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Icon of the Samaritan woman with Jesus at the well - 8th century, Antioch |
“Everyone
who drinks of this water will thirst again; but the one who drinks of the water
that I will give will never thirst again
. . . a spring of water welling
up to eternal life.”
We see how the Israelites’
hearts became hardened by their sufferings in the desert as we read the Exodus story read
today. We come to understand that though
they saw God’s mighty deeds, still, in their preoccupation with thirst, they
grumbled and put God to the test. This was a crisis point recalled also in today’s Psalm
95, so familiar to us from the office of daily Morning Prayer.
As Pope Benedicts
pointed out in one of his Angelus meditations for the Third Sunday in Lent: The
theme of thirst runs throughout John’s Gospel: from the meeing with the
Samaritan woman at the well to the great prophecy during the feast of
Tabernacles (John 7: 37-38) and even from the cross, when Jesus fulfills the Scriptures when he says “I thirst” (John 19:28).
Jesus thirsts for the
good of others, for their salvation (John 19:28). He longs to give the
Samaritan woman “living water” that wells up to eternal life.
Let us hear Jesus
again in the words of the classic tones of the KJV translation:
“Whosoever
drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst; but the water that I shall give shall be in him a well of water
springing up into everlasting life.”
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Icon of the Woman of Samaria with Our Lord - Artist unknown |
The well from which we have drawn is also a worthy patrimony, that of the Anglican or English Catholic Church. Like the Jewish tradition it is a worthy tradition of faith handed down the generations from many who have served God in their generation. It has and has been for the good of God’s people. It is t the church of our Baptism for many of us here today. It is a worthy heritage and is the spring-water, which has nourished many saints through the ages.
The living spring water is deep within the tradition yet we cannot rely solely upon tradition we need the living water of Jesus himself, his presence with us.
In an interesting parallel, the Samaritans were actually Israelites who had escaped exile when Assyria conquered the Northern Kingdom eight centuries before Christ (2 Kings 17:6,24-41). They were despised for intermarrying with non-Israelites and worshipping at Mount Gerizim, not in Jerusalem.
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Woman at the well - modern icon |
These waters flow as the Holy Spirit (John 7:38-39), the gift of God, is given to his people (Hebrews 6:4). By these living waters the ancient enmities of Samaritans and Jews may be washed away, the dividing wall between Israel and the nations broken down. (Ephesians 2:12-14,18).
Since Jesus hour, all may drink of the Spirit in Baptism (1 Cor 12:13) and in this Eucharist, the Lord is now in our midst – He was at the Rock of Horeb and at the well of Jacob and he is present with us today in Word and Sacrament.
Jesus calls us to believe him today: “I am He,” Jesus proclaims. He is the Messiah who has come to pour out the love of God into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. How can our hearts remain hardened? Jesus is here for all and his Sacred Heat offers us life – living water for all who will accept him and we turn to him in humility and penitence.
He is here, with us in his real presence at the altar saying to us: whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.”
Jesus is the: “spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
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Woman at the well - a modern icon |
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