TEXT: The Holy Gospel According to St. John 4:5-42 (LONG)

(This passage of holy scripture is so rich and full, I dare not pass over any part of it. Yet, what I have presented does not even scratch the surface of the depth and beauty of the precious words that are here given by this beloved apostle, St. John. Let us pray that we learn to live close to Jesus like that disciple who took her to his own home, as the gift given to us all by Jesus on the Cross, our blessed Mother, Maria. I recall the water was mixed with blood there.)

When God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form and void. There was chaos. Yet, God moved upon the face of the waters, over the deep, and God said, let there be light.

When John begins his Gospel, there is a reflection of that Genesis 1:1-3 story again. In the beginning the Word of God, the Water of Life himself, moved by the Holy Spirit and the Father in the Holy Trinity to bring "water" to all in need.

I love God.

I love the Lord of Life, our Water, that One whom as a deer that is thirsty I am continually seeking.

Yet, it was God who first reached out to me, and you, to all of us.

We were not the first movers. God moved first and became one of us and dwelled among us, and, we beheld his Glory, the Glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. This Son of Mary, that John knew so well, is full of grace and mercy toward you and me, and surely we will see this after we read and reflect upon the blessed story before us today.

It begins in a little town on the way to Jerusalem for Jesus. There is a flow here that speaks to the direction of low for the Water of Life.

5 So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6 Jacob's well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

Jesus is tired and thirsty. The Humanity of Jesus is real.

Yet, there is more. This is the place where Joseph was cast into the pit, the well without water. There Joseph, the son of Jacob, was thirsty. It was near the field that Jacob (Israel) gave his dear son, Joseph. It was about 12 noon. It was hot and dry. Jesus labored for humanity. He would soon be in Jerusalem where he would call out from the Cross, "I Thirst." John and Mary would hear that cry.

Samaria and Samaritans were not beloved of the Jews.

Yet, listen to more,

7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."
8 For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
10 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."

How rich and full is our Lord Jesus. He who made the waters and us, knows our needs. Our deepest need is Jesus, the Living Water. Yet, so often, we seek that which cannot satisfy. Beloved, Immanuel came down and looked upon our sufferings and felt them. (cf.. Exodus 3). Now, Jesus asks for water, and says to 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."

11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where do you get that living water?
12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?"
13 Jesus said to her, "Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again,
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

When I was a boy growing up in California, I attended a Church in down town Los Angeles. It was a Bible believing Church and there were many great messages from the Bible that were taught there. Still, one of the greatest message taught to me every Sunday was the message that was inscribed over the drinking fountain that I read so much that every time I now take a drink from a water fountain, or stand beside my river here in Montana, the words ring forth. It is raining as I write this and I hear the water hitting the roof of my trailer. The words are -- "Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

With the woman, let us know this and say with her --

15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."

But, wait, we must deal with something first in order that we may never thirst again.

Listen to the "flow" of the water that wishes to cleanse us from every sin, that we might walk with Jesus in holiness, perfect love, before God.

16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."
17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband';
18 for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly."

God meets us where we are at, beloved.

Please note that Jesus did not say one word to condemn her. He just stated the unabashed facts. The woman had been with five husbands and the man that she lived with while Jesus spoke to her was not her husband either.

Her reaction?

19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."

Let us remember that Jesus was on the way ultimately to Jerusalem, there to suffer and die, yet, he has time for this Samaritan.

When I look and this and read this, I sense that -- we too have Hope. Here was a terrible sinner, yet, Jesus takes time to heal her. He who asked for water, now, offers himself, the Water of Life. Listen to this passage that reflects the relationship of the Holy Trinity in working out in the events of time that blessed plan and purpose of God from all eternity. How deep is this Love of God for us?

It is far deeper than the depths of the deep beneath the waters of Genesis 1:1-2 upon which the Spirit of God moved. Then, to this woman, God spoke to her need, and ours --

21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

She is moved, because God is speaking and moving the waters of her soul, and ours, to realize where we have come from -- God. It is written upon our hearts, and, we will hear the Voice of Jesus and live. We desire him. We need Jesus. We want that Water that we might not thirst ever again. Yet, how shall we obtain that which we cannot generate in our own strength?

25 The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things."
26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he." I wish I could have seen the expression upon her face when he said those words. "I who speak to you am he."

Her eyes must have been riveted to his eyes and his words. "I who speak to you am he."

Perhaps, Jesus and the Samaritan woman were still looking at one another silently as the disciples returned. Perhaps, they were still talking. It was "Just then. . .," whatever that may mean.

27 Just then his disciples came. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, "What do you wish?" or, "Why are you talking with her?"

Bout, the woman acted with what she understood now within her being,

28 So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city, and said to the people,
29 "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?"
30 They went out of the city and were coming to him.

She needed nothing more than that encounter to convince her of her own sin and her own destiny. COME and SEE!

These were the words that I learned as I sought to become a Catholic, after I had served many years as an ordained evangelical pastor, as "Rev. Ronald D. Curley." Come and you will see! I came, and, I saw -- gratia deo!

There is much in this Gospel of God that John writes for us with the help of Maria, our Mother.

31 Meanwhile the disciples besought him, saying, "Rabbi, eat."
32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know."
33 So the disciples said to one another, "Has any one brought him food?"
34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.

Perhaps, Maria echoes for John's ears those words that the 12 year old boy Jesus spoke to Joseph and Mary in the Temple at the Passover Feast (the pasach, the paschal Lamb) he would become someday, after they had searched for him for three days -- (Cf.. Luke 2:49-51), And he said to them, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" And they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.

Let us hear these words again, because it is the Father's will that we might be witness for Christ in whatever manner is the will of the Father.

It is the Holy Spirit that will give us the power to be those witnesses for Christ.

It is Christ Jesus who is our Example.

It is Mary who is our Sanctissima of the virtues that this Samaritan woman would eventually become more likened unto, even as we all are destined to become, be made into, that "chaste virgin," mentioned by St. Paul in II Corinthians 11:2. Paul desired to betroth us all to one husband as a chaste virgin to Christ!

I believe, beloved, I see why we (the remnant of her offspring) are all pictured with Mary and Jesus in Revelation 12. There, waters seek to drown us. Here, Jesus, the Water of Life seeks to save that which is lost.

He sends us with a commission to proclaim the Gospel message, no matter if we are priests, deacons, religious or laity! We all have this GIFT through Christ, our Water, to proclaim the Good News!

35 Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest.
36 He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.
37 For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.'
38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

The power of a word from one transformed is the awesome reflection of the power of God!

39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me all that I ever did."
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days.
41 And many more believed because of his word.
42 They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world."

Oh, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away. . .

Sat. Gregory of Nyssa said of this beautiful Hope we have in our Water of Life -- "Hope always draws the soul from the beauty that is seen to what is beyond, always kindles the desire for the hidden through what is perceived."

It is interesting to me here, that the woman left her empty jar. And, as far as I can see, she never gave him a drink of water. Yet, they were both full.

And, today, we may be filled, if we come to Jesus as we are and confess (acknowledge our own sinfulness this Lenten season as we approach our Savior and our Lord whom we follow to Jerusalem from Sychar in Samaria.



Deus et Sanctissima.