Sunday Gospel Reflection
"Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give will never thirst"
Introduction:
Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink," was the lament of the Ancient Mariner as he sat idle in the doldrums of the sea. We, like him, live in a world with over a million, million gallons of water per cubic mile. But alas, only 3% is drinkable fresh water, and 3/4 of that is frozen solid, according to The World Book Enclycopedia.
We must have water to live. We can perhaps go a month without food, but probably no more than a week without any water. When our body is really dehydrated, craving water, a little water on our lips and in our throat will cause the craving to go away briefly. But if our deep inner organs are not refreshed, the craving thirst will quickly return. Like the Ancient Mariner many of us are dehydrated, dying of thirst ¾ not a thirst for H20, but a spiritual thirst for Living Water.
As in this week's first reading, sometimes our thirst is expressed like the people of Israel when they were in the dessert. We grumble and complain about our situation in life rather than being thankful for all God is doing to sustain us. At other times we often try to satiate our thirst by merely wetting our lips with things spiritual. Or in the worst case scenario, like the woman at the well, we try to quench our spiritual thirst by artificial means. And all the time the Living Water is right at our fingertips from which we could drink deeply, and satisfyingly. As Romano Guardini assures us in The Lord, "He is the stream of living water from the eternal source of the Father's love to the thirsting world."
In Isaiah 55:1-3 the Lord extends to us a question and an invitation: "All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat; Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk! Why spend your money for what is not bread; your wages for what fails to satisfy? Heed me, and you shall eat well, you shall delight in rich fare. Come to me heedfully, listen, that you may have life."
This week we are reaching the midpoint of Lent. Let's respond to our Savior and make a lifetime commitment to drink deeply of Him through private and public worship. Let's put a halt to trying to quench our thirst through artificial means and turn to Christ who is the thirst quenching Living Water we really need and desire. He is free for the asking
First Reading
Exodus 17:3-7
3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured
against Moses, and said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our
children and our cattle with thirst?"
4 So Moses cried to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost
ready to stone me."
5 And the LORD said to Moses, "Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the
elders of Israel; and take in your hand the rod with which you struck the Nile, and go.
6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the
rock, and water shall come out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so,
in the sight of the elders of Israel.
7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the faultfinding of
the children of Israel, and because they put the LORD to the proof by saying, "Is the
LORD among us or not?"
Second Reading
Romans 5:1-2,5-8
1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in
our hope of sharing the glory of God...
5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
6 While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man-though perhaps for a good man one will dare
even to die.
8 But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
Gospel Reading
John 4:5-42
5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land
that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
6 Jacob's well was there.Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.It was
about noon.
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."
8 His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
9 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.)
10 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."
11 (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?
12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it
himself with his children and his flocks?"
13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty
again;
14 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."
15 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."
16 Jesus said to her, "Go call your husband and come back."
17 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.'
18 For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you
have said is true."
19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship
is in Jerusalem."
21 Jesus said to her, "Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship
the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22 You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because
salvation is from the Jews.
23 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.
24 God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth."
25 The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the
Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything."
26 Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking with you."
27 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?"
28 The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people,
29 "Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the
Messiah?"
30 They went out of the town and came to him. 31 Meanwhile, the disciples urged him,
"Rabbi, eat."
32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know."
33 So the disciples said to one another, "Could someone have brought him something to
eat?"
34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to
finish his work.
35 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.
36 The reaper is already receiving his payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so
that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.
37 For here the saying is verified that 'One sows and another reaps.'
38 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."
39 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."
40 When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed
there two days.
41 Many more began to believe in him because of his word,
42 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."
Bible Study
5 So he came to a town of Samaria
---During the Assyrian occupation most of the inhabitants of Israel had been
carried off into exile; some remained behind and intermingled with the people whom Sargon
II (king of Assyria) had imported from Babylon, Cutah, Affa, Hamath, and Sepharuaim; thus
forming a new people. From that time on, these people were called Samaritans (2
Kings 17:24). Friendly relations existed between the Samaritans and the kingdom of Judah
until the Babylonian exile. When the Samaritans desired to assist the repatriated Jews in
rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem, their offer was refused (Ezra 4:2-3). The Samaritans
therefore built a temple of their own on Mount Gerizim. The Jews regarded them as racially
impure and compromisers in religion. The usual route from Judea to Galilee lay through
Samaria and took about three days.
