Weeks of Lent

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Tuesday, 5 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are reminded both of God’s great love and providence, as well as the need for all of us as Christians to embrace, understand and be thankful for all the love, kindness and grace which God has always generously shown us all these times. As we continue to progress through this penitential time and season of Lent, we should not take it for granted that the Lord has constantly and repeatedly shown us His mercy, grace and kindness. We must always centre our lives on the Lord and focus our attention on Him and we must always heed everything which He has told us to do so that by our obedience to His Law and commandments, and by our exemplary way of life, we will be good role models and examples for everyone around us.

In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Daniel in which we listened to the prayer of Azariah, one of the three friends of Daniel mentioned in the Book of Daniel. At that time, the context was that Azariah together with the other two friends of Daniel, Hananiah and Mishael were persecuted by the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, who had built a large golden statue in his own image, and ordered everyone to worship the golden statue, essentially making himself as a god. The three men refused to bow down and worship to that golden statue, remaining steadfast in their belief and faith in God, and hence, risking the anger and the persecution from the king. The king threw all of them into a great burning furnace and made it much hotter as he was angry when Azariah and his friends proclaimed that there is no one that should be worshipped except for the Lord, their God.

It was there, within that burning furnace that Azariah made this prayer of supplication to God, asking for His providence and help for His faithful ones. In that same prayer, Azariah also showed the remorse and repentance on behalf of the people of Israel, the people of God, who had disobeyed Him and His Law, and hence, ended up in the predicament of having to suffer being in exile as what happened to everyone there, scattered and led far away from their homeland, forced to endure exile and humiliation in the foreign lands. Azariah asked the Lord for His mercy and compassion, that He might remember all the love that He has shown to His people throughout time. Despite their many sins and wickedness, God still cared for them and showed them His love and forgiveness, and sent His prophets and messengers to help lead them down the right path.

And God did indeed answer Azariah’s prayer, and their faith in Him brought them protection and deliverance from the harm that should have befallen them. The flames would not harm them, and no matter what, they remained in perfectly safe condition, protected by the Angel that God had sent to them, witnessed by the same king Nebuchadnezzar and all who witnessed the event. God truly showed His love and mercy, His compassion and kindness to His faithful ones, remembering that each and every one of them are truly precious and beloved to Him, and hence He safeguarded and protected Azariah and his peers, showing everyone not just the wonders of His love, but also the mercy and forgiveness that He has shown them.

This is related closely to our Gospel passage today, which was taken from the Gospel of St. Matthew, which was about the parable of the ungrateful servant that the Lord told to His disciples and followers. In that parable, the Lord related the story of a servant who owed a huge sum of money to his master, ten thousand pieces of gold, which was truly an astronomical sum. He could not pay his due and there should have faced consequences and punishments for that. Yet, when he begged for his master to show him leniency and to give him time to settle his debts, not only that the master showed pity and mercy on him, but the master completely erased all of his huge sum of debts. This is a representation of how the Lord, our loving and merciful God, represented by the master, has forgiven us all our many sins and faults towards Him.

Yet, that ungrateful servant immediately went after one of his fellow servants as we heard in that parable, threatening him and refused to forgive or to give chance for the other poor servant to pay his due. Essentially, as the Lord elaborated further, the ungrateful servant did not take pity or show mercy upon his fellow men although he himself had been shown great mercy from the master. That was how he was punished eventually, even more than what he should have had to suffer earlier, because of his lack of gratitude for everything good that had been done for him, and for lacking compassion and mercy for others who were not as fortunate as he was. The master would have expected him to show the same kind of mercy and love for his fellow men, and not to take what graces and blessings he had received for granted.

