Lent, 3rd Sunday (A) Our annual parish Lenten retreat talked about discipleship, stewardship, and evangelization. Let's watch Jesus as he shows us how to evangelize. 

Jews and Samaritans don't get along, so Jesus starts with something they have in common. Jesus knows that she is thirsty. All this time as she has been searching and thirsting, Jesus has been the one she has been looking for. 

The Samaritan woman has been blocking the flow of God's life by her selfish lifestyle choices. She tries to change the subject to an argument about religion. Jesus points out her deep desire to be a worshiper of the true God. 

She leaves her water jar. She no longer needs to ask the things of this world to satisfy her because she has found the source of true life and true love.

When we are trying to evangelize, we need to first remove the obstacles that prevent us from truly receiving the life of God. We need to recognize how thirsty we are, and unblock ourselves from all the ways we have tried to satisfy our own thirst with something other than Jesus. 

Jesus was sitting on the well. God was standing on the rock in front of Moses. In a similar way, Jesus is already present in the lives of those we love. He can do for them what we cannot do ourselves. 

Evangelization is not about convincing people that we are right. It's about helping people we love discover how thirsty they are, and then showing them where to find the spring of life-giving water.

(8 Mar 2026)

Going Deeper: Listen to Roxane Salonen interview Peter Andrastek about how to evangelize and the lay vocation. How is God calling you to evangelize? You can also read Bishop David's letter on sharing Jesus with others.

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