"For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Lk 19:10)
From the Holy Gospel according to Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist (Jn 4: 5-42)
So, He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says 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 have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.
The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such 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 Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things." Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."
And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or "Why are You talking with her?" The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ? Then they went out of the city and came to Him.
In the meantime, His disciples urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." But He said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know." Therefore, the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows, and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: 'One sows, and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered their labors.
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did." So, when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world."
REFLECTION
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
CHRISTÒS ANESTI, ALITHÒS ANÉSTI!
On this fifth Sunday of Easter, we are witnessing the Lord’s encounter with a Samaritan woman.
Samaria is the region in the middle of the Holy Land, between Galilee, in the north (where Nazareth, Capernaum and the lake are located), and Judea in the south, where Jerusalem is located.
The Samaritans are poorly seen and not considered at all as a people by other Jews. They have different religious and liturgical customs from those of the capital. They built their own temple, different from that of Jerusalem, after returning from exile in Babylon, on Mount Gerizim.
Pilgrims from Galilee to Jerusalem usually do not pass through Samaria but go around it along the road to Transjordan. Jesus, instead, crosses Samaria and agrees to meet the woman, the Samaritan woman.
A meeting that takes place at a well.
The well, within the Holy Scriptures, is often mentioned as a place where something special and special is realized: it is the typical place where engagements are held, it is the place of encounter and love.
As happened for example for the servant of Abraham, sent to seek a bride in Isaac, near the well he finds Rebecca, who offers him water to quench his thirst (Gen 24,11); for Jacob who meets Rachel who leads the flock to the well to quench his thirst, and he shows him his love by removing the large stone that closed the well (Gen 29, 1-14). Or for Moses who fled from Egypt (Ex 2,11-22) finds rest beside a well where seven sisters (daughters of Jethro) arrive, one of whom, Zipporah, will be his bride.
The well represents God who, in giving water, takes care of the oppressed and abused of human life. Twice he gave water to the slave Hagar when she was pregnant and ran away from the mistress (Sarah) who mistreated her (cf. Gen 16:13) and when abandoned in the desert with little Ishmael, she suddenly saw a well of water (cf. Gen 21:17-19). But this work of salvation, as reported in the Proto-Gospel of Saint James, finds its fulfilment, with Mary Most Holy, Mother of God who had gone to the well to draw water:
"Taking the jug, he went out to draw water. And here was a voice that said: "Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed you among women". She looked around, left and right, whence came the voice. All trembling she went home."
(Chapter 11:1)
And once she entered her house, the Blessed Virgin received the visit of the Archangel Gabriel and through the work of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God incarnated in her womb and became the true source of the living water: Jesus Christ.
Behold, then, that the Lord Our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who did not come to call the righteous but sinners, goes to the region of Samaria and agrees to meet the Samaritan woman, to lead the unfaithful bride (Israel represented by the woman) to live in fidelity to God, the first love, which had been betrayed.
The Lord, tired for the long journey, does not sit by the well but above it. Just to emphasize that water has been replaced by his own person. Ready to quench the heart of mankind.
It is noon. The time of full light.
The sixth hour is quite an unusual hour to go to draw water, could underline the desire of the Samaritan woman to avoid the looks of other women who went to the well, almost always in groups, certainly in cooler hours (Gen 24,11; 1Psalm 9,11). In addition, there could also be seen a veiled reference to the story of the Passion, where in addition to the sixth hour, there is once again mention of the thirst for Our Lord (Jn 19:28). And in this condition of physical exhaustion, the Lord asks the woman (Photini/Illuminata/Clare) for water, and she is amazed and answers:
«How come you, who are Jewish, ask me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman?»
Here, dear brothers and sisters, the promise which the Lord made through his servant, the prophet Isaiah, is somehow fulfilled:
«Even if your sins were like scarlet, they will become white as snow. If they were red as purple, they will become like wool". (Is 1,18)
This means that the Lord, just as it happened for the Samaritan woman, does not focus on our intimate past life, but breaks down every barrier of division by being able to enter directly into our hearts in transforming them for the better. Independent of our culture, our origins, or our social status.
