GOSPEL COMMENTARY JN 4:5-42
Thirst
Fr. Robert Wagner
Two strangers meet at an ancient well outside of a Samaritan town. One is a Samaritan woman, coming to draw water. The other is Jesus Christ, in His humanity weary from traveling. He is waiting at the well while His disciples are getting food in town. It is noon and the sun is at its peak. Most townspeople are looking for shade, so Jesus and the woman likely are alone at the well.
And in the heat of the day, they share a common desire: They thirst.
Jesus asks the woman for a drink, and she is taken aback. It is not customary for Jews to speak to Samaritans, or for men to speak so freely with women who are alone. The conversation takes another awkward turn when Jesus speaks spiritually about the “living water” He will offer those who seek it, and the woman takes His words in a worldly sense. Yes, she would like to receive the “spring of water welling up to eternal life” because she thinks it would save her from the drudgery of going to the well every day. She does not yet comprehend that Jesus is speaking of the Holy Spirit.
Despite her initial apprehension and current misunderstanding, the Samaritan woman continues to interact with Jesus. He next speaks of her past as if He has always known her. For all who know that Jesus is the One through Whom all things were made (Col 1:16), His intimate knowledge of her — and all of us — is expected. However, she must be shocked to hear this stranger reveal that He knows she has been married five times and now lives with a man who is not her husband. The sins of her past may be the reason she comes to the well in the heat of the day. She knows she will be alone and not the object of gossip. She has made herself an outcast, and yet Jesus treats her with the dignity she deserves as one created in His image.
Seeing Jesus as a prophet, the woman asks Him about the differences between her beliefs as a Samaritan and those of the Jews. Our Lord leads her to recognize both groups await a promised Messiah.
“I am He,” Jesus tells her.
Immediately, she runs into town to tell everyone that she has met the Messiah.
Before Jesus, the Samaritan woman searched fruitlessly for satisfaction. She could not find it in her first five husbands or the man with whom she is living. She cannot find it in her work, for she wishes she did not have to come to the well alone over and over again. Nothing of this world — not even the water from the well — can satisfy her. Her thirst comes from deep within, and it is the thirst our Creator has placed in each one of us: the longing for an intimate relationship with our God, who is love (1 Jn 4:16). She finally finds fulfillment in knowing and believing in Jesus Christ, and when she hurries off to share her joy, she leaves her water jug — and her unquenchable thirst — behind.
Jesus thirsts, too. “My food is to do the will of the One who sent Me and to finish His work,” He tells His disciples. The will of the Father is our salvation, and Jesus shares this desire. Commenting on this Gospel, Pope Benedict XVI tells us, “God thirsts for our faith and our love. As a good and merciful father, He wants our total, possible good, and this good is He Himself” (Angelus, Feb. 24, 2008).
In our sinful humanity, each of us seeks satisfaction where it cannot be found. This Lent, using the instruments of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, we are called to purify our desires and to focus our thirst on the One who can satisfy us perfectly. By freely accepting God's grace, love and salvation, we can quench both His thirst and ours. Day after day, Our Lord waits to give us what we truly desire. May we always seek Him in faith, knowing that He alone can fill our emptiness with peace, joy and unending life.
Fr. Wagner is Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde’s secretary.
Year A - Third Sunday of Lent True worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth John 4:5-42 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Inspiration of the Holy Spirit - From the Sacred Heart of Jesus I said to the Samaritan woman that those who drink the water that I have to offer will never be thirsty again. And indeed what I am offering is the living spirit so that you may drink of it and never be thirsty. Author: Joseph of Jesus and Mary |