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Lectio Divina Praying the Scriptures in Lent and Holy Week 2011 Year AThis third Sunday in Lent offers living water as its theme. Water gushingforth from unexpected places. In the Reading from Exodus, God promisesto send gushing water from the rock at Horeb (v6). In Romans it is theHoly Spirit, ‘poured into our hearts’ (v5), while in the Gospel of John, weread how Jesus promises living water in which one will never be thirsty(v14), right there in a forlorn place, at noon, in the sun’s heat. Thisgushing forth of promised living water in unexpected places, capturessomething of the ways of God, whose grace takes us by surprise.Lent is a Season that commences with Jesus tempted in the dry harsh desert.It is a Season of penance, dryness and ascetism. We are in the third week andthere is still the rest of Lent ahead of us, calling us to resist temptation, tojourney the long road to Calvary, bearing our Crosses. To refl ect in sombremood the unjust trial and horrifi c crucifi xion of Christ, who would redeem us.Yet in the midst of the desert experience of Lent, our Readingsopen the fl ood gates, and allow water to gush forth. Is it a reminderthat God is ever near? Is it an invitation to wash our sins? Doesthe refreshing water beckon us to renewed energy?Lent maybe a sombre time in the Church Season but it is also a time ofunexpected grace that is poured into our hearts, which has been emptied ofpride, and stands thirsty for new life. The purpose of the journey throughLent is to experience the presence of God reawakened in our lives, littleby little, like drops of rain on parched land. The fi nal pouring at theResurrection will then become all the more invigorating to us, who havebeen transformed by the harshness of the Lenten desert experience.A fi nal thought as we end this refl ection. How very much a reality has beenthe Lenten experience in this Great Southern Land. For years we knewonly of a ‘sunburnt country’ withering away into desert because of lack ofrain. Then this year the fl ood gates opened and what was parched, suddenlyexperienced the downpour of water. Maybe as a Nation we may experiencesomething of a Resurrection this Easter, which gathers us as one.Exodus 17:3-73But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained againstMoses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our childrenand livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I dowith this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The Lord said to Moses,31
Lectio Divina Praying the Scriptures in Lent and Holy Week 2011 Year A“Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you;take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will bestanding there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and waterwill come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sightof the elders of Israel. 7 He called the place Massah and Meribah, because theIsraelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”Romans 5:1-2, 5-85Therefore, since we are justifi ed by faith, we have peace with God throughour Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to thisgrace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the gloryof God. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has beenpoured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.7Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person – though perhapsfor a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proveshis love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.John 4:5-425So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacobhad given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by hisjourney, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. 7 A Samaritan woman cameto draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had goneto the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it thatyou, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things incommon with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God,and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him,and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, youhave no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Areyou greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons andhis fl ocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this waterwill be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them willnever be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of watergushing up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, sothat I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 Jesussaid to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answeredhim, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have nohusband’; 18 for you have had fi ve husbands, and the one you have now is not your32
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Lectio Divina - Broken Bay Institute

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