From: Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
Reconciliation Through Christ’s Sacrifice, the Basis of our Hope
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Commentary:
1-5. In this very moving passage God helps us see “the divine interlacing of the
three theological virtues which form the backing upon which the true life of every
Christian man or woman has to be woven” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 205).
Faith, hope and charity act in us in turn, causing us to grow in the life of grace.
Thus, faith leads us to know and be sure of things we hope for (cf. Hebrews 11:1);
hope ensures that we shall attain them, and enlivens our love of God; charity, for
its part, gives us energy to practise the other two theological virtues. The definitive
outcome of this growth in love, faith and hope is the everlasting peace that is of
the essence of eternal life.
As long as we are in this present life we do have peace to some degree—but with
tribulation. Therefore, the peace attainable in this life does not consist in the con-
tentment of someone who wants to have no problems, but rather in the resolute-
ness full of hope (”character”) of someone who manages to rise above suffering
and stays faithful through endurance. Suffering is necessary for us, because it is
the normal way to grow in virtue (cf. James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:5-7); that is why it is
providential (cf. Philippians 1:19; Colossians 1:24) and leads to joy and happi-
ness (1 Thessalonians 1:6).
“A person who hopes for something and strives eagerly to attain it is ready to
endure all kinds of difficulty and distress. Thus, for example, a sick person if he
is eager to be healthy, is happy to take the bitter medicine which will cure him.
Therefore, one sign of the ardent hope that is ours thanks to Christ is that we
glory not only in the hope of future glory, but also in the afflictions which we suf-
fer in order to attain it” (St. Thomas Aquinas, “Commentary on Romans, ad loc.”).
A person who lives by faith, hope and charity realizes that suffering is not some-
thing meaningless but rather is designed by God for our perfecting. Perfection
consists “in the bringing of our wills so closely into conformity with the will of
God that, as soon as we realize He wills anything, we desire it ourselves with all
our might, and take the bitter with the sweet, knowing that to be His Majesty’s
will [...]. If our love is perfect, it has this quality of leading us to forget our own
pleasure in order to please Him whom we love. And that is indeed what happens”
(St. Teresa of Avila, “Book of Foundations”, Chapter 5).
5. The love which St. Paul speaks of here is, at one and the same time, God’s
love for us—manifested in His sending the Holy Spirit—and the love which God pla-
ces in our soul to enable us to love Him. The Second Council of Orange, quoting
St. Augustine, explains this as follows: “To love God is entirely a gift of God. He,
without being loved, loves us and enabled us to love Him. We were loved when
we were still displeasing to Him, so that we might be given something whereby
we might please Him. So it is that the Spirit of the Father and the Son, whom we
love with the Father and the son, pours charity into our hearts” (Second Council
of Orange, “De Gratia”, Canon 25; cf. St. Augustine, “In Ioann. Evang.”, 102, 5).
6-11. The friendship which reigned in paradise between God and man was foll-
owed by the enmity created by Adam’s sin. By promising a future redeemer, God
once more offered mankind his friendship. The scale of God’s love for us can be
seen in the “reconciliation “ which the Apostle speaks about, which took place
on the Cross, when Christ did away with this enmity, making our peace with God
and reconciling us to him (cf. Eph 2:15-16).
The petition in the Our Father, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
trespass against us”, is an invitation to imitate the way God treats us, because by
loving our enemies “there shines forth in us some likeness to God our Father, who,
by the death of his Son, ransomed from everlasting perdition and reconciled to him-
self the human race, which before was most unfriendly and hostile to him “ (”St
Pius V Catechism”, IV, 14, 19).
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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.
From: John 4:5-42
Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
[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 takking 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
capable 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.