How often do we live with disordered situations that we carry in our hearts, that have characterized the past and that perhaps characterize the present, from which we do not turn or have the strength to completely free ourselves?
Often it is not great sins that prevent a story of holiness, because great sins touch the heart and sometimes cause great conversions. Look for a moment at Saint Peter who has denied Our Lord three times, or at Saint Paul who before his conversion distinguished himself in the struggle against the first Christians in Jerusalem.
It is the small voluntary and continuous infidelities, and sometimes we hardly even notice them anymore because they have become a normal routine and an impediment to a story of holiness. Because they prevent us from living and we become like just whitened sepulchers, we are like the salt that has lost its flavor.
In this Sunday’s gospel passage, the Lord reiterates the concept that a person’s past is never decisive for his future and that we can all have access to that very salvation that is given to us through faith in him:
"The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water that gushes for eternal life."
Yet, this in a challenge in itself - the hardest work we must do ourselves. Yes, it is true that God offers us salvation, but it is we, first and foremost, who must respond to his call of love.
In this regard, the Lord says:
"Enter by the narrow gate, for the wide is the gate, and the wide is the way to perdition, and there are many who enter it. How narrow is the door and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it!" (Mt 7: 13-14)
Therefore, beloved brothers and sisters, today Christ offers us a very precious gift: the gift of faith!
Faith in Jesus Christ is the foundation of our whole Christian life.
A person who has faith in Him recognizes His authority, and trusts blindly and completely in Him, placing His voluntary passion and glorious resurrection as the only way to salvation.
Faith in Jesus Christ is not a simple intellectual conviction, but involves the involvement of our whole person: mind, heart and will.
And in this regard, our bishop Father Raffaele Rossi, in his encyclical on Faith writes:
"Faith, therefore, is not a matter of thought because thinking encourages freedom of interpretation - which in this case leads to heresy (moving away from what has been established as truth) es: the tendency to make God in our image and likeness, rather than knowing it as revealed to us in the faith of HIS Church!"
Because: "thinking opens the doors of doubt due to limited understanding by rekindling our interpretation that leads to deception that is the product of our emotions that are in a continuous state of agitation. Faith does not change as the apostle Paul exhorted in chapter 13 and verse 8 to the Hebrews: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever". Because there is no deception in God, but only truth that proceeds for love".
Faith requires a conscious choice and a constant commitment to live according to his commandments, following him every single day of our lives.
It changes us and once transformed we can let ourselves be shaped by His grace, committing ourselves to live according to his example of love, justice, and humanity.
In short, faith in Jesus Christ is the starting point for a new life, an enhanced hope of peace which cultivates abundant fruit that renders meaning in its richest capacity.
Today’s Gospel passage also teaches us the beauty and power of personal witness. Because faith not only changes us, but it pushes us to leave our comfort zone and go towards our neighbour. Just like the Samaritan woman St. Photini did who became a champion of the gospel.
She who recognized in Him first a Jew (v.9), then one to approach Jacob (v. 12), then a prophet (v. 19) is now ready to recognize Him as the Christ and Saviour of the world. The joy of this encounter, finally able to respond to her thirst for fullness and authenticity, becomes a driving force for sharing, so that she returns to the city, leaving the jug at the well. This occurs due to her inner conviction that she has now truly found the living water, and becoming a witness of the fullness of the encounter with God in Christ to many people who are willing to know him, to welcome him and to love him:
Many more believed for his word and to the woman they said: «It is no longer because of your speeches that we believe, but because we ourselves have heard and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world».
Let us pray to the Lord, so that through the continuous intercession of Mary Most Holy, we can all grow in faith and in the knowledge of Jesus and in bringing his light to others, despite all the difficulties we encounter along our path, and his love in the world.
May God the Almighty Father always help us to live the Love and compassion of Jesus Christ, succeeding in breaking down every human division bringing light and hope in the lives of the people we meet every day.
May the Lord bless you now and always!
Archdeacon Michele Alberto Del Duca
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