Lectionary Readings for the 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year A

Readings, Responsorial Psalm and Gospel

Reading I, Ex 17, 3-7

A Reading from the Book of Exodus
Give us water to drink.

In their thirst for water, the people grumbled against
Moses, saying, "Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?
Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our
children and our livestock?" So Moses cried out to
the Lord, "What shall I do with this people? A little
more and they will stone me!" The Lord answered Moses,
"Go over there in front of the people, along with some
of the elders of Israel, holding in your hand, as you
go, the staff with which you struck the river. I will
be standing there in front of you on the rock in Horeb.
Strike the rock, and the water will flow from it for
the people to drink." This Moses did, in the presence
of the elders of Israel. The place was called Massah
and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled there
and tested the Lord, saying, "Is the Lord in our midst
or not?"

The Word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm, Ps 95, 1-2. 6-7. 8-9. R. v. 8

R. If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.

1. Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord;
let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us greet him with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him. R.

2. Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the Lord who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds,
the flock he guides. R.

3. Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
"Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works. R.

Reading II, Rom 5, 1-2. 5-8

A Reading From the Letter of Paul to the Romans
The love of God has been poured into our hearts
by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.

Now that we have been justified by faith, we are at
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through
him we have gained access by faith to the grace in
which we now stand, and we boast of our hope for the
glory of God. And this hope will not leave us
disappointed, because the love of God has been poured
out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has
been given to us. At the appointed time, when we
were still powerless, Christ died for us godless men.
It is rare that anyone should lay down his life for
a just man, though it is barely possible that for
a good man someone may have the courage to die. It
is precisely in this that God proves his love for us:
that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The Word of the Lord.

Gospel, Jn 4, 5-42

Verse before the Gospel Jn 4, 42. 15
R. Lord, you are truly the Savior of
the world; give me living water, that I may
never thirst again.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel According to John
The water that I shall give will turn into a
spring of eternal life.

Jesus had to pass through Samaria, and his journey
brought him to a Samaritan town named Shechem near
the plot of land which Jacob had given to his son
Joseph. This was the site of Jacob's well. Jesus,
tired from his journey, sat down at the well.

The hour was about noon. When a Samaritan woman
came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Give me a
drink," (His disciples had gone off to the town to
buy provisions.) The Samaritan woman said to him,
"You are a Jew. How can you ask me, a Samaritan
and a woman, for a drink?" (Recall that Jews have
nothing to do with Samaritans.) Jesus replied:

"If only you recognized God's gift,
and who it is that is asking you for a
drink, you would have asked him instead,
and he would have given you living water."

"Sir," she challenged him, "you don't have a bucket
and this well is deep. Where do you expect to get
this flowing water? Surely you don't pretend to be
greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this
well and drank from it with his sons and his flocks?"
Jesus replied:

"Everyone who drinks this water
will be thirsty again,
but whoever drinks the water I give him
will never be thirsty;
no, the water I give
shall become a fountain within him,
leaping up to provide eternal life."

The woman said to him, "Give me this water, sir, so
that I won't grow thirsty and have to keep coming
here to draw water."

He told her, "Go, call your husband, and then come
back here." "I have no husband," replied the woman.
"You are right in saying you have no husband!" Jesus
exclaimed. "The fact is, you have had five, and the
man you are living with now is not your husband.
What you said is true enough."

"Sir," answered the woman, "I can see you are a
prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain,
but you people claim that Jerusalem is the place
where men ought to worship God." Jesus told her:

"Believe me, woman,
an hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not
understand, while we understand what
we worship; after all, salvation is
from the Jews. Yet an hour is coming,
and is already here, when authentic
worshipers will worship the Father
in Spirit and truth. Indeed, it is
such 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 there is a Messiah
coming. (This term means Anointed.) When he comes,
he will tell us everything." Jesus replied, "I who
speak to you am he."

His disciples, returning at this point, were
surprised that Jesus was speaking with a woman.
No one put a question, however, such as "What do
you want of him?" or "Why are you talking with
her?" The woman then left her water jar and went
off into the town. She said to the people: "Come
and see someone who told me everything I ever did!
Could this not be the Messiah?" With that they set
out from the town to meet him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi,
eat something." But he told them:

"I have food to eat
of which you do not know."

At this the disciples said to one another, "You do not
suppose anyone has brought him something to eat?"
Jesus explained to them:

"Doing the will of him who sent me
and bringing his work to completion
is my food.
Do you not have a saying:
'Four months more
and it will be harvest!'?
Listen to what I say:
Open your eyes and see!
The fields are shining for harvest!
The reaper already collects his wages
and gathers a yield for eternal life,
that sower and reaper may rejoice
together. Here we have the saying
verified: 'One man sows; another
reaps.' I sent you to reap what
you had not worked for. Others have
done the labor, and you have come
into their gain."

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him on
the strength of the woman's word of testimony: "He
told me everything I ever did." The result was that,
when these Samaritans came to him, they begged him
to stay with them awhile. So he stayed there two
more days, and through his own spoken word many
more came to faith. As they told the woman: "No
longer does our faith depend on your story. We have
heard for ourselves, and we know that this really
is the Savior of the world."

The Gospel of the Lord.

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