This afternoon, Third Sunday of Lent, the Holy Father Leo XIV made a pastoral visit to the parish of Santa Maria della Presentazione, Via Torrevecchia 1104, Rome.

During the visit, the Pope met with groups of young people, the sick, and the elderly, and with the pastoral council.

At 17.00, the Holy Father presided over the celebration of Holy Mass in the parish church.

The following is the homily delivered by the Pope after the proclamation of the Gospel:

Homily of the Holy Father

Dear brothers and sisters!

I am happy to be with you on this third Sunday of Lent. It is an important stage in our following of Jesus, leading up to His Passion, death and Resurrection at Easter.

On this journey, God’s proximity and our life of faith are deeply intertwined: by renewing in each of us the grace of Baptism, the Lord calls us to conversion, even as He purifies our hearts with His love and with the works of charity He asks us to perform. In this regard, the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman engages us with great intensity. Today’s Gospel, in fact, not only speaks to us, but also speaks about us and helps us to review our relationship with God.

The Samaritan woman’s thirst for life and love is our thirst: that of the Church and of all humanity, wounded by sin but even more intimately inhabited by the desire for God. We seek Him like water, even when we are not aware of this, every time we ask ourselves the meaning of events, every time we feel how much we lack the good that we want for ourselves and for those beside us.

In this search, we encounter Jesus. He is already there, at the well, where the Samaritan woman finds Him alone, under the midday sun, tired from His journey. The woman goes to the well at that unusual time, perhaps to avoid the prejudiced glances of the other women. Jesus reads in her heart the reason for this marginalization: her failed marriages and her current cohabitation make her unworthy of accompanying the daughters, wives and mothers of the village. Yet Jesus sits by the well as if waiting for her. This surprising encounter is one of the ways with which, as Pope Francis liked to repeat, Christ reveals the God of surprises: the most beautiful, the ones that change our lives, wherever we encounter them and however they present themselves before the Lord.

This man loves the Samaritan woman as no-one has ever done before. While she was looking for her daily water, He wants to give her new, living water, capable of quenching every thirst and calming every anxiety, because this water flows from the heart of God, the inexhaustible fullness of every expectation.

Jesus’ initiative thus inaugurates the search for a good greater than water itself: “If you knew the gift of God”, says the Lord to the woman. It is not a reproach, but a promise: “I am here to make you know God, who gives Himself as a gift to you”. Yes, really for you, who did not know Him, who considered yourself estranged and condemned. This gift will transform you: you yourself will become a spring gushing forth for eternal life. In exchange for your former thirst, filled with bitterness and spiritual dryness, the Son of God offers you the gift of a life renewed by the water that wells from the Father’s mercy. Everything is transformed in the encounter with the Lord: the woman who thirsts becomes a wellspring, the outcast becomes a confidante. The woman full of shame is now filled with joy; she who was silent in the village becomes a missionary to all its inhabitants.

She would never have imagined that she, so disoriented and defeated by life, would one day be able to taste fresh water, a pure gift from God, becoming in turn a gift for others. How does this happen? By encountering Jesus, by dialoguing with Him, the living Word of God made man for our salvation.

The Gospel account accurately shows the woman’s journey of growth, as she gradually recognizes the fundamental characteristics of Jesus’ identity: man, prophet, Messiah and Saviour. By staying close to Him and enjoying His company, the Samaritan woman herself becomes a source of truth. The new water of God’s gift has begun to flow in her heart, and she immediately feels compelled to run back to her village, finally free from shame and eager to tell everyone about her Liberator, Jesus, the One who made all this wonder possible. She runs to those who had previously condemned her, while God has forgiven her, and she tells them, announces, and bears witness. The need for water, which had prompted her to go to the well, now gives way to the desire to communicate the overwhelming newness that has transformed her.

Dear friends, with Baptism we have all received the grace of a new water, which washes away all sin and quenches all thirst. Like the Samaritan woman, we are given today in Lent a time to rediscover the gift of this Sacrament which, like a door, has introduced us to faith and to Christian life. As a good and caring Shepherd, the Lord awaits us and accompanies us always, wherever we live and however we are. He mercifully heals our wounds and gives Himself to us, enabling us to become in turn a gift to our brothers and sisters.

I am well aware that your parish community lives in an area with numerous challenges. There is no lack of troubling situations of marginalization, material and moral poverty. Even adolescents and young people risk growing up deceived by those who would peddle death, or disillusioned about the future. Many are waiting for a home, a job that will ensure a dignified life, safe environments where they can meet, play and plan something beautiful together.

As at the well in the Gospel, men and women arrive at this parish wounded in their soul, offended in their dignity, and thirsting for hope. You have the urgent and liberating task of showing the closeness of Jesus, His desire to redeem our existence from the ills that threaten it with a proposal for a just, true and full life. Starting from the Eucharist, the beating heart of every Christian community, I encourage you to ensure that the parish activities are a sign of a Church that, like a mother, takes care of her children, without condemning them, but rather welcoming them, listening to them and supporting them in the face of danger. May the word of the Gospel, which flows in us as a source of truth, help each one of us to open our eyes, to know how to evaluate wisely what is good and what is bad, thus forming free and mature consciences.

Dear brothers and sisters, go forward with confidence! In every situation, the Lord walks with us and sustains us along the way. May the Holy Virgin always accompany your steps in faith, and give you the joy of being humble and courageous proclaimers of the Gospel.