READING: Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livest Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
REFLECTION: The gospel of St. John tells us that to go from Judea to Galilee, “He had to pass through Samaria (Jn.4:3). Jesus could have taken another route but the sentence hints a task of urgent necessity in the offing. He had mission to fulfil on that journey. Jesus was tired from the journey sits at the well. The woman of Samaria came to draw water in the noon. Usually, people come to the well in the cool hours of morning/evening but this woman arrives at noon when the heat of the day was at its peak. This gives us an understand that the woman is ready to bear the effects of the noon time heat rather than the cruel scornful glares of the people. She may be hurt by her painful past. She was afraid of the crowd so she comes to the well at an unusual time. This was her exile but one day she meets someone unexpectedly at the well with a request ‘give me a drink’. And the conversation continues.
In the beginning of the passage, we saw that Jesus had to pass through Samaria it was not a geographical need but it was necessary for the Lord to find out the lost sheep. Sitting at the well He taught her the source of true love. It was his mission to redeem and lead her into the depths of His mercy. The woman in the gospel represents all of us who are having our own burden of sin. As the woman meets the Lord in her painful and daily routine so too the Lord comes to meet us in the midst of our daily routine. We too may have our own exiles where we go in avoiding people and escaping from the realities of life. We need to look carefully into our exiles and see a man sitting at the well of our heart and asking for a drink. He wants to meet us there and transform us as the messengers of His love and mercy, let us not ignore Him but like the Samaritan woman allow Him to work within us.
PRAYER: O Lord, you are full of love and mercy, you always look into our inner disposition and manifest your unending love by seeking out the lost. Help us to be found by you whenever we are lost. Let us have the joy of being in the circle of your love always.
CONTEMPLATION: Let us quieten our whole being from all that disturbs and distracts us to experience the Divine within. Be drawn to the well of our heart and meet the One who is waiting for us. Give our total self to Him, let Him teach the lessons of love and make us new creations.
ACTION: Find out what are our exiles and invite the Lord to shower his graces to accept the realities of life and seek His mercy.
