From: John 4: 5-42

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

[5] He (Jesus) came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that Jacob
gave to his son Joseph. [6] Jacob’s well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as He
was with His journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

[7] There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me
a drink.” [8] For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. [9] The
Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a
woman of Samaria?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. [10] Jesus an-
swered 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.”
[11] The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is
deep; where do You get that living water? [12] Are You greater than our father Ja-
cob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his cat-
tle?” [13] Jesus said to her, “Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again,
[14] but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the wa-
ter I shall give him become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” [15]
The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come
here to draw.”

[16] Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” [17] The woman
answered Him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying,
‘I have no husband.’; [18] for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now
have is not your husband; this you said truly.” [19] The woman said to Him, “Sir,
I perceive that you are a prophet. [20] Our fathers worshipped on this mountain;
and you say in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” [21] Jesus
said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this moun-
tain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. [22] You worship what you do
not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. [23] But the
hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship Him. [24] God is spirit, and
those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.” [25] The woman
said to Him, “I know that the Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when
He comes, He will show us all things.” [26] Jesus said to her, “I who speak to
you am He.”

[27] Just then the disciples came. They marvelled that He was talking with a wo-
man, but none said, “What do you wish?” or, “Why are you talking with her?”
[28] So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city, and said to the
people, [29] “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the
Christ?” [30] They went out of the city and were coming to Him.

[31] Meanwhile the disciples besought Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” [32] But He
said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” [33] So the disciples
said to one another, “Has any one brought Him food?” [34] Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work. [35]
Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? I tell you,
lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest. [36] He
who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and
reaper may rejoice together. [37] For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and
another reaps.’ [38] I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor; others
have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

[39] Many Samaritans from that city believed in Him because of the woman’s tes-
timony, “He told me all that I ever did.” [40] So when the Samaritans came to
Him, they asked Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. [41] And
many more believed because of His word. [42] They said to the woman, “It is no
longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard ourselves, and
we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

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Commentary:

4-5. There are two normal routes for going from Judea to Galilee. The shorter one
went through the city of Samaria; the other, which followed the Jordan, was lon-
ger. Jesus took the Samaria route, perhaps not just because it was shorter and
busier but also to have a chance of preaching to the Samaritans. When He was
approaching Samaria, near Sychar, the present-day El ‘Askar, at the foot of
Mount Ebal, He met this Samaritan woman.

6. The Gospels, particularly St. John’s, sometimes gives us a little bit of informa-
tion which seem irrelevant but really are not. Like us, Jesus did get tired, He nee-
ded to take regular rest, He felt hunger and thirst; but despite His tiredness He
does not waste an opportunity to do good to souls.

“Recollect yourselves and go over the scene again slowly in your minds. Jesus
Christ, “perfectus Deus, perfectus homo”, is tired out from His travels and His
apostolic work. Perhaps there have been times when the same thing has hap-
pened to you and you have ended up worn out, because you have reached the
limit of your resources. It is a touching sight to see our Master so exhausted.
He is hungry too: His disciples have gone to a neighboring village to look for
food. And He is thirsty [...].

“Whenever we get tired—in our work, in our studies, in our apostolic endeavors
— when our horizon is darkened by lowering clouds, then let us turn our eyes to
Jesus, to Jesus who is so good, and who also gets tired; to Jesus who is hungry
and suffers thirst. Lord, how well you make yourself understood! How lovable you
are! You show us that you are just like us, in everything but sin, so that we can
feel utterly sure that, together with you, we can conquer all our evil inclinations,
all our faults. For neither weariness nor hunger matters, nor thirst, nor tears ...
since Christ also grew weary, knew hunger, was thirsty, and wept. What is im-
portant is that we struggle to fulfill the will of our Heavenly Father, battling away
goodheartedly, for our Lord is always at our side” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of
God”, 176 and 201).

7. Jesus has come to save what was lost. He spares no effort in this mission.
The hostility between Jews and Samaritans was proverbial; but Jesus embraced
everyone, He loved all souls and He shed His blood for each and every person.
He begins His conversation with this woman, by asking a favor of her — which
indicates God’s great respect for us: here we have Almighty God asking a mere
creature to do Him a favor. “Give Me a drink”: Jesus makes this request not just
to share His physical thirst but because His love made Him thirst for the salvation
of all men. When nailed to the cross He again said: “I thirst” (John 19:28).

