🗣️ Malcolm J. Duncan: ”Encountering Jesus”.

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The Third Sunday in Lent

Today’s readings

There’s a lot of water in today’s Liturgy of the Word. The Israelites, near the beginning of their forty year journey through the desert, are beginning to miss some of the comforts of home, like water! So when they complain to the Lord, he gives them water in the desert. Which is pretty amazing – they had water in the desert! And in our Gospel today, our Lord stops along his own journey to get a drink of water from the Samaritan woman – and this whole interaction is less about Jesus’ physical thirst than it is about other kinds of thirst in the story – but more on that in a bit.

We always have to think about why the Church is giving us these particular readings on this particular day. Why is it that we have part of the story of the Israelites wandering in the desert and the rather strange story of the interaction with the woman at the well today? Well, (no pun intended) whenever there’s this much water being mentioned in the readings, we need to think of a particular sacrament, and that sacrament of course is Baptism.

Now maybe it makes a little sense. Today, throughout the Church, many people will experience the First Scrutiny of the Order of Christian Initiation. They are preparing to receive baptism at the Easter Vigil. But even that’s not the whole story, because this reading is for all of us. Lent itself is about baptism, and even if we’ve already been baptized, there’s still work to do. We are still being converted to become more like our Lord every day of our life. That’s what Lent is all about – getting back on the path and going a little farther forward. Lent points out for all of us that we’re still thirsty.

For the Israelites, it’s hard to know what was going to help them. They’re just at the beginning of their journey and already they’re complaining. They get thirsty and the first thing they do is complain – not pray – and tell Moses that they’d rather be back in Egypt in slavery than out wandering around in the desert with nothing to quench their thirst. And it’s not like the slavery they experienced in Egypt was a minor inconvenience – it was pretty horrible and if they missed their quota even by a little bit, they were severely beaten. But sometimes it’s better the devil you know: sometimes we get stuck on what we’ve become used to and have given up yearning for something more.

For the woman at the well, there’s a lot stacked against her and there is no reason Jesus should have been talking to her. In fact, the disciples, when they return and witness it, aren’t really sure what they should make of it. Because in that culture, nobody talked to Samaritans – it would be like striking up a casual conversation with an Isis member. And for a man to speak to an unaccompanied woman was unthinkable. But Jesus knew she was thirsty – see it wasn’t about his thirst at all, except, as Saint Augustine tells us, Jesus was thirsting for her faith.

It’s a pretty weird conversation, to be honest. But in talking about her five previous husbands and the Samaritans’ practice of worshiping on the mountain, Jesus was pointing out how her own search for something to quench her thirst was so far pretty futile. She was looking for love in all the wrong places. The five men she was married to represented a history of failed attempts at finding love. And the guy she was shacked up with now represented the fact that she’d pretty much given up. But on some level, the fact that Jesus knew all this without her saying it woke her up a bit. And so then they talk about how the Samaritans worshiped. They were looking for God on the mountain, but the thing is, the God they were looking for is the same one that she had been searching for in her relationships, and he was standing right in front of her now.

So what is it that is finally going to quench the thirst you have right now?

Are you going to stay in the slavery of your former way of life, or do you want to journey on to the Promised Land? Are you going to continue to be content with failed or broken relationships, or are you going to refresh them with Living Water? Are you going to continue to leave God up on that mountaintop where he doesn’t get in the way of your daily life, until you need something? Or are you going to look him in the eye and ask him to give you what you really need so you’ll never thirst again?

We’re all on a journey. All of us together are journeying on to the Promised Land of eternal life. And the only way we’re going to get there is by drinking deeply of the Living Water and allowing the One who gives it to us to lead us. It does mean, however, that we’ll have to leave Egypt, and our buckets, behind.

Quote of the day, 23 February: St. Titus Brandsma

“Following orders, today I was forced to declare that I am not a member of the Jewish race. Obviously, I am pure Frisian. But this is very painful for the Jews. I must stand alongside them.”

The fire never died out in Oegeklooster on the frigid night between 21-22 February 1881. The Brandsmas were impatiently awaiting the birth of a new shoot. It would be their fifth.

The newcomer was born in the early hours of 23 February, and his arrival filled the entire family of hardworking farmers with joy. It was a boy, another pair of hands to work their enormous farm.

Overcome with gratitude the father fell to his knees, thanking God because at last his four daughters had been joined by the hoped-for male heir. Following this newborn son, there was to be another brother.

Everyone who saw the infant praised his delicate complexion and agreed that he looked like his mother.

In accord with the old ways, that same afternoon the entire family hurried to the parish church to baptize the newcomer. He was given typically Frisian names: Anno Sjoerd. St. Anno had been a famous Bishop of Cologne who had founded monasteries in the northern part of Europe around 1056.

Miguel Arribas, O.Carm.

Chapter 1, A shoot from good stock (excerpt)

Note: Anno Sjoerd Brandsma was born to Tjitsje and Titus Brandsma on 23 February 1881 at Wonseradeel in Friesland, a province in the very north of Holland. The Brandsma family consisted of four girls and two boys, of which Titus was the second youngest. Five of the siblings would later enter religious life.

Arribas O.Carm., M 2021, The Price of Truth: Titus Brandsma, Carmelite, Carmelite Media, Darien, Illinois.

Featured image: Saint Titus Brandsma is seen standing next to his mother, Tjitje, who is seated on his right and wearing a traditional Dutch hat. On Titus’ left is his sister Gatske, perhaps with her daughter Trees (standing). The occasion and place are unknown. Image credit: Nederlands Carmelitaans Instituut / Carmelite General Curia (used by permission)

A quotation from The Bible

The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Galatians 3: 27–28 [JB (1966)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/bible-nt/81792/

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This, my friends, is a "Nottaufspritze", or "syringe for emergency baptism".

If the midwife strongly suspected that the child would be stillborn, and could not see the child's head, she could inject the syringe into the vagina, and thus sprinkle the child with holy water and provide an emergency baptism before the stillborn child was formally dead.

Because the souls of unbaptized children don't go into Heaven.

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nottaufspritze_MfK_Wgt.jpg

The final #baptism 😂.

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[Worship Service & Baptism] Sermon - “THE GOSPEL OF JESUS IN THE BELIEVER’S LIFE” Jan 25 2026

https://youtu.be/Kei9SNB5kdI

https://odysee.com/jan252026:3472a5aadeb784fdb662140b9680b7dbe06fc925

https://rumble.com/v74u5cy-worship-service-sermon-the-gospel-of-jesus-in-the-believers-life-jan-25-202.html

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#Jericho, West Bank
Christian Orthodox worshippers participate in a ceremony re-enacting the baptism of Christ on the banks of the Jordan River.

Photograph: Shir Torem/Reuters

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