As we were saying on
Ash Wednesday, Lent, besides being for all the faithful a time of preparation
for Easter, is also the last stage of the catechumens’ preparation for Baptism:
for them, it is a “period of purification and enlightenment.” In the three
central Sundays of Lent the so-called “scrutinies,” with their respective
exorcisms, are celebrated. These scrutinies are accompanied by a catechesis on
Baptism, done through the reading of three passages from the gospel of John. By
means of these selections, Baptism is progressively presented as a kind of
purification (today), and as an instrument of enlightenment and rebirth (on next Sundays).
In today’s liturgy,
the most important element is water. We encounter it, directly, in the first
reading and the gospel; indirectly, in the responsorial psalm (which makes
reference to the incident of Massah and Meribah) and in the second reading
(where the image of “pouring” is applied to the Holy Spirit who has been given
to us).
Well, water can be
used for two purposes: to wash and to drink; to clean dirt and to quench
thirst. Water is the matter of Baptism. The reason is clear: Baptism (which
literally means “immersion,” “washing”) serves to cleanse us from sin. It was
not Jesus to discover the symbolism of water: before him, John the Baptist had
already baptized at the Jordan “for the forgiveness of sins.” On the other
hand, purification rites through immersion into water can be easily found in
many other religions.
But it is not this
the feature highlighted by today’s liturgy. The readings we have just heard do
not speak of dirt to be removed, but of thirst to be quenched. The book of
Exodus tells us of the thirst of the Israelites in the desert. On that
occasion, God slaked their thirst giving them water from the rock. In the
gospel, it is Jesus himself to be thirsty. It is no wonder that Jesus
experiences thirst: he was a man, “like us in all things but sin.” But, of
course, the evangelist’s concern is not to inform us about Jesus’ human needs.
In him even thirst can become an opportunity for salvation. When the Samaritan
woman expresses her surprise for the request, Jesus replies: “If you knew the
gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink’ (Da mihi bibere), you would have asked
him and he would have given you living water.” Maybe this is the most important
verse in today’s long gospel. Let us linger for a while on these words. Jesus
invites the woman to discover his real identity, which will happen little by
little: thanks to her talk with Jesus, in the end she will recognize in him the
Messiah, and, through her, the Samaritans will acknowledge him as the Savior of
the world.
Faith—that is, the
recognition of Jesus as the Messiah—is the condition for finding in him the
only one who can quench our thirst for “living water.” The gospel plays on the
ambiguity of this phrase: for the ancients, it was essential the distinction
between “dead water” (like that stagnant in a cistern) and “living water” (like
that gushing forth from a spring or that flowing in a river). But Jesus is
speaking of another kind of living water: “Whoever drinks the water I
shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a
spring of water welling up to eternal life.” In the gospel of John, whenever
Jesus speaks of water, he is referring to the Holy Spirit. On the last day of
the feast of Tabernacles, Jesus stood up and exclaimed: “Let anyone who thirst
come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture says: ‘Rivers of
living water will flow from within him.’” And the evangelist annotates: “He
said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were
to receive” (Jn 7:37-39).
That is why Saint
Paul, in the second reading, tells us that “the love of God has been poured out
into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” According to
Paul, the rock from which water had flowed out in the desert was Christ (1Cor
10:4). And John, in his gospel, tells us that, when Jesus died on the cross,
“handed over the Spirit” (Jn 19:30) and, after his death, one of the soldiers
“thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out”
(Jn 19:34).
It is exactly what happens
in Baptism: immersed into the death of Christ, we can drink from his side the
living water of the Holy Spirit.
Q