5b called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son
Joseph.
6 Jacob's well was there.
----"Sychar" Means "liar" or "drunkard".
Archaeologists have identified it with 'Askar, a small town on the southern base of Mount
Ebal., about a mile north of Jacob's well. Saint Jerome identifies it as Shechem, as noted
in Syriac manuscripts. Genesis 33:19 tells of Jacob's purchase of the land and Joshua
24:32 tells us that Joseph was buried there.
6b Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was
about noon.
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."
8 His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
9 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.)
----Not only was it unheard of for a rabbi to speak familiarly with a woman in
public, it was also unheard of for a Jew to request a drink from a Samaritan. Jews
considered Samaritans, and therefore their utensils for eating and drinking, unclean.
10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God and
who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,'
----Jesus himself, whom the woman does not yet recognize, is the gift. She
sees only a Jew who is a very bold and thirsty traveler.
10b you would have asked him and he would have given you living
water."
11 (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?
----As Nicodemus did (John 3:4), the woman takes Jesus literally. She thinks
he is talking about flowing water rather than water from a well or cistern. Just as He did
with Nicodemus, Jesus uses this misunderstanding as an opportunity for further teaching.
12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and
drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?"
----Since Jesus can't mean to get water from this well, where will He get it?
Even Jacob had no better source than this well. The Samaritans also claimed descent from
the patriarchs, through the Joseph tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh and thus refer to Jacob
as their father.
13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks this water
will be thirsty again;
14 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."
----Jesus begins to explain the meaning of His words (as He does every time
He is misunderstood). Sirach 24:20 (a writing with which the Samaritan woman would be
unfamiliar) says that the drinker of wisdom will thirst again. The water which Christ will
give will satisfy thirst forever. The Christian reader is reminded of baptism, the water
of Christ that confers the gift of eternal life.
15 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."
----The woman still misunderstands.
16 Jesus said to her, "Go call your husband and come back."
---The Hebrew word for husband is baal which also means "lord".
17 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.'
18 For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you
have said is true."
----In saying "the man you are with now", Jesus is referring to
Himself. Jacob met his wife at a well but Jesus tells her that He is not destined to be
her husband. There is, however, a much deeper meaning: Hosea 2 tells of when the Messiah
comes he will go to Israel (Samaria) and betroth to Israel and take away the Baals.
According to Dr. Scott Hahn, the prophets were sent to condemn Samaria "you will be
given over to the pagan nations surrounding you and they will bring their Baals
(gods)." The prophets listed five different Baals (2 Kings 17) and she has had five
husbands (baals).
19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
----A curious statement, coming from a Samaritan. The Samaritans held only
the first five books of the Bible to be sacred because they rejected the prophets (who did
not speak kindly of them). The only prophet they accepted was the one who was to come as
promised in Deuteronomy 18:15-19. What she is really saying is that Jesus is The Prophet.
20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the
place to worship is in Jerusalem."
----This conversation takes place at the foot of Mount Gerizim (Mount Ebal in
Jewish terminology), the Samaritan place of worship; here the patriarchs had sacrificed
(Genesis 12:7; 33:20) and here according to the Samaritan version of Deuteronomy 27:4, the
Israelites had first set up an altar in Palestine.
21 Jesus said to her, "Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when
you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
22 You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because
salvation is from the Jews.
----Jesus must be agreeing that in Judaism, not the Samaritan version of it,
God's revelation has been safeguarded.
23 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.
----The first mention of His "hour" in John's gospel is associated
with wine at the marriage feast. Here, it is associated with worship. The Spirit is given
by God that reveals truth and enables one to worship God appropriately (John 14:16-17).
The Spirit is received at baptism.
24 God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and
truth."
----The new covenant which Jesus will institute is Spirit and truth.
25 The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah is coming, the
one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything."
----The woman again states her recognition that Jesus is the prophet the
Samaritans had expected; she uses Jewish terminology, the Samaritans expected a prophet
like Moses.
26 Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking with
you."
----Jesus confirms her knowledge by saying "I am" (Yahweh).
