Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- A Well Marriage

Friends, in today’s Gospel,
Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman.
Throughout the Old Testament, wells are trysting places.
Abraham’s servant found a wife for Isaac by a well;
Jacob met his wife, Rachel, by a well.

Therefore, when St. John tells us that Jesus encountered a woman at Jacob’s well,
we should expect that something like marriage is in the offing.
The Samaritan woman stands, says St. Augustine, for the Church,
which is the bride of Jesus.

The Samaritan woman tells Jesus that she is unmarried.
Jesus responds with devastating clarity:
“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’
For you have had five husbands,
and the one you have now is not your husband.’”
Think of the five husbands as five errant paths that the woman has taken.
She has “married” herself to wealth, pleasure, honor, power, material things, etc.
Or think of them as five ideologies or gurus that she has followed,
hoping to find joy.

The point of the story is that Jesus is proposing marriage to the woman,
to his bride the Church.
Only in him will the human race find happiness, peace,
and the “spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

+++ Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,
near the plot of land that Jacob
had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey,
sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
"Give me a drink".
His disciples had gone into the
town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him,
“How can you, a Jew, ask me,
a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
—For Jews use nothing in common
with Samaritans.—
Jesus answered and said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you,
‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him
and he would have given you
living water.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, you do not even have a
bucket and the cistern is deep;
where then can you get this
living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this cistern and
drank from it himself
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her,
“Everyone who drinks this water
will be thirsty again;
but whoever drinks the water I
shall give will never thirst;
the water I shall give will
become in him
a spring of water welling up to
eternal life.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, give me this water, so
that I may not be thirsty
or have to keep coming here to
draw water.”
Jesus said to her,
“Go call your husband and come back.”
The woman answered and said to him,
“I do not have a husband.”
Jesus answered her,
“You are right in saying,
‘I do not have a husband.’
For you have had five husbands
and the one you have now is not
your husband.
What you have said is true.”
The woman said to him,
“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;
but you people say that the
place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do
not understand;
we worship what we understand,
because salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming,
and is now here,
when true worshipers will
worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such
people to worship him.
God is Spirit,
and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is
coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one speaking with you.”
At that moment his disciples returned,
and were amazed that he was
talking with a woman,
but still no one said,
“What are you looking for?”
or “Why are you talking with her?”
The woman left her water jar
and went into the town and said
to the people,
“Come see a man who told me
everything I have done.
Could he possibly be the Christ?”
They went out of the town and
came to him.
Meanwhile, the disciples urged
him, “Rabbi, eat.”
But he said to them,
“I have food to eat of which you
do not know.”
So the disciples said to one another,
“Could someone have brought him
something to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of
the one who sent me
and to finish his work.
Do you not say, ‘In four months
the harvest will be here’?
I tell you, look up and see the
fields ripe for the harvest.
The reaper is already receiving payment
and gathering crops for eternal life,
so that the sower and reaper can
rejoice together.
For here the saying is verified
that ‘One sows and another reaps.’
I sent you to reap what you have
not worked for;
others have done the work,
and you are sharing the fruits
of their work.”

Many of the Samaritans of that
town began to believe in him
because of the word of the woman
who testified,
“He told me everything I have done.”
When the Samaritans came to him,
they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in
him because of his word,
and they said to the woman,
“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly
the savior of the world.”+++

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