Fr John O’Callaghan OSB
Today’s gospel of the Samaritan woman at the well is presented to us in this season of Lent because it is an example of conversion to faith in Christ, something we are all supposed to be doing or deepening.
It is midday at the well of Jacob and Jesus is resting there. The woman comes along at an hour when the sun burns hottest – doubtless to avoid meeting anyone, because she was sensitive about her ill-repute. She sees someone sitting there but she takes little notice because he is a Jew, and Jews disdain Samaritans, and vice versa, since they fell out with each other centuries earlier over idol worship and defilement. A not altogether friendly question and answer session follows on Jesus’ request for a drink, with the Samaritan woman not understanding the deeper meaning of Jesus’ words “anyone who drinks the water I shall give will never be thirsty again.” Her reply is merely that he needs a bucket! But what is this ‘living water’? It is not eternal life itself but something that leads to it, namely the teaching of Jesus. The OT often used the symbolism of water for God’s wisdom; ‘the teaching of the wise is a life-giving fountain’ (Prov 13:14). But the Samaritan woman was not understanding.
She then twists the repartee in the direction of places of worship, Jerusalem or Mt Gezerim, where her break-away Jewish movement worships. We see that she is beginning to think spiritually although she misses out on the fullness of what Jesus is really saying – that he himself replaces religious institutions like the Temple. For Jesus real worship does not involve ritual purity or attending at one or other temple; our way to God is through him. The conversation moves on
two different plains: one material and practical whilst Jesus’ questionning and replying is always at a deeper, metaphysical, level.
The Samaritan woman’s defense is finally breached when reference is made to her ‘five husbands’. Jesus knows that her life has been marked by sadness and rejection. So he gently suggests, ‘Go and call your husband’. This gives her the opportunity to open out the story of her fragile heart just a little, and within a few sentences the whole truth is out. He, for his part, reveals himself to her when she mentions the Messiah: ‘I who am speaking to you, I am he.’ No words of rejection from him! Mutual self-revelation. Now the Samaritan woman indeed thirsts for living water, and tells her townspeople about ‘the man who
has told me everything I have ever done’, What we have witnessed is the drama of a person struggling as she rises from the things of this world to belief in Jesus. This challenges us too, puts the questions to each one of us, of ‘Who is Christ? Who is God? Who am I? Youth
in particular asks these questions as it is a time par excellence for self-
reflection, for big dreams and idealism. One option is to try to forget God. It is quite easy these days; to live out a banal, mediocre life-plan and think no further. But that can turn to disaster, especially in times of stress. The option given us of faith in Christ, is “to come to know God – the true God – [and this] means to receive hope”. And that hope draws the future into the present and giving us the possibility of living the present well no matter what the circumstances. The fact that a great future exists changes the present; the present is changed by the future reality, and thus the things of the future spill over into those of the present and those of the present into those of the future.
The people in the desert, in the first reading, were terrorised by the possibility of having no physical water, of thirsting to death. So too is our need for meaning in our lives, and for love, so as to persevere without loosing direction and drive. Christ is the rock gushing forth in such life-giving water. Faith in him shows us the way to God who alone guarantees us the possibility of a great life, of fullness of life!