Readings:
Exodus 17:3-7; Romans 5:1-2,5-8; John 4:5-42
Jesus
and the Woman at the Well.
“Image is
nothing. Thirst is everything. Obey your thirst!” This is a TV
marketing campaign on Sprite. The ad calls us to drink to our fill, the
sugared-up fizzy, lemon-lime beverage that, frankly speaking, is capable of
killing us. Scientists warned in 2015, that fizzy drinks caused a death toll of
184,000 adults per year. Today’s readings speak of water and how important it
is for life. The human adult body has up to 60% of water. According H.H.
Mitchell, Journal of Biological Chemistry 158, the brain and heart are composed
of 73% water; the lungs are about 83% water. The skin contains 64% water,
muscles and kidneys are 79%, and even the bones are 31% water. This explains
why water is so important to us. The lack of it can cause death through
dehydration. We need water for so many other things besides. The book of Exodus
today relates how the children of Israel were disgruntled over their lack of
water and how Yahweh heard their groaning and provided fresh water for them.
Their ingratitude was met with God’s generosity in keeping to his promise. He
chose them to be his own and he will always stand by them. As a reminder of
their constant nagging and forgetfulness of God’s mercy and generosity, Yahweh
called that place Massah, meaning testing place, and Meribah, meaning a place
of quarrel.
In today’s Gospel
from John, we see Jesus with a woman at the well in the heat of the afternoon.
Jesus was tired and hungry from his journey. He sat at the well to rest and
wait for his disciples who had gone shopping in the city. And there came the
Samaritan woman. For obvious reasons, she went to the well in the afternoon to
fetch water. Women usually go to the well in the morning and evening. She went
in the afternoon, perhaps, to avoid meeting with other women; could be because
of her life style. She may have been an object of gossip and ridicule in the
city, as such, she tried to avoid other women as much as possible.
The Samaritan
woman may have gone through a lot in her life and so was thirsty – not for
water, but acceptance, love, meaning and happiness. She was lonely and tried to
obey her thirst for anything. The men in her life did not satiate her thirst,
she has had five already and the 6th one was not her real husband.
She tried to hide that fact from Jesus: “I do not have a husband.”
She was a lost soul, but a very interesting one at that. She was suspicious of
Jesus and his request for water, but she was prepared to engage Him all the
same. She brought up issues of concern to her, even the racial and spiritual ones:
“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” She
challenged Jesus’ assumptions: “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and
the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water?” She
confronted Jesus’ claim and questioned his authority: “Are you greater
than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with
his children and his flock?” She called Jesus’s bluff: “Sir, give
me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw
water.” She stood up to Jesus on religious matters and put him on the
defensive: “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.” At last, she capitulated after learning from Jesus; she
showed that, though her moral life may not mean much, her religious knowledge
was flawless, she was not without hope: “I know that they Messiah is
coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” When
she heard that Jesus was the expected Messiah, she forgot what brought her to
the well in the first place, she has now received the water of life:
“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?”” She seemed to have said with the Psalmist: “As the deer longs
for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. My being thirsts for
God, the living God.” (Ps. 42:2-3). She had a steady and progressive
understanding of Jesus, from ‘Sir’, to ‘Prophet’ and finally to ‘Messiah’. she
is now a disciple and ready to spread the good news of salvation. She is
no more ashamed of being seen in public but was ready to face her future,
knowing that the Messiah was on her side.
The encounter
between Jesus and the woman at the well mirrors a process of coming to faith,
underscored by the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). The Samaritan
woman was predisposed to receive the message of salvation; Jesus created
enabling environment to bring that about. Today is first Scrutiny for those
preparing to receive the Sacrament of initiation at Easter. The readings
present us with the background that opens us to the Sacrament of Baptism. “Lent
provides believers the opportunity to review their baptismal commitment. The
Church community is making this Lenten pilgrimage alongside those preparing for
reception into the faith. The waters used in their induction are the actual
living waters Jesus shared with the now happy woman at the well.” (The
Priest Magazine, pg. 51)
Like the woman at
the well, we are to be thirsty for the living water. May we come close to
Jesus, listen to his words, receive him in the Eucharist and allow him to
refresh us with the water of life in the sacrament of reconciliation. Though
Moses struck the rock and water flowed for the children of Israel to drink,
they were thirsty again. They failed to see the God who journeyed with them,
every step of the way. They would soon find fault and grumble against God again
and again. May we not be quick to satisfy our thirst with anything and
everything. It is not everything that will satisfy us. Like the woman at the
well discovered, Jesus will always fill us with abundance, so that we will
never be thirsty again. We must trust Jesus. Our thirst can only be satisfied
by God. St. Augustine knew this when he said: “Our hearts are made for
God, and they will not rest, until they rest in God.” Yes, our human
hearts have spiritual thirst and we must satisfy them with spiritual food. The
Samaritan woman was thirsty for love, understanding, peace, joy and community
and she found all these in Jesus. “We are thirsty for joy, and happiness,
and the greatest joy can only come from the freedom that Jesus gives us – freedom
from fear, worry, anxiety.” (Ignite Your Spirit by Fr. John
Pichappilly).
Let us listen
again to the words Jesus said to the woman at the well: “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.” Let me conclude with the prayer of
the first scrutiny:
“All-merciful
Father, through your Son you revealed your mercy to the woman of Samaria; and
moved by that same care have offered salvation to all sinners. Free us from the
slavery of sin, and for Satan’s crushing yoke exchange the gentle yoke of
Jesus. Protect us in every danger, that we may serve you faithfully in peace
and joy and render you thanks for ever. Amen.
Rev.
Augustine Etemma Inwang, MSP
No comments:
Post a Comment