In 1887 a 7-year-old girl named Helen Keller lived in Alabama. She was blind, deaf, and dumb. Yet before Helen died, she would graduate from college with honours, become a widely acclaimed author, political activist, lecturer, and an inspiration to handicapped people the world over. The story behind her amazing achievement dates to a spring day in 1887, when a 20-year-old woman named Annie Sullivan came to Alabama to be Helen’s private teacher. Helen describes in her autobiography an incident with her teacher Annie Sullivan. My teacher brought me my hat, and I knew I was going out into the warm sunshine. We walked down the path to a well-house. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hands under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand, she spelled into the other the word water. I stood still my whole attention fixed upon the motion of her fingers. Suddenly the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that water meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. I left the well house eager to learn. The story of Helen Keller at the well-house bears a striking resemblance to the story in today’s gospel. It took place at a well; it too involved a teacher and a student. In it the teacher also used water to communicate an important message to the student. And the message changed the life of the student forever. Jesus is tired. He sits down beside the well in the heat of the day and asks the woman for a drink. At first, it seems like a simple request. But very quickly we realise that something much deeper is happening. Jesus is not just thirsty for water – he is thirsty for this woman’s faith, her trust, her heart. At the beginning of the story she comes to the well alone, perhaps avoiding others. But by the end she runs back to the town and tells everyone about Jesus: “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done.” This is often how faith begins. It begins with a personal encounter with Christ. When we realise that the Lord truly knows us – our strengths, our weaknesses, our sins – and yet still loves us, something changes within us. During Lent the Church invites us to come to the well again. Through prayer, through the Word of God, through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Jesus meets us just as he met the Samaritan woman. He speaks to our hearts and offers us the living water of his grace. The question for each of us today is simple:

1. Are we willing to recognise our thirst?
2. Are we willing to let Christ fill it?

If we allow him to do so, we too will discover what the Samaritan woman discovered: that the living water of Christ does not only refresh us – it overflows from our lives and brings life to others. And that is the grace we ask for today. That we may come to Christ with our thirst, receive the living water he offers, and leave renewed, joyful, and ready to share the Good News with the world.