9. The Samaritan woman’s reply starts the dialogue and shows how well she is
responding to the action of grace in her soul: her readiness to talk to Christ, who
was a Jew, is the first stage in her change of heart. Later (verse 11), by taking a
real interest in what Christ is saying, she opens up further to God’s influence. Her
religious feelings begin to revive (”our father Jacob”: verse 12). Jesus rewards her
and she replies truthfully: “I have no husband” (verse 17, omitted); and, seeing
that Jesus has penetrated the intimacy of her conscience, she makes an act of
faith: “I perceive that You are a prophet” (verse 19).

10. As in His dialogue with Nicodemus, Jesus makes use of common expres-
sions, to get across teachings of a much deeper nature. Everyone knows from
experience that water is absolutely necessary for human life; similarly, the grace
of Christ is absolutely necessary for supernatural life. The water which can truly
quench man’s thirst does not come from this or any other well: it is Christ’s
grace, the “living water” which provides eternal life.

Once again, taking occasion of human interests and preoccupations, Jesus
awakes a desire for things supernatural; in the same way as He led St. Peter and
others away from their work as fishermen to involve them in the apostolic work of
being fishers of men, He leads the Samaritan woman away from her chore of
drawing water from the well to the point where she desires to find this better water
which wells up to eternal life (verse 14).

13-14. Our Lord’s reply is surprising and really captures the woman’s attention.
Here is something greater than Jacob, someone offering her water that will quench
her thirst once and for all. Christ is referring to the change worked in every person
by sanctifying grace, a share in God’s own life, the presence of the Holy Spirit in
the soul, the great gift which those who believe in Him will receive.

We worry about the future, we are full of desires to be happy and at peace; a per-
son who receives our Lord and remains united to Him as a branch to the vine (cf.
John 15:4-5) will not only slake his thirst but become a well of living water (cf.
John 7:37-39).

16-19. Although the woman cannot yet realize the deep meaning of what He is
saying, Jesus uses her growing interest to reveal to her His divinity, little by little:
He shows that He knows about her life, the secrets of her heart; He can read her
conscience. In this way, He gives her enough to motivate her to make her first
act of faith: “I perceive that You are a prophet”. Her conversion has begun.

20. The origin of the Samaritan people goes back to the period of the conquest
of Samaria by the Assyrians in the eight century before Christ (cf. 2 Kings 13:
24-31). They were foreigners who very quickly integrated with the Israelites in the
region. After the Babylonian captivity they tried to ally themselves with the Jews
for political reasons and to contribute to the rebuilding of the temple, but the Jews
would have none of them. From that time onwards the Jews and the Samaritans
were always hostile to each other (cf. Ezra 4:1ff; John 4:9).

On this occasion, the Samaritan woman, now fully aware that she is speaking
to someone of authority, asks our Lord one of the key questions affecting the re-
ligious life of the two peoples: where was the right place to offer worship to God;
the Jews held that only Jerusalem would do; whereas the Samaritans claimed
that the shrine erected on Mount Gerizim was also legitimate (they based their
claim on some passages in the Pentateuch: cf. Genesis 12:7; 33:20; 22:2).

21-24. Jesus not only answers the question but takes advantage of it to confirm
the value of the teachings of the prophets and thereby reaffirm revealed truth: the
Samaritans are in the dark about many of God’s plans because they do not ac-
cept any revelation not found in the first five books of Sacred Scripture, that is,
in the Law of Moses; the Jews, on the other hand, are much nearer the truth be-
cause they accept the whole of the Old Testament. But both Samaritans and
Jews need to open themselves to the new Revelation of Jesus Christ. With the
coming of the Messiah, whom both peoples are awaiting, and who is the true
dwelling-place of God among men (cf. John 2:19), the new, definitive, Alliance
has begun; and neither Gerizim nor Jerusalem count any more; what the Father
wishes is for all to accept the Messiah, His Son, the new temple of God, by
offering Him a form of worship which comes right from the heart (cf. John 12:1;
2 Timothy 2:22) and which the Spirit of God Himself stirs people to render (cf.
Romans 8:15).

This is why the Church’s solemn Magisterium teaches that through Baptism we
become true worshippers of God: “By Baptism men are grafted into the paschal
mystery of Christ; they die with him, are buried with Him, and rise with Him. They
receive the spirit of adoption as sons ‘in which we cry, Abba, Father’ (Romans 8:
15) and thus become true adorers as the Father seeks” (Vatican II, “Sacrosanc-
tum Concilium”, 6).

