March 12, 2023

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First Reading

Exodus 17:3-7

17:3	And so the people were thirsty in that place, due to the scarcity of water, and they murmured against Moses, saying: “Why did you cause us to go out of Egypt, so as to kill us and our children, as well as our cattle, with thirst?”
17:4	Then Moses cried out to the Lord, saying: “What shall I do with this people? A little while more and they will stone me.”
17:5	And the Lord said to Moses: “Go before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. And take in your hand the staff, with which you struck the river, and advance.
17:6	Lo, I will stand in that place before you, on the rock of Horeb. And you shall strike the rock, and water will go forth from it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
17:7	And he called the name of that place ‘Temptation,’ because of the arguing of the sons of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying: “Is the Lord with us, or not?”

Second Reading

The Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans 5:1-2, 5-8

5:1	Therefore, having been justified by faith, let us be at peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
5:2	For through him we also have access by faith to this grace, in which we stand firm, and to glory, in the hope of the glory of the sons of God.
5:3	And not only that, but we also find glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation exercises patience,
5:4	and patience leads to proving, yet truly proving leads to hope,
5:5	but hope is not unfounded, because the love of God is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
5:6	Yet why did Christ, while we were still infirm, at the proper time, suffer death for the impious?
5:7	Now someone might barely be willing to die for the sake of justice, for example, perhaps someone might dare to die for the sake of a good man.
5:8	But God demonstrates his love for us in that, while we were yet sinners, at the proper time,

Gospel

John 4:5-42

4:1	And so, when Jesus realized that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made more disciples and baptized more than John,
4:2	(though Jesus himself was not baptizing, but only his disciples)
4:3	he left behind Judea, and he traveled again to Galilee.
4:4	Now he needed to cross through Samaria.
4:5	Therefore, he went into a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the estate which Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
4:6	And Jacob’s well was there. And so Jesus, being tired from the journey, was sitting in a certain way on the well. It was about the sixth hour.
4:7	A woman of Samaria arrived to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me to drink.”
4:8	For his disciples had gone into the city in order to buy food.
4:9	And so, that Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, are requesting a drink from me, though I am a Samaritan woman?” For the Jews do not associate with the Samaritans.
4:10	Jesus responded and said to her: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give me to drink,’ perhaps you would have made a request of him, and he would have given you living water.”
4:11	The woman said to him: “Lord, you do not have anything with which to draw water, and the well is deep. From where, then, do you have living water?
4:12	Surely, you are not greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and who drank from it, with his sons and his cattle?”
4:13	Jesus responded and said to her: “All who drink from this water will thirst again. But whoever shall drink from the water that I will give to him will not thirst for eternity.
4:14	Instead, the water that I will give to him will become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life.”
4:15	The woman said to him, “Lord, give me this water, so that I may not thirst and may not come here to draw water.”
4:16	Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and return here.”
4:17	The woman responded and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her: “You have spoken well, in saying, ‘I have no husband.’
4:18	For you have had five husbands, but he whom you have now is not your husband. You have spoken this in truth.”
4:19	The woman said to him: “Lord, I see that you are a Prophet.
4:20	Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
4:21	Jesus said to her: “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you shall worship the Father, neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem.
4:22	You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know. For salvation is from the Jews.
4:23	But the hour is coming, and it is now, when true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeks such persons who may worship him.
4:24	God is Spirit. And so, those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
4:25	The woman said to him: “I know that the Messiah is coming (who is called the Christ). And then, when he will have arrived, he will announce everything to us.”
4:26	Jesus said to her: “I am he, the one who is speaking with you.”
4:27	And then his disciples arrived. And they wondered that he was speaking with the woman. Yet no one said: “What are you seeking?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”
4:28	And so the woman left behind her water jar and went into the city. And she said to the men there:
4:29	“Come and see a man who has told me all the things that I have done. Is he not the Christ?”
4:30	Therefore, they went out of the city and came to him.
4:31	Meanwhile, the disciples petitioned him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
4:32	But he said to them, “I have food to eat which you do not know.”
4:33	Therefore, the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?”
4:34	Jesus said to them: “My food is to do the will of the One who sent me, so that I may perfect his work.
4:35	Do you not say, ‘There are still four months, and then the harvest arrives?’ Behold, I say to you: Lift up your eyes and look at the countryside; for it is already ripe for the harvest.
4:36	For he who reaps, receives wages and gathers fruit unto eternal life, so that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
4:37	For in this the word is true: that it is one who sows, and it is another who reaps.
4:38	I have sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
4:39	Now many of the Samaritans from that city believed in him, because of the word of the woman who was offering testimony: “For he told me all the things that I have done.”
4:40	Therefore, when the Samaritans had come to him, they petitioned him to lodge there. And he lodged there for two days.
4:41	And many more believed in him, because of his own word.
4:42	And they said to the woman: “Now we believe, not because of your speech, but because we ourselves have heard him, and so we know that he is truly the Savior of the world.”