This is thus a very important reminder for each and every one of us that we must show the same kind of love and mercy, compassion and forgiveness to one another just as the Lord Himself has loved us all first, and just as how He has willingly embraced us and reached out to us, calling upon us to return to Him and to walk in the path of His grace and love once again. Like the master who has forgiven the massive gift of the first, ungrateful servant, we all should be thankful to have been given the chance to repent and to be forgiven from our many and innumerable sins, wickedness and evils, and then, just as the Gospel parable has kindly reminded us to forgive others their sins and faults to us just in the same manner how God has been willing to forgive our far more serious sins and faults towards Him. When the Lord told St. Peter to forgive seventy times seven times, it is not meant to specify how many times we must forgive, but rather, it is a representation of how all of us must forgive always and generously.

Let us all therefore make the best use of this time and period of Lent, this penitential period where we are all called and reminded to return once again towards the Lord, our loving God and Creator. Let us all turn back towards the Lord with hearts and minds that are opened and renewed, with the strong faith and desire to love and serve God. Let us all be more loving and be kinder upon others around us, showing care and compassion to everyone in need around us. Let us all be there for them and let us all help and support each other so that in everything that we say and do, and in our every interactions, hopefully we may grow ever stronger in our faith and commitment, as a people whom God Himself has blessed and made holy. Amen.

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Tuesday, 5 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Matthew 18 : 21-35

At that time, Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how many times must I forgive the offences of my brother or sister? Seven times?” Jesus answered, “No, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. This story throws light on the kingdom of Heaven : A king decided to settle the accounts of his servants.”

“Among the first was one who owed him ten thousand pieces of gold. As the man could not repay the debt, the king commanded that he be sold as a slave with his wife, his children and all his goods, as repayment. The servant threw himself at the feet of the king and said, ‘Give me time, and I will pay you back everything.'”

“The king took pity on him, and not only set him free, but even cancelled his debt. When the servant left the king’s presence, he met one of his companions, who owed him a hundred pieces of silver. He grabbed him by the neck and almost choked him, shouting, ‘Pay me what you owe!'”

“His companion threw himself at his feet and begged him, ‘Give me time, and I will pay everything.’ The other did not agree, but sent him to prison until he had paid all his debt. Now his fellow servants saw what had happened. They were extremely upset, and so they went and reported everything to their lord.”

“Then the lord summoned his servant and said, ‘Wicked servant, I forgave you all that you owed when you begged me to do so. Were you not bound to have pity on your companion, as I had pity on you?’ The lord was now angry, so he handed his servant over to be punished, until he had paid his whole debt.”

Jesus added, “So will My heavenly Father do with you, unless you sincerely forgive your brothers and sisters.”

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Tuesday, 5 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 24 : 4-5ab, 6 and 7bc, 8-9

Teach me Your ways, o Lord; make known to me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and instruct me, for You are my God, my Saviour.

Remember Your compassion, o Lord, Your unfailing love from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, but in Your love remember me.

Good and upright, the Lord teaches sinners His way. He teaches the humble of heart and guides them in what is right.

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Tuesday, 5 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Daniel 3 : 25, 34-43

Azariah stood up in the midst of the fire and prayed aloud : Do not abandon us forever, do not reject Your covenant for Your Name’s sake. Do not withdraw Your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham, Your friend, of Isaac, Your servant, of Israel, Your holy one, to whom You promised to multiply their race as the stars of heaven and the sand on the shore of the sea.

Lord, see, we have become the least among the nations in all the world, and we are humiliated because of our sins. At this time, we no longer have a king, or prophet, or leader. We cannot offer You holocausts, sacrifices, offerings, or incense. We have no place to present to You the first-fruits of our crops, and so obtain Your favour.

But at least when we present ourselves with a contrite soul and humbled spirit may we then be acceptable to You, more than by offerings of rams and calves as holocausts, and of thousands of fat lambs. May this sacrifice of ours today obtain for us Your favour for we know that those who trust in You shall never be disappointed.

And now, we serve You with our whole heart, we fear You and we seek Your face. Do not leave us in our humiliation, but treat us according to Your kindness and Your great mercy. Free us in keeping with Your wonders, and give us the glory of Your Name, Lord.