25-26. This is the last stage in the Samaritan woman’s conversion: she has come
from acknowledging her sins to accepting the true teaching about worshipping the
Father in spirit and truth. But she still has to recognize Jesus as the Messiah; on
this subject she simply confesses her ignorance. Seeing that she is favorably dis-
posed, Jesus explicitly reveals that He is the Messiah: “I who speak to you am
He”.

These words of our Lord are especially significant: He declares that He is the
Messiah, and He uses words—’I...am He”—which evoke the words Yahweh used
to reveal Himself to Moses (cf. Exodus 3:14) and which on Jesus’ lips indicate a
revelation not only of His messiahship but also of His divinity (cf. John 8:24, 28,
58; 18:6).

27. “During the course of His life on earth, Jesus our Lord had all manner of insults
heaped upon Him and was mistreated in every way possible. Remember the way
it was rumored that He was a trouble-maker and how He was said to possessed
(cf. Matthew 11:18). At other times, demonstrations of His infinite Love were deli-
berately misinterpreted, and He was accused of being a friend of sinners (cf. Mat-
thew 9:11).

“Later on He, who personified penance and moderation, was accused of haunting
the tables of the rich (cf. Luke 19:7). He was also contemptuously referred to as
“fabri filius” (Matthew 13:55), the carpenter’s son, the worker’s son, as if this were
an insult. He allowed Himself to be denounced as a glutton and a drunkard....He
let His enemies accuse Him of everything, except that He was not chaste. On
this point He sealed their lips, because He wanted us to keep a vivid memory of
His immaculate example—a wonderful example of purity, of cleanliness, of light,
of a love that can set the whole world on fire in order to purify it.

“For myself, I always like to consider holy purity in the light of our Lord’s own be-
havior. In practicing this virtue, what refinement He showed! See what St. John
says about Jesus when “fatigatus ex itinere, sedebat sic super fontem” (John 4:
6), wearied as He was from the journey, He was sitting by the well. [...]

“But tired though His body is, His thirst for souls is even greater. So when the
Samaritan woman, the sinner, arrives, Christ with His priestly heart turns eagerly
to save the lost sheep, and He forgets His tiredness, His hunger and His thirst.

Our Lord was busy with this great work of charity the Apostles came back from
the village, and they “mirabantur quia cum muliere loquebatur” (John 4:27), they
were astonished to find Him taking to a woman alone. How careful He was! What
love He had for the beautiful virtue of holy purity, that virtue which helps us to be
stronger, more manly, more fruitful, better able to work for God, and more capa-
ble of undertaking great things!” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 176).

28-30. Grace brings about an amazing change in this woman. Now her whole thin-
king centers around Jesus; she forgets what brought her to the well’ she leaves
her pitcher behind her and goes off to the town to tell people about her discovery.
“The Apostles, when they were called, left their nets; this woman leaves her wa-
ter jar and proclaims the Gospel, calling not just one person but influencing the
whole city” (St. John Chrysostom, “Hom. on St. John”, 33). Every genuine con-
version is necessarily projected towards others, in a desire to have them share
in the joy of encountering Jesus.

32-38. Our Lord uses the occasion to speak about a spiritual form of food—doing
the will of God. He has just brought about the conversion of a sinful woman and
His spirit feels replete. The conversion of souls must be the Apostles’ food also,
and the food of all those who through priestly ordination are sacramentally asso-
ciated with Christ’s ministry (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:9-15; 2 Corinthians 4:7-12; 11:
27-29). Apostolic work sometimes means sowing, with no apparent results, and
sometimes reaping where others sowed. The Apostles will reap what was gene-
rously sown by the patriarchs and prophets and especially by Christ. And they
in their turn must prepare the ground, with the same generosity, so that others
can later reap the harvest.

But it is not only ministers who have this apostolic role: all the faithful are called
to take part in the work of apostolate: “Since all Christians have different gifts they
should collaborate in the work of the Gospel, each according to his opportunity,
ability, charism and ministry; all who sow and reap, plant and water, should be
one so that ‘working together for the same end in a free and orderly manner’ they
might together devote their powers to the building up of the Church (Vatican II,
“Ad Gentes”, 28).

