2026 Third Sunday of Lent – Jesus, The Living Water

For the next three weeks of our journey through Lent, we will be inviting the most important spiritual symbols of our faith, namely water, life. Water, light, and life. And our companions along the way will be the woman of the well, the man who are blind, and Lazarus.

Each of these people shows a certain aspect of human need, a longing, an aspiration. And each of these people also shows how openness towards God can lead to what we are searching for, what we are looking for. Our reflection this afternoon begins with the story of the woman of the well, the meeting of Jesus and the Samaritan woman.

The woman meets Jesus at Jacob’s well near the town of Sheke. As a result of this encounter, she makes a decision and chooses to follow Jesus and also to tell others about Jesus. We know obviously that this is a story of conversion, a change of mind and heart.

This is one of the longest conversations of Jesus to anyone that has been recorded in the Gospel. The Samaritan woman’s conversion, however, did not take place, did not happen all at once. It happened in several stages.