Making Lent Personal

March 8, 2026

“The Israelites quarreled there and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord in our midst or not?”

“Oh that today you would hear His voice; harden not your hearts”

I love metaphors! And apparently, our God does, too, because the Scriptures are full of them!

On this Third Sunday of Lent, our Scripture readings are all about water and rock. Think about their contrasting characteristics. Water is necessary for life – our bodies are mostly water; without it, neither plant nor animal life can exist. At the same time, it can be destructive. Think floods, avalanches, blizzards. Similarly, rocks are the stuff of foundations of all kinds, but they, too, can be destructive. In the first reading today, water and rock work together. As they tread through the desert, the Israelites moan and complain to Moses that they are thirsty. “Is the Lord in our midst or not?” they cry. Their hearts are definitely as hard as rock. The Lord tells Moses to strike a rock with his staff and when he obeys, water comes pouring out. Notice that Moses did not act on his own power. The Lord tells him, “I will be standing in front of you on the rock.”

Then we have the Samaritan Woman who comes to the well, looking for water because she, too, is thirsty. Perhaps her thirst is not as much a physical need as a spiritual one. She has traveled through her own desert, looking for love in all the wrong places. Jesus is present there at the well, too, but this time, He is the one who asks for water. This request though, proves to be only a conversation starter. He tells her in essence, the “water” she is seeking will never satisfy her, but what he offers is Living Water and whoever drinks it will NEVER thirst. Rather, it “will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Unlike the Israelites who failed to recognize the Lord in their midst, she realized that He was a prophet. Not only was her life transformed, but because of her testimony, the whole town came to believe.

What is it that you are thirsting for this Lent? I am thirsting to make God my Rock. I’m thirsting for peace; peace among nations, peace in our country, peace of mind for those who are suffering, peace in my spirit. Sometimes I echo the question of the Israelites, “Is the Lord in our midst or not?” It is then that I seek that spring within me, that Living Water that I find in prayer and spiritual writers much wiser than me, that quenches the thirst in my soul for God. This “Living Water” reminds me that Jesus IS my Rock, He alone satisfies my thirst for peace by assuring me that He is with me and together we can carry His life-giving water to those we touch in our own corner of the world. In my time of prayer, I remember that Jesus, who offers me Living Water IS my source; that He is indeed present, that the love He has for me wells up and spills over to the people with whom I share it. That can take many forms: a text or phone call to a friend who is hurting, a visit to someone who is lonely, Communion to someone who is homebound or the sweet elderly couple down the street.

Who are those most in need of Living Water in your world in this season? To whom are you being called to go to offer refreshment in whatever parched land they are living? When Moses cried out, “What am I to do with these people!!” he heard God’s voice: “I will stand before you; I am the Rock from which will flow life-giving water.” When you “kneel before the Father,” “harden not your hearts,” but hear that voice that answers the question, “To whom can I, like the Samaritan Woman, offer Living Water from the Rock?”

De Colores,

Sue