Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent
Readings: Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-8; John 4:5-42
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It’s been a long week. We’ve all been on edge, worried about the state of our world and wondering what will be the outcome of the US and Israel’s preventive war with Iran. Have we reached the stage that only might is right, a time when the ends always justifies the means, no matter how brutal the means? None of us wants to see Iran develop nuclear weapons. All of us want to see a stop to Iran’s capacity to export terror through proxies in the Middle East and beyond. Thus far, Pope Leo’s plea for peace has gone unheeded. After the Angelus last Sunday, Leo made ‘a heartfelt appeal to all the parties involved to assume the moral responsibility of halting the spiral of violence before it becomes an unbridgeable chasm’. He urged that ‘diplomacy regain its proper role, and may the well-being of peoples, who yearn for peaceful existence founded on justice, be upheld.’[1]
Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin followed up on Wednesday saying: ‘If states were to be recognised as having a right to “preventive war,” according to their own criteria and without a supranational legal framework, the whole world would risk being set ablaze. This erosion of international law is truly worrying: justice has given way to force; the force of law has been replaced by the law of force, with the conviction that peace can arise only after the enemy has been annihilated.’[2]
None of us has the answers. Messrs Trump and Netanyahu have taken us all into uncharted waters. What can any of us do but pray for peace and hope that a better way can be found to spare our world of death and destruction to innocent people?
The one glimmer of hope in the week was the visit of the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. On Thursday he told the Australian Parliament: ‘In the new global environment, the ability to form effective coalitions is becoming a central strategic capability. Great powers can compel, but compulsion comes with costs, both reputational and financial. Middle powers can convene, but not everyone can. In the post-rupture world, the nations that are trusted and can work together will be quicker to the punch, more effective in their responses and more proactive in shaping outcomes, and ultimately those countries will be more secure and prosperous. Middle powers like Australia and Canada hold this rare convening power because others know we mean what we say and we will match our values with our actions.’[3]
With this background, we can reflect afresh on the wonderful story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well – a most unlikely though productive meeting between a Jewish man and a Samaritan woman at a time when such a meeting was virtually unthinkable. The Samaritan woman is intensely practical. She has learnt not to trust others. She’s been through a lot in life. She is five times married, living in a small village where she is shunned by others. While the other women come in the cool of the early morning or dusk to collect water at the well, she comes during the heat of the day so as to avoid all social contact. Here she meets Jesus who is alone because the disciples have gone in search of food. A Samaritan woman and a Jewish man alone together at the well – who’d have thought?
She has a bucket; he does not. She offers him nothing but suspicion born of life weariness. He offers her living water. She declares: ‘I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.’ He replies: ‘I am he, the one speaking with you.’ Returning to the village, she leaves her bucket at the well. Returning from the village, his disciples are amazed that he is talking with a woman, but still no one said, ‘What are you looking for?’ or ‘Why are you talking with her?’
The most unlikely dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman led ultimately to the conversion of the entire village. Mark Carney has offered us Australians the hope that our commitment to the most unlikely dialogues might contribute to a surer path to peace and security in our ruptured world.
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
‘Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.’
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Fr Frank Brennan SJ AO, Adjunct Professor of Thomas More Law School at ACU and Adjunct Research Professor at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, is a former Rector of Newman College, University of Melbourne, and CEO of Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA). His latest books include Pope Francis: the Disruptive Pilgrims Guide (ATF Theology, 2025), and Gerard Brennan’s Articles and Speeches: Maintaining the Law’s Skeleton of Principle (2 volumes) (Connor Court, 2025).
[1] See https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/angelus/2026/documents/20260301-angelus.html
[2] See https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2026-03/cardinal-parolin-interview-middle-east-iran-us-israel-war.html
[3] House of Representatives, Hansard, 5 March 2026, p. 4.