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Monday, 4 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today all of us are reminded of several very important things through the readings of the Sacred Scriptures that we must heed as we continue to progress through this time and season of Lent, called to repentance from our many sins and wickedness, and reminded to return to the Lord, our most loving God, Who alone can heal us from our fallen state, our troubled and corrupted beings, because of the corruption and the wickedness caused by our many sins. Through the story of the healing of Naaman the Syrian from the Old Testament to the story of how the Lord Jesus was rejected in His own hometown of Nazareth in the Gospels, we are all reminded that we should put our trust in the Lord and not in the ways of the world, many of which may lead us astray and down the wrong path in life.

As mentioned, in our first reading today, we heard from the Book of Kings of Israel and Judah the story of how Naaman, a great and respected general of the Kingdom of Aram-Damascus, was afflicted with the terrible leprosy disease that was not yet easily curable at that time. That disease made one to be shunned and rejected from the community, and that must have been a really terrible blow for such a high-ranking and well-respected man. Then, we heard how Naaman came to the land of Israel hearing that there was a prophet there, the prophet Elisha, who was renowned for his many miracles and good works in ministering to the Israelites, showing God’s power and miracles to them. Naaman went to Elisha with the hope that the man of God could heal him from his conditions.

Therefore, Elisha told Naaman to go and bathe in the River Jordan seven times and then he would be healed from his leprosy. But we heard how Naaman became angry, expecting that the man of God should have come to him and perform his miracles to him in person, and not to ask him to do such trivial tasks, even arguing that there were better rivers in his own land. This was where Naaman’s servant reminded him that such a task was not really difficult to do, and if Naaman really wanted to be healed, then he should have just listened to Elisha and do ask he was asked to do. We heard how Naaman obeyed eventually and was therefore healed from his afflictions, and was restored to good health through his obedience and faith in God.

In what we have heard from our first reading today, we can see clearly how the Lord loved all of His people, including even the people who did not belong to the nation of Israel. The Aramaeans were enemies of the Israelites for much of their existence, and yet, God showed His mercy, love and healing for one of their most renowned generals. Naaman was also a representation of all of us, who are sinners and unworthy of God, and yet, through His most wonderful and generous mercy, love and compassion, Naaman was healed and therefore in the same way, all of us can and will be healed as well, as long as we allow ourselves to be healed by the Lord, healed from the taint and corruption of our many sins and wickedness, which have caused us to be separated from God and His love.

And that leprosy is a representation of our sins, which are also akin to the disease in how they afflict us. Unlike leprosy, which can ultimately still be cured by earthly means, only the Lord alone can heal us from our sins, by His forgiveness and mercy. Through God’s forgiveness and grace, we will once again be in His favour, reconciled to Him, while having those sins cleared and forgiven from us. We will therefore no longer suffer the consequences of those sins which we have committed, and we will once again be filled with God’s grace, and reassured of His salvation and eternal life. All these can only happen if we allow ourselves and are open to the mercy and kindness of God that He has shown to all of us, just as He has shown it to Naaman who listened to Him and obeyed His commands through the prophet Elisha.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Gospel of St. Luke in which as mentioned, the story of the moment when Jesus was rejected in His own hometown of Nazareth, as the people there refused to believe in what the Lord had said and proclaimed, simply because they judged Him and thought that they knew Who He truly was, the Son of a lowly village carpenter, that is His foster-father St. Joseph. The people of Nazareth hardened their hearts and minds against the Lord and rejected Him, in contrast to how the attitude of Naaman, the Syrian general had been. This was highlighted by the Lord Himself, Who said that prophets were never respected and honoured in their own lands, and gave the example of Naaman himself, who believed in God and was healed by the prophet Elisha, while so many others in the land of Israel refused to believe in Elisha and even persecuted the man of God.

