| The Woman at the Well |
| (John 4:5-15) |
|
| These
weeks before Holy Week, the Church offers us three images to meditate
on. Today, the emphasis is on water. Living water. The water of
Baptism. Next week the gospel will be about the man who regains his
sight so that we have the image of light. The light of Christ. Then the
last week before Holy Week, the gospel is the story of the raising of
Lazarus from the dead. |
| The
Church is helping us to prepare for Holy Week and Easter by recalling
the water of our baptism, the light of Christ, and the resurrection from
the dead. Our gospel today starts off by telling us that Jesus has been
traveling. He is tired. So He sits by a well while the disciples go
into the town to buy food. It was late in the day. A woman comes out of
the town for water. Alone. This was most unusual for this time of day
in the heat. The woman was an outcast. Jesus makes a very simple
request to the woman. "Give me a drink." Her only answer is "But you
are a Jew." The woman is a Samaritan, and the Jews and Samaritans hated
each other. They hadn't spoken to each other for 400 years. But Jesus
was breaking more than one rule. He was speaking to the woman alone.
This was forbidden. He was also risking ritual impurity by consorting
with a non-Jew. |
| The
woman says, "You have no bucket," knowing that in the normal course of
events, a Jew would not share a drinking utensil with a Samaritan. Then
the scandal evolved, for she was a public sinner. But none of that
mattered to Jesus. He did not condone her sin, but neither did he
condemn.
|
| Jesus
brought about change in people by accepting them as they were not by
shaking a finger at them. Jesus began to talk about her personal life.
Her five husbands, etc. She didn't try to defend herself. She was
smart. She did the practical thing. She tried to change the subject.
She starts talking about places of worship, theology. Finally, he tells
her that He is the messiah, and she goes off to tell everyone that she
has found the Lord. That He is in their midst.
|
| Let
us return to our first reading. For a while the Jews are wandering in
the desert and they lack water. In their thirst, they asked, "Is the
Lord in our midst, or not?" Do we sometimes ask that question? Perhaps
in despair when things go wrong. Do we ever ask that question as a
parish, as a community of Christians? Is the Lord in our midst, or not? |
| We
often bring adults into our Church, and they might as well ask, "Is
this the place where my thirst for living water will be quenched? Is the
Lord here, or not?" A person who seeks to know Christ can do that
alone. All they have to do is to read the New Testament, but a person
who seeks to be a Christian can do that only in a community of
believers.
|
| We
cannot deny the importance of doctrine and dogmas, but Christ is found
in people in a community who share His spirit and His name. In
Palestine, Judea and Samaria, Jesus' presence was felt. He offered the
water of life and satisfied people.
|
| And
what about ourselves, we who are baptized. We who are perhaps long-term
members of the Church. Do we find the Lord in this place? Is the
Eucharist a personal encounter with the One who loves us more than we
can imagine, who values us more highly than we value ourselves, who
values us enough to die for us?
|
| Like
the Samaritan woman, we often try to hide the loose ends and messes in
our lives. We may not have had five husbands or wives but most of us
have something we would rather not talk about. Jesus knows about them
already. He does not excuse them, but He does not condemn either, any
more than He condemned the woman at the well. This woman spent a short
time with Jesus, and she was changed. She could not contain herself.
She had to go into the town and let them know that the Lord was in their
midst. This took real courage on her part, for remember her place in
the community. She was a public sinner, one to be avoided. Now she was
running off to spread the Good News, and she was so convincing that the
townspeople believed her. They even came and begged Jesus to stay with
them.
|
| Imagine,
Samaritans begging a Jew to stay with them. Those actions of that
woman converted a whole town to Christ. This woman whose name we don't
even know. Now that is indeed the Lord who was in that place. She heard
His word and she responded. It is almost as if our responsorial psalm
today was written for her, but it isn't. It was written for all of us.
We know. We can feel the Lord is in this place, our Church.
|
| As
we prepare for Holy Week and Easter, let us be like that woman by the
well and those townspeople, and remember the words of the psalm. "If
today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts."
|
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