Vol. 6, No. 26
Daughters of Mary Commentary
14 March 2017
John 4:5-42
At the beginning of this gospel reading Jesus has just arrived in Sychar, a city in Samaria. Just a few verses before this, it says that Jesus was leaving Judea and heading to Galilee and that “He had to pass through Samaria.” Jews normally traveled a longer route from Judea to Galilee by skirting around the eastern side of Samaria along the Jordan River. So, the only reason Jesus “had” to pass through Samaria was because of divine necessity, not geography. For centuries, there was great animosity between Jews and Samaritans. In the eighth century B.C. masses of Israelites were deported out of the land and foreigners resettled there. According to the Jews, the remaining Israelites co-mingled in their pagan practices and intermarried with them. The Jews considered themselves far above the Samaritans. I tell you all of this to set the stage for Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman.
Jesus was weary from his journey and sat down at Jacob’s well. His disciples left him and went into town to buy food. While Jesus was resting at the well around noon, a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
woman said, “How is it that you a Jew ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” In her mind, Jesus had just broken three social taboos. First, men do not converse with women in public; second, a Jew would not share a drink with a Samaritan; and third, a man would not associate with a recognized sinner. Now, why is it apparent that she is a sinner? Well, our first clue is that she is drawing water at noon, when she is least likely to encounter other women. Women drew water before or after the heat of the day and it was a very social time for them. She perhaps knew that her company may not have been welcomed by respectable Samaritan women.
Jesus answered her question and said, “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.” Jesus goes on to say, “Everyone 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.” When the woman asks for this living water, Jesus tells her to “Go call your husband and come here.” When she replies that she has no husband, Jesus says to her, “You are right in saying ‘I have no husband’ for you have had five husbands and he whom you now have is not your husband.” Jesus has just exposed her sinful lifestyle. The woman is awestruck that this man, Jesus, knows things about her that he could not possibly have known by merely human means.
This one encounter with this one man has turned the woman’s world upside down. She “left her water jar, and went away into the city, and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’ “ The people came out of the city to see this man, Jesus. “Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.”
The moment the Samaritan woman puts down her water jar is the moment she becomes a missionary. This is such a vivid scene in my mind. She comes to the well at noon to avoid the other women and the shame she must carry with her like a yoke. She probably has her head and eyes lowered. And out of nowhere a Jewish man speaks to her and in their conversation reveals her life of sin to her. Jesus offers her the one thing that she has been thirsting for her whole life — living water and the Holy Spirit. It is only in the living water of Jesus that we find true contentment. When she walks away from her water jug, she is walking away from all of the earthly desires and comforts she once depended on. She is instantly comforted in God’s grace. If not for grace, she would never had had the confidence to walk into town and proclaim anything; much less the encounter she had just had and the public admission of her sins!
It is this image of the Samaritan woman that came to mind two Sundays ago in Mass when we sang “On Eagle’s Wings.” I have always loved this song, probably because of the vivid imagery. And I usually tear up when I sing it. But it is so often sung at funerals, that I usually think of the deceased being held by the wings of the Holy Spirit. After studying this gospel and then singing this song, I now see the Samaritan woman “shining like the sun” after leaving her life of darkness. And I see her gently but securely being “held in the palm of His hand,” after her encounter with Jesus. And after leaving her water jug, she is unconcerned with earthly matters, “And famine will bring you no fear.” She was not thinking about the water she came to the well to get in the first place. She was no longer intimidated by the arrows of gossip of the other women, “You need not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day.”
We all hold tightly to our own water jugs—those earthly matters that often distract from and even derail the best intentions for intimate relationship with Jesus. And just like the Samaritan woman, we are all called to put down our water jugs, proclaim the Gospel in both our words and in our deeds and “shine like the sun.”
Sources:
Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament, Second Catholic Edition RSV
Magnificat, March 2017
On Eagle’s Wings
Fr. Michael Joncas
You who dwell in the shelter of the Lord,
Who abide in His shadow for life,
Say to the Lord, “My Refuge,
My Rock in Whom I trust.”
And He will raise you up on eagle’s wings,
Bear you on the breath of dawn,
Make you to shine like the sun,
And hold you in the palm of His Hand.
The snare of the fowler will never capture you,
And famine will bring you no fear;
Under His Wings your refuge,
His faithfulness your shield.
And He will raise you up on eagle’s wings,
Bear you on the breath of dawn,
Make you to shine like the sun,
And hold you in the palm of His Hand.
You need not fear the terror of the night,
Nor the arrow that flies by day,
Though thousands fall about you,
Near you it shall not come.
And He will raise you up on eagle’s wings,
Bear you on the breath of dawn,
Make you to shine like the sun,
And hold you in the palm of His Hand.
For to His angels He’s given a command,
To guard you in all of your ways,
Upon their hands they will bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
And He will raise you up on eagle’s wings,
Bear you on the breath of dawn,
Make you to shine like the sun,
And hold you in the palm of His Hand.
And hold you in the palm of His Hand.
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