39-42. This episode shows a whole evangelization process at work, beginning
with the Samaritan woman’s enthusiasm. ‘The same thing happens today with
those who are outside, who are not Christians: they receive tidings of Christ
through Christian friends; like that woman, they learn of Christ through the
Church; then they come to Christ, that is, they believe in Christ through this re-
port, and then Jesus stays two days among them and many more believe, and
believe more firmly, that He indeed is the Savior of the world” (St. Augustine,
“In Ioann. Evang.”, 15, 33).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

An Intense Catechism Session at High Noon, Biblical Reflection for 3rd Sunday of Lent A by Father Thomas Rosica, CSB

An Intense Catechism Session at High Noon

Biblical Reflection for 3rd Sunday of Lent A

By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB

TORONTO, MARCH 22, 2011 (Zenit.org).- In order to grasp the meaning of today's first reading from Exodus 17:3-7, we must recall what transpires in the preceding chapter.

God's little flock faced the hardship of a lack of food and protested to Moses. Just as the Lord had heard the cry of the people suffering the oppression of slavery (Exodus 3:7), God now heard their cry of starvation and provided them with nourishment in the form of manna and quail. While their lack of food had been sated in Chapter 16, today's passage confronts them with a new and dire challenge: the lack of drinkable water.

In 17:1, the narrator states this simple fact as a preface to the people's quarrel with Moses. Perhaps taking a cue from the previous experience, Moses interprets their quarrel with him as a direct charge against God (17:2). He makes a similar move in Exodus 16:8: "What are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord."

While Moses' response centers on the conflict, God's reaction delivers compassion. The God of Israel never condemns the grumbling Hebrews, but rather simply instructs Moses to gather the elders, take them to a rock at Horeb, and strike it with the staff Moses had used to perform so many other miracles in Egypt. God grants Moses the reassurance of the Divine Presence: "I will be standing there in front of you" (6). In giving manna, bread from heaven, earlier, and now water (from an earthly rock), God provides for his people and shows his mastery over creation.

The two names -- Massah and Meribah -- become synonymous with the testing of Israel's God, "You shall not put the Lord to the test, as you tested him at Massah" (Deuteronomy 6:16; Psalm 81:7). When the people put God to the test it suggests that they need to see God's presence with them in a tangible fashion. The peoples' action in testing God is interpreted in Verse 7b as their lack of belief that God is with them. As soon as it gets difficult the people's immediate response is to doubt the presence of God.

Ironic encounter

The theme of thirsting and water continues in today's fascinating and evocative Gospel story of the woman of Samaria and her encounter with Jesus at high noon (John 4:5-42). The Samaritan woman is the most carefully and intensely catechized person in John's Gospel.

Today's story is fraught with many moments of irony and several things are wrong with the whole scene at Jacob's well, deep in the heart of Samaria. First of all, the well is a public space common to both men and women, but they ought not to be there at the same time. Why does this woman come to the well at noon? Likely, it's because the women of her village shun her for her shameless behavior. She has had five husbands and is now living with someone other than her husband (16-18). It sounds like a contemporary Hollywood epic!

For a man to speak to an unchaperoned woman in a public place is very suspicious. Jews regarded Samaritan women as ritually impure, and therefore Jews were forbidden to drink from any vessel the women had handled. The disciples are utterly shocked (once again) at Jesus' behavior.

The startled woman asked Jesus if he thought he was greater "than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it with his sons and flocks" (12). The comic relief of the story comes to an abrupt end with Jesus' second command, "Go, call your husband." In the course of the dialogue with the Samaritan woman Jesus reveals that he is indeed greater than the patriarch Jacob in that he, Jesus, inaugurates a new covenant, a new cult, and a new revelation.

When Jesus offers the woman "living water," she replies that he doesn't even have a bucket to draw with. The woman thinks of "flowing water," so much more desirable than stagnant cistern water. But when she hears of the water welling up to eternal life, she understands enough to say, "Sir, give me this water." It is the water of life, i.e., the revelation that Jesus brings. The woman is invited by Jesus to see at a whole new level: there is water and then there is living water; bread and the food which is God's will; Jacob and Jesus; the promised Messiah and Jesus; notions about worship and genuine worship; and the list goes on and on. Jesus' worship "in Spirit and truth" (23) is not a reference to an interior worship within one's own spirit. The Spirit is the spirit given by God that reveals truth and enables one to worship God appropriately (14:16-17).