This is a reminder for all of us that once again, God’s healing, mercy and forgiveness are shared and offered freely to everyone. He did not discriminate by the origins or backgrounds of the people, because ultimately, all of mankind, all of us are His beloved children and people. He called some earlier than others, like Abraham and his descendants, the Israelites, but ultimately God desired to call everyone to His Presence and to save all of them without exception. This is why the Lord was making that point about how even foreigners and pagans were receiving God’s grace and salvation because they believed, while the people who were supposed to be called first and were faithful, were actually the ones who rejected the love and mercy of God. This is a reminder that we should not be prideful and haughty, and we must not think that we are in any way better or more worthy than others around us, and less still to discriminate against others.

The Church celebrates the Feast of St. Casimir today, and on his feast day all of us are reminded of the exemplary faith and life of this dedicated man of God, so that hopefully we may also follow his good examples in our own lives. St. Casimir was a prince of the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and at one time was the heir apparent to the thrones of both realms although he eventually did not succeed to both as he passed away quite early in his life. St. Casimir was renowned for his great piety and care for the less fortunate, for the needy and the sick throughout the kingdom despite his relatively young age. He lived his life humbly and with great devotion to God, and showed his piety and concern for the poor through charity and almsgiving.

The life of St. Casimir, while it might be a relatively short one compared to many others, is a great example and inspiration to many of us, as he showed all of us and many others during his time, his contemporaries how to live as true and genuine Christians, in doing God’s will, obeying His Law and commandments, in showing love for Him first and foremost while also showing great love and compassion for his fellow brethren at the same time, particularly those who were less fortunate and unloved. This is why today, I hope that his examples and inspirations can also serve as a good model for all of us to follow so that in whatever we say and do, in all of our actions and deeds, in our every interactions, we may truly be good examples for everyone.

May the Lord be with us always, and may He continue to empower us all to live ever more faithfully as His disciples and followers, doing the best we can to proclaim His glory and to serve Him most faithfully at all times. May He bless us and strengthen us that we may continue to persevere in faith and remain firm in our commitments to Him, now and always. Amen.

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Monday, 4 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Luke 4 : 24-30

At that time, Jesus said to the people of Nazareth, “No prophet is honoured in his own country. Truly, I say to you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens withheld rain for three years and six months and a great famine came over the whole land. Yet, Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow of Zarephath, in the country of Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet; and no one was healed except Naaman, the Syrian.”

On hearing these words, the whole assembly became indignant. They rose up and brought Him out of the town, to the edge of the hill on which Nazareth is built, intending to throw Him down the cliff. But He passed through their midst and went His way.

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Monday, 4 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir (Psalm)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Psalm 41 : 2, 3 and Psalm 42 : 3, 4

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for You, o God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I go and see the face of God?

Send forth Your light and Your truth; let them be my guide, let them take me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You reside.

Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my gladness and delight. I will praise You with the lyre and harp, o God, my God.

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Monday, 4 March 2024 : 3rd Week of Lent, Memorial of St. Casimir (First Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

2 Kings 5 : 1-15a

Naaman was the army commander of the king of Aram. This man was highly regarded and enjoyed the king’s favour, for YHVH had helped him lead the army of the Arameans to victory. But this valiant man was sick with leprosy.

One day some Aramean soldiers raided the land of Israel and took a young girl captive who became a servant to the wife of Naaman. She said to her mistress, “If my master would only present himself to the prophet in Samaria, he would surely cure him of his leprosy.”

Naaman went to tell the king what the young Israelite maidservant had said. The king of Aram said to him, “Go to the prophet, and I shall also send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman went and took with him ten silver talents, six thousand gold pieces and ten festal garments.

On his arrival, he delivered the letter to the king of Israel. It said, “I present my servant Naaman to you that you may heal him of his leprosy. When the king read the letter, he tore his clothes to show his indignation, “I am not God to give life or death. And the king of Aram sends me this man to be healed! You see, he is just looking for an excuse for war.”

Elisha, the man of God, came to know that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, so he sent this message to him : “Why have you torn your clothes? Let the man come to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and stopped before the house of Elisha. Elisha then sent a messenger to tell him, “Go to the river Jordan and wash seven times, and your flesh shall be as it was before, and you shall be cleansed.”

