3rd Sunday A. Lent March 8, 2026

Exodus 17:3-7

Psalm 95:1-2,6-7,8-9

Romans 5:1-2, 5-8

John 4:5-42

Grumbling and mumbling and plotting against God and the chosen ones of God! This is what is going on in the first reading. God was trying to form some people into God’s people but after all that God had done for them, they did not trust God and they did not trust the chosen one of God. And so, there was a lot of grumbling and mumbling and plotting against God and the chosen man of God.

As an African American Catholic in my youth, I did not trust the Catholic Church and its representatives and I enjoyed mumbling and grumbling and plotting against God and God’s Catholic Church.

 If you are a woman, you may have done some grumbling and mumbling and testing of God and the chosen men of God.

 If you are gay, transgendered, or your church was closed and merged, you may have enjoyed grumbling and mumbling and plotting against God and the chosen men and women of God.

Many who suffer from abuse by priests which will cost our parishes hundreds of thousands of dollars, are grumbling and mumbling and writing to the media against God and the chosen ones of God.

The Bible says, “In those days, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses. Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? A little more and they will [kill] me.” The people quarreled and tested the Lord their God saying, “Is the Lord with us, or not?”

The people were tired. They were afraid. They were over worked. The people were thirsty.

For what do you thirst, brothers and sisters? Many people, sales men and commercials promise products and stuff that will satisfy our thirst but “everyone who drinks their water will thirst again.”

The Samaritan woman was thirsty for more than water. The woman like us all, was thirsty for water that would satisfy the God shaped wound in her soul.

For this reason, God sent Jesus into our lives, but like many of us, the Samaritan woman did not trust Jesus or the men that Jesus had chosen.  Jesus said to the woman: “Give me a drink.”  

Jesus evangelized the woman. He led her from distrust, to trust, to curiosity, to openness to change, to seeking living water and discipleship.

So it is with me. Jesus leads me from mumbling and grumbling and plotting against God and his chosen ones, to trust, from trust to curiosity, from curiosity to conversion from conversion to a drink of Living Water -(not the Kool Aide)-  and then to discipleship.

I suppose there will always be reasons to mumble and grumble and plot against God and God’s chosen ones. After all that is why Christ was crucified.

 But for those of us who can move from dis-trust to trust in the Word of God, heaven awaits.

St. Paul reminds us, “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners” – mumbling and grumbling and plotting- “Christ died for us.”

God puts himself into our hands trusting, curious, open; seeking disciples for the Kingdom of Heaven.