Give Me a Drink: Encountering Jesus as the Living Water
By John Graveline, Director of Parish Life
March 8, 2026
“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.’”
John 4:10
The next three weekends: Jesus revealed as Water, Light, and Life
This weekend and over the next two weekends, we are taking a break from listening to the Gospel according to St. Matthew and listening to selected readings from the Gospel according to St. John as we prepare for the celebration of the Easter sacraments. This weekend, we hear Jesus’ encounter with the Samarian woman at Jacob’s well, emphasizing him as the Living Water. Next weekend, we will hear Jesus’ healing of the man born blind, emphasizing Jesus as the Light of the World. Then, we will hear Jesus’ raising of his friend Lazarus, emphasizing him as the Resurrection and the Life.
Today, we focus on Jesus as the Living Water. What does it mean to refer to Jesus as the Living Water? Let’s explore this by looking at that the nature of water and its effects.
Water quenches thirst.
This is the effect of water that Jesus refers to when he asks the Samaritan woman for a drink in today’s Gospel reading. Many people have become more conscious of the health benefits of staying hydrated, so people have started carrying refillable water bottles wherever they go. But for what are we ultimately thirsty? So many people who are physically satiated struggle to find an ultimate purpose or meaning for their lives. As psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl wrote in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, “those who have a ‘why’ to live can bear almost any ‘how.’” There is so much information at our fingertips, but precious little wisdom. Jesus is the Wisdom of God made flesh. The more that we receive his word, his Gospel, and heed it by incorporating it into our lives, our hearts will become satisfied regardless of our circumstances.
Water cleanses.
I imagine that the Samaritan woman was at the well to retrieve water for drinking and for washing clothes and kitchen supplies. A bath or shower washes away dirt and germs on our skin and makes us presentable to others. If someone is cut or wounded, we usually clean out the injury using clean water if possible, to prevent infection. We are all wounded by sin, our own sinful and selfish choices and those of others. St. Clement of Alexandria frequently referred to Jesus as the Divine Physician who washes away our sins and heals our wounded spirits. By immersing ourselves in Jesus, through the Holy Spirit who has been poured into our hearts at baptism, he will forgive our sins, reconcile us to one another and to the Father, and heal the divisions in our hearts, families, and society.
Water is powerful.
As the Chinese mystic Lao Tzu wrote, “Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.” Our world seems to define power as the ability to impose the will of one individual upon another, with coercive or violent force if necessary. But as Pope Francis pointed out, Jesus, who has power even over demons and the forces of nature, “will not save us without our consent, certainly not because he does not have the capacity to do so—God is omnipotent!—but because, being love, he respects our freedom fully. God proposes: he does not impose. Never.” When we open our hearts to the love of Jesus as did the Samaritan woman, he can transfigure our hearts so that we are empowered to transform our world through the power of love, not coercion or violence.
Water is life.
Each cell in our body is approximately 80% water. When we send probes to Mars and other planets, we search for water or ice. If there is no water, there is no possibility for life. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) As baptized daughters and sons in the Son, we have been made into a new creation and given a share in Jesus’ own divine life. “In divinization, God’s life becomes our life and our life becomes divinized. The unique mission of the Church is to be the place and path of divinization.” (Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, no. 853) When we live in Christ, sharing life in him as branches to his vine, our life transcends the merely human and our “entire being is transfigured: the person becomes a god by grace.” (Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, no. 855)
Water is death.
Water is dangerous. When I served at St. Luke Parish at Grand Valley State University, 15 miles from Lake Michigan, it was a common occurrence each summer to see news reports of people who went out for a fun day at the beach and never came home. Brandon, a young man who I sponsored for his catechumenate and Christian Initiation, drowned at Holland State Park only two years after his baptism. The Paschal Mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection is the source of our salvation. There is no other path to redemption except through participating in the Cross of Christ. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25) “Baptism is the death of the ‘old person’ and the birth of the ‘new person,’ united with the three Divine Persons . . . this occurs through union with Christ’s Death and Resurrection.” (Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, no. 421)
May we, too, encounter the Living Water
May we, like the Samarian woman at Jacob’s well, encounter Jesus the Living Water is a renewed way this Lent, Holy Week, and Easter. I echo Pope Francis in his Joy of the Gospel, “I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day . . . whenever we take a step toward Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms.”
John