27 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?"
28 The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people,
29 "Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the
Messiah?"
----The woman leaves to spread the word without the usual warning of
"tell no one." She is the first evangelist.
30 They went out of the town and came to him. 31 Meanwhile, the
disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat."
32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know."
33 So the disciples said to one another, "Could someone have brought him something to
eat?"
----The woman fully realizes who Jesus is, but the disciples are slow to
understand. They still take everything in its superficial sense.
34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of the one who
sent me and to finish his work.
----In these words Jesus sums up His entire career.
35 Do you not say, 'In four months the harvest will be here'?
---This is apparently some sort of Palestinian proverb. It takes four months
from planting to harvest.
35b I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.
----The harvest of which Jesus speaks is of God's planting and is ready
now (see Matthew 9:37-38). The woman who goes even now to witness to the people of her
village, who will soon come to see for themselves.
36 The reaper is already receiving his payment and gathering crops for
eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.
----In this harvest there is no interval at all from sowing to reaping, the
sower and the reaper rejoice at the same time when their jobs are finished.
37 For here the saying is verified that 'One sows and another reaps.'
----Job 31:8; Ecclesiastes 2:21.
38 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."
39 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."
----The Samaritans follow the model of all who have true faith; almost the
same words are used to describe the disciples in John 17:20. First having believed because
of the woman's testimony, they eventually come to believe because of His own word.
40 When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
41 Many more began to believe in him because of his word,
42 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."
----Not only have they come to believe, they also recognize in Him something
more than the Messiah to which the woman had witnessed. Jesus, by transcending national
lines in dealing with them, has laid a basis for a universal affirmation of God's
salvation.
Meditation
Do you allow any barriers to distance yourself from the Lord and his
will for your life? Jesus overcame the barriers of prejudice, sin, and
misunderstanding with the truth of God's word and the power of the Holy Spirit. The Jews
and Samaritans had been divided for centuries. They had no dealings with one another,
avoiding all social contact, even trade, and inter-marriage. If their paths crossed
it would not be unusual for hostility to break out. When Jesus passed through Samaria he
did the unthinkable. He conversed with a Samaritan, thus risking ritual impurity and
scorn from his fellow Jews. He also did something no strict Rabbi would dare to do in
public without loss to his
reputation. He greeted a woman and spoke openly with her. Not only was she a
woman, but a notorious adulteress. No decent Jew would even think of being seen with
such a woman, let alone exchanging a word with her!
Why did Jesus meet alone with this Samaritan woman? Women normally gathered at the town well in the early hours of the morning while it was still cool. This would be a customary time for social contact and exchange of news. The fact that this notorious woman chose the midday hour to go out in public when the heat is greatest, shows her estrangement from her own community. Jesus broke through the barriers of nationality and orthodox Jewish custom. He showed the universality of the gospel. No one is barred from the love of God and the good news of salvation. There is only one thing that can keep us from God and his redeeming love - our stubborn pride and wilful rebellion.
What is the point of Jesus' exchange with the woman about water? Water in the arid land was scarce. Jacob's well was located in a strategic fork of the road between Samaria and Galilee. One can live without food for several days, but not without water. Water is a source of life and growth for all living things. When rain came to the desert, the water transformed the wasteland into a fertile field. The kind of water which Jesus spoke about was living, running water. Fresh water from a cool running stream was always preferred to the still water one might find in a pond or well. Living water was also a symbol for the Jew of thirst of the soul for God. The water which Jesus spoke of symbolized the Holy Spirit and his work of recreating us in God's image and sustaining in us the new life which comes from God. The life which the Holy Spirit produces in us makes us a new creation in Jesus Christ. Do you thirst for God and for the life of the Holy Spirit within you?
Reflections:
· Please re-read the phrase(s)/sentence(s) that move(s)/touche(s) you.
· Which characteristic of Jesus most appeals to you from this encounter?
· Do you allow Jesus to touch my dark side and convert me? Do Iyou enter into a dialog with the Lord, so he can teach me?
· Have you become a witness for Christ? What can you learn about sharing the thirst quenching Living Water with others from Jesus' example?
Prayer
Lord, my soul thirsts for you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit that I may always find joy in your presence and take delight in doing your will.