The woman, to whom Jesus revealed the truth in her life, left her water jugs behind and went into town to get people to come and see Jesus: "Come, look! Here is a man who told me everything that I've done. Is he not, maybe, the Messiah?" Wouldn't it also make sense for us, who have experienced faith to drop now and then, whatever we are doing in order to persuade others to come to him, the Source?

Who are the Samaritan women today?

Allow me to take the story of the Samaritan woman and apply it to some concrete situations today. In today's provocative Gospel, Jesus transcends cultural barriers to reach out to the unnamed Samaritan woman as an equal. Women like her are marginalized in many patriarchal societies. Women like her still do the most back breaking tasks of fetching water for their families and their animals. We see their images so often on the news, in pictures and images that cry out to us from the Third World. These women are responsible for hard domestic work.

In a way, the woman's request for living water in today's Gospel story can also be symbolically interpreted as an expression of her thirst, dryness and emptiness longing to be filled. The Samaritan's deep conversation with Jesus transforms her life totally. At the end, she leaves her jar -- the emptiness, dryness, thirst -- and went to the people from whom she is hiding. She shares with them her liberating encounter with Jesus the messiah. As a marginalized and perhaps excluded person, she thirsts for inclusion, and acceptance. She found in Jesus acceptance, and her true meaning and dignity for which she has searched so long!

Today, there are many "Samaritan women" in various forms longing to be liberated from life's burden. They thirst for understanding and acceptance of who they are in society. We need only think of victims of human trafficking, especially women and girls, who need people like Jesus to listen to them, speak for them and decriminalize them. Many people look on them as criminals, social outcasts, marginalized because they become illegal migrants in search of good jobs abroad in order to support their poor families. What are the terrible situations at home that compel them to go wandering? What are the sacrifices they are making for their loved ones? We need to help them reclaim their God-given dignity.

Today's story of the woman of Samaria is a metaphor for our own lives -- often lived in deserts of alienation, sinfulness, despair. During the season of Lent in particular, we long for the refreshing waters of repentance, forgiveness and wholeness. To repent is to acknowledge our own need of life in the midst of the desert, our need of breaking down barriers that exist among us, our need of finding the living water that will truly quench our thirst.

Lent invites us to join the woman of Samaria in today's Gospel and the women of Samaria throughout the world and all those so desperately in need of life. May the Lord give us the courage to reach out to them, listen to them, feed them, and share with them the waters of life.

In his Lenten message for 2011, Benedict XVI writes: "The question that Jesus puts to the Samaritan woman: 'Give me a drink' (John 4: 7), […] expresses the passion of God for every man and woman, and wishes to awaken in our hearts the desire for the gift of'"a spring of water within, welling up for eternal life' (John 4:14): This is the gift of the Holy Spirit, who transforms Christians into 'true worshipers,' capable of praying to the Father 'in spirit and truth' (John 4:23). Only this water can extinguish our thirst for goodness, truth and beauty! Only this water, given to us by the Son, can irrigate the deserts of our restless and unsatisfied soul, until it 'finds rest in God,' as per the famous words of St. Augustine."

Living Lent this week

1. View this video of the Woman of Samaria: "Lord, Give Me This Water." For what are you thirsting this Lenten season? Whom do you seek?

2. Reflect on these words by Jean Vanier in light of today's Gospel of the Samaritan woman: "Our brokenness is the wound through which the full power of God can penetrate our being and transfigure us in God. Loneliness is not something from which we must flee but the place from where we can cry out to God, where God will find us and we can find God. Yes, through our wounds the power of God can penetrate us and become like rivers of living water to irrigate the arid earth within us. Thus we may irrigate the arid earth of others so that hope and love are reborn."

3. Read "The Word of God and Christian Witness" in the postsynodal exhortation "Verbum Domini"

4. Reach out to someone on the fringe this week at high noon, perhaps not at a well, but in a coffee shop, over a drink, at your kitchen table, or in a town shopping mall or public square. Listen to the person's story of hurt, suffering, alienation, or fear. Allow the living water of Christ's compassion to flow through you to irrigate the desert of someone's life.

[The readings for the 3rd Sunday of Lent are Exodus 17:3-7; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8; John 4:5-42 or 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42]

* * *

Basilian Father Thomas Rosica, chief executive officer of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation and Television Network in Canada, is a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.