Naaman was angry, so he went away. He thought, “On my arrival, he should have personally come out, and then paused and called on the Name of YHVH, his God. And he should have touched with his hand the infected part, and I would have been healed. Are the rivers of Damascus, Abana and Pharpar not better than all the rivers of the land of Israel? Could I not wash there to be healed?”

His servants approached him and said to him, “Father, if the prophet had ordered you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? But how much easier when he said : ‘Take a bath and you will be cleansed.’” So Naaman went down to the Jordan where he washed himself seven times as Elisha had ordered. His skin became soft like that of a child and he was cleansed.

Then Naaman returned to the man of God with all his men.

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Sunday, 3 March 2024 : Third Sunday of Lent (Homily and Scripture Reflections)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this Sunday all of us are presented with the important message and reminder for all of us to listen to the Lord our God, heed His Law and commandments, and be truly genuine and sincere in following Him as His disciples, followers and holy people. We cannot be truly saved unless we have embraced God in all things, in all parts of our whole lives and do everything in accordance to His will, to the best of our abilities. God has given us His Law and commandments to help and guide us in our journey, so that we can find the best path towards Him, in following what His Son, Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, has taught and revealed to us, in truly being obedient to the fullness of God’s Law and commandments, in being sincere and full of love both for God and for our fellow brothers and sisters around us.

In our first reading this Sunday, we heard from the Book of Exodus here the Lord spoke to Moses, revealing the core and basic tenets of the Law and the commandments which He was giving to His people, the Israelites, whom He was taking on a journey through the desert, on their way out of the land of Egypt, from their slavery and sufferings there, and into the land of promise, the Land of Canaan. The Lord gave them all His Law and commandments to guide them and to help them navigate their lives so that they would not lose their way and be misguided into the path of sin and evil, knowing that they would disobey and rebel against Him. The Lord taught them all His ways and showed them all that to follow Him and to commit to the Covenant which He had been making with them and their ancestors, then they would have to adhere to those Law and commandments.

That was why we heard of the Ten Commandments which God gave to His people through Moses, which He wrote on the two slabs of stone, as the heart and core of all the laws, precepts, rules and matters pertaining His ways and teachings. The Ten Commandments, just as the Lord Jesus elaborated and explained further later on, were in essence the way to love the Lord as well as loving one another, one’s own parents, family, relatives, friends and any other people around us, even strangers and acquaintances, because God Himself is Love, and it is only right and appropriate that all of us who follow Him and call ourselves as His beloved people, as Christians, just as the Israelites in the past, do what is truly befitting of us as people filled with love both for our God and as well as for our fellow brothers and sisters around us.

And as we have heard and being reminded of, to be truly filled with God’s love is for us to show that same, selfless and most generous love towards our Lord, first and foremost, in loving and focusing ourselves on Him at all times, in loving Him with all of our strength and might, and doing whatever we can so that by our love, we may truly dedicate and commit ourselves to Him, loving Him as just how He has loved us so generously. Then, we are reminded to show love and care for our fellow brothers and sisters, not to cause any hurt or suffering upon them, to be genuine in all of our love and compassion towards each other. This is why we must always centre ourselves upon the Lord, obey His Law and commit ourselves to the path that He has shown us.

In our second reading today, we heard from St. Paul in his Epistle to the Church and the faithful people of God in the city of Corinth in which the Apostle spoke of how their beliefs, the beliefs that Christians upheld and possessed, all of them might lead to ridicule, rejection and persecution from both the Jewish authorities and people, as well as the Greeks, the two groups which at that time were where the main obstacles to the Christian missions came from. The Jewish authorities in particular opposed the teachings of the Lord and the works of His Apostles because they denied that He is the Son of God, and they had charged Him with blasphemy and crime against the Lord and His people.

