Sunday Reflections
Is the Lord still in our midst?
1. ✠ A reading from the holy Gospel accordingto st John (4:4-42)
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,
near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there.
Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.
It was about noon.
A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
Jesus said to her,
“Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
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.—
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.”
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?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself
with his children and his flocks?”
Jesus answered and said to her,
“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.”
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.
“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.”
Jesus said to her,
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You people worship what you do not understand;
we worship what we understand,
because salvation is from the Jews.
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.
God is Spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in Spirit and truth.”
The woman said to him,
“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ;
when he comes, he will tell us everything.”
Jesus said to her,
“I am he, the one who is speaking with you.”
Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him.
When the Samaritans came to him,
they invited him to stay with them;
and he stayed there two days.
Many more began to believe in him because of his word,
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.”
2. Today’s first reading ends with an interrogation: is the Lord still in our midst or not? This question was coming from Israelites who having been delivered from the slavery of Egypt through the mighty intervention of God found themselves in the desert faced with lack of water. Their reaction was to doubt the presence of God among them. They acted this out by rebelling against God and his servant Moses. But God did not abandon them. He showed them that he was still with them by giving them water in abundance. Today, after a rigged election, many well meaning christians are in doubt about the presence of God among us. What have we done wrong that God has allowed the wicked to succeed in their plans?
3. Today’s gospel could help us understand why things are the way they are in spite of our trust in God. The Samaritans at the time of Jesus were descendants of Israel who compromised their race by intermingling with other nations and in this way lost their place among the chosen people. They were regarded by the pure Israelites as material for hell, people unworthy of God. To hate them became a religious virtue. The Samaritans themselves knew how they are viewd by their Jewish neighbours and lived like God forsaken people. The Samaritan woman in today’s gospel gives an idea of Samaritan morality at the epoch: a woman who has married five men and lives with a sixth one in concubinage. It is to this people that Jesus brings the good news, assuring them that God is still in their midst in spite of their being hated and disposed by others.
4. The conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well reveals the attitude of God towards sinners. Jesus begins with a familiar conversation about water and then moves to spiritual reality of the living water that leads to eternity. In the end the woman began desiring to have the living water which is Jesus himself. But we can’t receive Jesus without abandoning the old way. Jesus had to lead her to conversion by asking her to go and call her husband. It was a moment of grace. She had to admit her waywardness by confessing that she lives in concubinage. After this confession she left her water jar by the side of Jesus and went to the city to call people to Jesus: come and see the man who told me all that I had done.
5. Before now the woman was attached to her jar that even when Jesus offered to give her the living water she told Jesus that he had no jar. The jar for her was the most important instrument for survival. After encountering Jesus the jar become secondary if not useless. The woman who came to the well at noon to make sure she meets nobody had to go back to the very people she was avoiding to invite them to Jesus, confessing before them all that she has been doing. Her conversion is the central message of today’s gospel. It is a call for us to know what to drop before Jesus for us to become his true witnesses. What could have pushed this woman to be moving from one man to another if not the need for a better life and the fear of losing her sustenance. What makes a politician to move from one party to another? What makes a man to move from one illegal business to another? What makes a christian to join groups that are against his faith? The answer is the same for all: need for better life and the fear of not having enough to continue a comfortable life.
6. Today, in spite of all that you are passing through, know that God is still with you. You do not need to rebel like the Israelites for him to hear you. While the Israelites and the Samaritan woman had the same problem of lacking water, the Israelites dropped their faith because of water while the woman dropped her water jar to gain her faith. Your problems should help to fortify your faith and not lead you to lose faith. No matter the sins that you have got involved in, do not ever forget that the merciful Jesus is still with you, looking for opportunities to engage you in the road of salvation as he did with the Samaritan woman. Like the Samaritan woman a new beginning is always possible since God is still with you. Use this Lenten season to bounce back in virtue by searching for the living water, Jesus himself. @Vita, 12/03/23.
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