed in Him because of His words. And they said to the woman: It is no longer because of what you told us that we believe in Him; but because we have heard Him ourselves and we know that He is, in truth, the Savior of the world.
💧 The living water that quenches the thirst of the soul
In today's Gospel, we contemplate the intimate and transformative encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman by Jacob's well, a perennial image of fallen humanity anxiously seeking to quench its existential thirst in the cracked cisterns of this world. Saint Augustine, in commenting on this rich passage, masterfully teaches that the Samaritan woman represents the Church coming from the Gentiles, called by Christ to abandon false cults to worship the true God in spirit and truth. The material water she seeks daily only temporarily relieves the body's thirst, but the "living water" the Savior offers is the uncreated grace of the Holy Spirit Himself, which flows inextinguishably for eternal life. Saint Thomas Aquinas deepens this mystery by explaining that the woman's five husbands symbolize the five bodily senses that enslave the soul to sensible and worldly pleasures, while the sixth, who is not her legitimate husband, points to natural reason already corrupted by sin that fails to unite her to God. Only Christ, the true and Seventh Bridegroom, can free this captive soul, ordering it to its supreme ultimate end. Jesus, weary from the journey, shows that He hungers and thirsts for our salvation; His food, as He Himself reveals to the astounded apostles, is loving obedience to the Father's will, patiently harvesting the mature souls for the redemption that the sacrifice of the cross will soon consummate.
This same divine mercy that abundantly quenches spiritual thirst had already been dramatically prefigured in the Reading from the Book of Numbers, when the people of Israel, wandering through the arid desert, revolted against Moses and Aaron due to an absolute lack of water. The hardness of the human heart, darkened by the flesh, often murmurs against the wise divine providence in the face of temporal trials and dryness, arrogantly doubting God's love. However, the Lord, patient and merciful, orders Moses to strike the rock, and copious waters gush from it to quench and save the flock and the rebellious people. The living Tradition of the Church, illuminated by the preaching of the apostle Saint Paul, unanimously recognizes that this rock struck in the desert is a figure of Christ Himself. Just as Moses' wooden staff struck the hard rock to release the life-giving spring, the Roman soldier's lance will pierce the sacred side of Christ on the tree of the cross, from which blood and water will flow, the holy sacraments of the new and eternal covenant, especially Baptism and the Eucharist. Saint Ambrose clearly reminds us that this water of contradiction is, in the realm of grace, the regenerating bath of baptism that washes away all the stains of sin and causes divine life to germinate, showing that the old law only prepared the way for fulfillment in the Savior's sacrifice, the true inexhaustible source for everyone who thirsts for eternal justice.
The profound and harmonious harmony between the liturgical readings of this Lenten day leads us to a lifelong meditation on our own condition as thirsty pilgrims, masterfully connecting the struck rock of the desert to the well of Samaria, all under the supplicating light of the Introit of the Mass. When we cry out with the Church in the words of the psalmist: "Show me, O Lord, a sign of your goodness," the Lord responds by immediately offering the pure water of the Holy Spirit, the definitive and indelible sign of His love that confounds the poisonous attacks of the enemy of our souls. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux vehemently exhorts us to recognize that, exactly like the Samaritan woman, our soul so often cowardly turns away from God through ignorance, passions, and sin, but is actively and tirelessly sought by the Savior, whose burning zeal consumes His divine heart. By uniting the obedience and faith that were sadly lacking in the desert of Meribah with the sincere worship and contrite heart discovered by the well of Sychar, we are called to abandon, once and for all, our old jar of dead works and run with joy to announce to our brothers and sisters that we have indeed found the Christ. Thus, invisibly nourished by the most holy will of the Father and purified in the crystalline waters of spiritual regeneration, we become true worshipers in spirit and truth, mature and chosen fruits of that great harvest which the Lord planted and watered with His own inestimable Blood.