To give a cup of water is a great act of charity because water really is the most precious commodity that we have on this earth.
On a recent visit to the local primary school, I got talking about Lent and this year’s Trocaire Lenten campaign, a campaign which centres around the global water crisis. In one classroom I explained that water was something that we could not survive without. There was overall agreement on this but an interesting debate ensued among the class as to whether or not they could survive without mobile phone, X box, playstation, television etc. After a long and tedious debate, it was decided that we have many things but that very few are really needed but that one of the things that we do need to survive is water.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks a Samaritan woman to give him a drink of water. Jesus himself was tired after a long walk, drained by the mid-day sun and very very thirsty. In His asking for a drink of water we see the humanity of Jesus but in the course of the conversation with this Samaritan woman we also see the divinity of Jesus as he reveals himself to be the Christ and speaks about a different kind of water – ‘living water.’
As precious a commodity as water is, this ‘living water’ promised by Jesus is priceless – a priceless gift – the gift of faith.
As we enter this, the third week of Lent may we draw deep from the wellspring and may our faith be nurtured and sustained by our encounters with Christ and with one another.
‘The water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside, welling up to eternal life.’
