Jn 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42
So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that 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 have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?”
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these 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 proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.” Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.”
So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
A Model of Brave Discipleship
Often the most challenging part of my life of prayer is being completely authentic and honest with God. “I don’t feel like praying today” or “I’m really upset with you right now” can be very difficult to admit. It seems that the childhood expectation to be my best self before God still creeps up on me and makes me squirm under God’s gaze.
The Samaritan woman whom Jesus encounters at the well is a powerful model of discipleship and prayer. In a society where it was taboo to speak to a man alone, especially a Jew, she responds to Jesus at the well. With surprising candor, she pushes back and asks Jesus clarifying questions. Even when Jesus reveals knowledge of her personal life, she does not withdraw from conversation in shame, but searches for understanding with eyes of faith. Her courage elicits Jesus’ first self-revelation as the Christ, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
This week let’s let the Samaritan woman be our guide to encountering Jesus in prayer, so we too can approach him with authenticity, courage, and faith.
—Aaron Pierre, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic of the Midwest Province. He is in his final semester of studying theology at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University and is anticipating ordination to the priesthood in June.
Prayer
Jesus, you are the living water that alone can quench the deepest yearnings of our hearts. As we journey through Lent, we thirst for you “like a dry weary land without water” (Psalm 63). We know that you want to meet us at the well as you did the Samaritan woman. Give us the courage to bring our authentic selves and to not flee when we stand before you with our hearts exposed. Amen.