Meanwhile, for the Greeks, many of whom were still pagan at that time, the rapid growth of the Christian faith and the increasingly rapid rate of conversion were threatening their traditional way of life and their own beliefs in the many pagan gods of the region. If we have read through the Acts of the Apostles, then we would have been familiar with how tensions arose between the Greek pagans and the Christian missionaries and converts, because the rapidly growing Church in those places were threatening the pagan ways, and the polytheistic pagans with their many gods and deities scoffed at the beliefs of the Christians with their monotheistic belief in one God, and in the differences between their beliefs and that of Christian teachings as mentioned earlier in the Law and commandments of God.

In our Gospel passage today, we heard from the story of the moment when the Lord Jesus chased out the merchants and the money changers doing their businesses at the courtyard of the Temple of God in Jerusalem. At that time, the Temple officials and the chief priests likely sanctioned and maybe even encouraged the merchants and the money changers to operate at the courtyard of the Temple firstly because their services were needed for the rituals and the sacrifices which were done at the Temple according to the Law and commandments of God. As the Jewish people at the time had spread to many other places beyond the land of Israel, and thus, many of them came from distant lands using various currencies, the services of the money changers are required, as only the Jewish shekel or silver coins were allowed to be used for the purchase of the Temple sacrifices, and those sacrifices were usually purchased by most of the pilgrims, as bringing them from faraway lands must have been difficult or impossible.

Then, those merchants and money changers must have also benefitted the Temple officials as they were likely paying rents for using the place, and hence, the Temple officials turned a blind eye to the wicked things that those merchants and money changers had done. They wickedly overcharged their customers, charging those pilgrims a premium for their services and goods, earning lots of profits and benefitting therefore from others’ sufferings. It was this wickedness and sin against God and their fellow mankind which the Lord Jesus was particularly angry against, as He told it all loudly for all to hear, not to turn His Father’s House into a ‘den of robbers’, referring to all those corrupt and unscrupulous merchants and money changers, and the Temple officials who grew rich out of all those wicked actions.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is why this Sunday as we listened to all these words of the Scriptures, each and every one of us are reminded that as Christians, we must always stand firm in our faith and in our Christian way of living, resisting and rejecting the temptations of worldly glory and all the paths of evil and wickedness which the devil and all of the forces of the wicked have arrayed against us. Each and every one of us should embrace God’s path and remember His Law and commandments, reminding ourselves that as Christians, as God’s holy people, we must always be exemplary in our lives and actions, and we must inspire others around us in how we live our lives, fulfilling the Law and commandments of God, not just doing them without meaning and purpose, but doing them with full of understanding and appreciation of what the Law is all about.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, just as the Lord has rooted out and chased those wicked people out of the Temple of God, let us all be reminded that especially during this time and season of Lent, we should also root out from ourselves all the wickedness of sin and evil, all the things which had ensnared us and kept us away from God and His truth. We must remember that our body, heart, mind, soul and our whole being itself is like the Temple of God, and we must always keep it pure and worthy of the Lord at all times. This is why today and henceforth, let us all repent from our sinful and wicked ways, and make best use of this time of Lent to turn back once again towards the Lord, our most loving and merciful God, keeping faithfully His Law and commandments, and be good inspiration for everyone around us. Amen.

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Sunday, 3 March 2024 : Third Sunday of Lent (Gospel Reading)

Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

John 2 : 13-25

At that time, as the Passover of the Jews was at hand, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the Temple court He found merchants selling oxen, sheep and doves, and money-changers seated at their tables.

Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the Temple court, together with the oxen and sheep. He knocked over the tables of the money-changers, scattering the coins, and ordered the people selling doves, “Take all this away, and stop making a marketplace of My Father’s house!” His disciples recalled the words of Scripture : Zeal for Your house devours me like fire.

The Jews then questioned Jesus, “Where are the miraculous signs which give You the right to do this?” And Jesus said, “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then replied, “The building of this Temple has already taken forty-six years, and will You raise it up in three days?”

Actually, Jesus was referring to the Temple of His Body. Only when He had risen from the dead did His disciples remember these words; then they believed both the Scripture and the words Jesus had spoken.

