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<\/p>\nWater is prominent in the Gospels. Jesus accepted baptism in the waters of Jordan. His first disciples were men working the waters of the Galilee Sea. He walked on water. He calmed waters. He taught from the boat rocking gently on the waves. He turned water into wine. He washed his disciples\u2019 feet in water.\u00a0 He painfully thirsted on the Cross.
\nSignificance of the water, the source of life and of the well which gives access to it is largely lost on us, the people living in so called developed countries.\u00a0 We take it for granted. Most of us never drew water from the well or carried heavy water buckets home.
\nThere is the natural \u201cdrinking water\u201d and the \u201cliving water\u201d in today\u2019s Gospel. One quenches the thirst of human body, the other ensures immortality of the soul.
\nWhile we may not be moved much by symbolism of natural water, the \u201cliving water\u201d mentioned by Jesus may ring the bell for us. Although well- hydrated and physically clean, we still crave immortality and fear death. I often think that the fear of death is really the last gift that we receive from God in this life, His last attempt to save us. Yet this is a different topic, so let\u2019s return to the water and the well.
\nJesus arrives at the well about midday.
\nIn ancient times all sources of water \u2013 be it a spring, a well or a fountain were meeting places of special significance, often unchanging for hundreds if not thousands of years. In villages and towns they attracted women, girls and slaves especially. It was their task to carry water for domestic purposes. Out of town wells provided water also for\u00a0 shepherds and their flocks. If you were a traveller and you wished to contact the locals, the local well was the best spot because it was a gathering place unlike any other. It stood for our internet, press, radio and TV all together.
\nI have heard the following story from a missionary to one of the developing countries. At a great of cost and after much international campaigning, a pipeline leading from a remote spring to a village located some 5 km away was built. The idea was to relieve the local women who had to walk all that distance daily, carrying water from the spring \u2013 as their mothers and grandmothers before them had done in the past. The day came when water gushed from the tap at the end of the pipeline located\u00a0 in the middle of the village, close to all huts. Victorious photo session for the international media and much feasting\u00a0 followed. Two weeks later, however, the pump at the source of the pipeline was smashed up with stones. Then the pipeline itself was broken in several places.
\nInvestigation that followed led to an unbelievable discovery \u2013 it was the village women themselves who destroyed the pipeline. The daily trips to the spring were their chance\u00a0 to meet freely without any supervision. It was by that spring that the women met to chat, gossip, exchange news, even arrange marriages discretely (to be suggested later to their husbands). They did not mind the toil.
\nThe pipeline was never rebuilt.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Why did the Samaritan woman in today\u2019s Gospel come to the well with her water jar at high noon, the hottest time of the day? The Jacob\u2019s well was outside the town, so it must have been quite a walk. Most probably, being a local \u201cfallen woman\u201d she would have been treated with public scorn by the chaste and the married ladies who drew water in the cool of morning.\u00a0 Maybe she even was in some way forbidden to mix with the \u201cgood\u201d women. Maybe she had already been attacked, beaten, pushed away from the well, made to wait with her jar until all were done filling theirs. A concubine of six men had no place in the decent society,
\nAnd it was this woman, a heretic with Assyrian ancestry, a moral outcast, that Jesus was waiting for at the Jacob\u2019s well.
\nThe dialogue between the Samaritan woman and Jesus is amazing. He asks her for water. She knows that she should not fulfill his request \u2013any kind of contact with her or use of her drinking cup would defile him ritually.
\n“How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
\nA Jew would not touch the cup she has handled. Any strange man met at the well would half-ignore her presence. He would not talk to her beyond giving her maybe a brief command. No observant son of Abraham in those times would also discuss any religious topics with a strange Samaritan woman.\u00a0 Imagine discussing Holy Trinity with a bar girl when you step into the bar to buy a can of Cola.
\nThis is the most amazing conversation in all of the Bible.
\nSeeing that this strange Rabbi is kind and willing to talk to her the Samaritan woman is immediately full of questions.\u00a0 She begins with the most burning problem \u2013 am I believing in the right God ? Which temple should He be worshipped in?
\nIf one considers the fact that in those times religion was for most people what they practiced, not theology, her questions are very logical and show that she had thought about it all before.
\nWho knows? Maybe it was her personal situation \u2013 those sins, humiliation and misery, the rejection by her community – that had turned her thoughts to God.\u00a0 In any case, the Samaritan woman seems to be strangely ready for Jesus\u2019 words. She is like an child \u2013 she just wants to know. When she asks Jesus \u201cgive me the water, the living water\u201d, she seems quite serious, as a child would. His words fall into her and immediately bear fruit.
\nThe part I love in this story is how Jesus tells her He knows her sins. There is no condemnation in his words \u2013 it is just a statement. He is not advising her how to change her life, he is not telling her how bad is her situation.\u00a0 For her, his knowledge of her sinfulness is a sign that she needed. This Rabbi is a prophet, a man of God, he told her \u201cwhat she had done\u201d\u00a0 and she is full of joy. She does not focus on her sins and her \u201cbadness\u201d.\u00a0 Sinfulness is normal \u2013 God\u2019s love is a new, amazing discovery and she will not be distracted from it. The Samaritan woman is fully focused on God\u2019s love which she feels is much, much greater than any human transgression. Later on, when she brings the news to town, she will use her sins as part of her testimony. Again, she will not display any particular regret. Her wasted life \u2013 in contact with Jesus \u2013 has become a spring board into God\u2019s love.
\nShe can teach us how to confess sins.<\/p>\n
Water is prominent in the Gospels. Jesus accepted baptism in the waters of Jordan. His first disciples were men working the waters of the Galilee Sea. He walked on water. He calmed waters. He taught from the boat rocking gently on the waves. He turned water into wine. He washed his disciples\u2019 feet in water.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n