Jesus stayed in Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, and many believed in His Name, when they saw the miraculous signs He performed. But Jesus did not trust Himself to them, because He knew all of them. He had no need of evidence about anyone, for He Himself knew what there was in each one.

Alternative reading (Reading from Year A)

John 4 : 5-42

At that time, Jesus came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there. Tired from His journey, Jesus sat down by the well; it was about noon. Now a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” His disciples had just gone into town to buy some food.

The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan and a woman, for a drink?” (For Jews, in fact, have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift of God! If you knew Who it is, Who is asking you for a drink, you yourself would have asked Me, and I would have given you living water.”

The woman answered, “Sir, You have no bucket, and this well is deep; where is Your living water? Are You greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, together with his sons and his cattle?” Jesus said to her, “Those who drink of this water will be thirsty again; but those, who drink of the water that I shall give, will never be thirsty; for the water, that I shall give, will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to Him, “Give me this water, that I may never be thirsty, and never have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said, “Go, call your husband, and come back here.” The woman answered, “I have no husband.” And Jesus replied, “You are right to say, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you said is true.”

The woman then said to Him, “I see You are a Prophet; tell me this : Our ancestors came to this mountain to worship God; but you Jews, do you not claim that Jerusalem is the only place to worship God?” Jesus said to her, “Believe Me, woman, the hour is coming when you shall worship the Father, but that will not be on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.”

“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is even now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for that is the kind of worshippers the Father wants. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit, and truth.”

The woman said to Him, “I know that the Messiah (that is the Christ) is coming. When He comes, He will tell us everything.” And Jesus said, “I Who am talking to you, I am He.”

At this point the disciples returned, and were surprised that Jesus was speaking with a woman, however, no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are You talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and ran to the town. There she said to the people, “Come and see a Man Who told me everything I did! Could He not be the Christ?” So they left the town and went to meet Him.

In the meantime the disciples urged Jesus, “Master, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” And the disciples wondered, “Has anyone brought Him food?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the One Who sent Me, and to carry out His work.”

“You say that in four months there will be the harvest; now, I say to you, look up and see the fields white and ready for harvesting. People who reap the harvest are paid for their work, and the fruit is gathered for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. Indeed the saying holds true : One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap where you did not work or suffer; others have worked, and you are now sharing in their labours.”

In that town many Samaritans believed in Him when they heard the woman who declared, “He told me everything I did.” So, when they came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days. After that, many more believed because of His own words, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you told us: we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is the Saviour of the world.”

Alternative reading (shorter version of Reading from Year A)

John 4 : 5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42

At that time, Jesus came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there. Tired from His journey, Jesus sat down by the well; it was about noon. Now a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” His disciples had just gone into town to buy some food.

The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan and a woman, for a drink?” (For Jews, in fact, have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift of God! If you knew Who it is, Who is asking you for a drink, you yourself would have asked Me, and I would have given you living water.”

The woman answered, “Sir, You have no bucket, and this well is deep; where is Your living water? Are You greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well, and drank from it himself, together with his sons and his cattle?” Jesus said to her, “Those who drink of this water will be thirsty again; but those, who drink of the water that I shall give, will never be thirsty; for the water, that I shall give, will become in them a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to Him, “Give me this water, that I may never be thirsty, and never have to come here to draw water. I see You are a Prophet; tell me this : Our ancestors came to this mountain to worship God; but you Jews, do you not claim that Jerusalem is the only place to worship God?” Jesus said to her, “Believe Me, woman, the hour is coming when you shall worship the Father, but that will not be on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.”

“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is even now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for that is the kind of worshippers the Father wants. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit, and truth.”

The woman said to Him, “I know that the Messiah (that is the Christ) is coming. When He comes, He will tell us everything.” And Jesus said, “I Who am talking to you, I am He.”

In that town many Samaritans believed in Him, so, when they came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and Jesus stayed there two days. After that, many more believed because of His own words, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you told us: we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is the Saviour of the world.”