Dear friends in Christ, the
liturgy of today presents Jesus
Christ as the Eternal Living
Water. This underscores the
importance of Christ in our life. It also
admonishes us not to discriminate against
people on the basis of culture and race and
calls us to break all cultural barriers and
prejudices in order to let the eternal living
water flow into all hearts.
Water is one of the most important re-
quirements for the sustenance of all lives.
In fact, according to scientific studies,
water makes up to 60-75 percent of the
total body fluid. Hence, total withdrawal
or extraction of water from any person
will result to death. In the Old Testament,
water is a common metaphor for spiritual
satisfaction (Is 12, 3).
A story was told about a certain remote
village in Africa that encountered some
development experts from Europe who
were willing to provide some infrastruc-
ture that would add value to the lives of
the villagers. There was only one well in
the entire village, so the experts proposed
to build a borehole and run pipes that
will circulate water to each house in the
village but the villagers refused, they had
a different opinion from the proposal of
the experts. They preferred the central
village well to the borehole. They spoke
about how much they cherished the Well,
because it was their point of contact; the
Well was a common meeting place and it
was around this well they get information
about up-coming events in the village;
it was around the well that the women
tell stories and get news about births and
deaths and marriages. In short, the Well
was the fulcrum on which the village
rotates. The people were emotionally
attached to the Well and were not ready to
have anything that will take away the joy
and unity they derived from the presence
of the Well.
The Samaritan woman in the Gospel can
also be likened to the people of the remote
village above as she was seen speaking
passionately to Jesus about the importance
of the well. She was indeed emotionally
attached to the well. She asked Jesus: “Are
you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who
gave us the well, and with his sons and
his flocks, drank from it?” The Well has
a historical importance to the Samaritan
people. In life we are always attached to
something: sometimes we feel so attached
to our past, or to our material belonging,
to our tribes, families, friends, villages,
favourite foods and drinks, and to many
other temporal things. The Samaritan
woman was attached to a well that does
not last forever, but Jesus offers her
something that will last forever – the living
water. He 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”
(John 4:14).
Today therefore, Jesus invites us into the
wells of his living water as he did to the
Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. In those
days, it was taboo for a Jewish man to be
alone in public with a woman, much less
a Samaritan woman. In fact, the Jewish
prayer book (Siddur) contains a prayer
that says: “Blessed are you O God, King
of the Universe, who has not made me
a Gentile, a slave, or woman.” Even his
disciples were shocked to see Jesus with
the woman. To make matters worse, she
was a woman of easy virtue, having been
married severally in the past and currently
co-habiting with a man who is not her
husband. She was as thirsty for drinking
water as she was for the cleansing water
that Jesus had to offer. Given our own
sinfulness, we all share in her spiritual
thirst and the need for the living water
that Jesus gives.
Nevertheless, Jesus breaks the barriers
of culture and tradition to help the wom-
an. He treats her with dignity despite
being acutely aware of her undignified
existence. It was to give her a sense of
worth that he asked her for a drink of
water, and thereby made her realize her
own thirst for the living water of eternal
life. Next, he goes to the heart of the
matter by addressing the woman’s moral
life, which makes her realize that he is a
prophet. The Lord did not recall her past
to condemn or humiliate her but rather
to reveal himself to her as being not just
a Jew or just a prophet, but the Messiah
of God and the Redeemer of the world.
Consequently, her life was transformed
as she became a believer and disciple of
Jesus. She then left her bucket behind and
hurried off to her village to proclaim the
Good News to her people: “Come and see
a man who had told me everything I ever
did.” Thus, she was satisfying the Lord’s
thirst for her soul.
Dear friends, today is a great opportuni-
ty for us to accept Jesus’ offer of the living
water. He comes to us at the well of our
daily life as we struggle to provide for our
bodily needs. He wants us to realize that
nothing that this world has to offer can
take the place of the living water of life in
his kingdom. He so much thirsts for our
souls and that’s the reason he died for our
sake on the Cross. He wants us to reex-
amine our own lives and to reflect on the
times that we failed to practice integrity,
for the times that we failed to keep our
promises, for the times that we neglected
our prayer life, and for the times that we
showed a lack of empathy or kindness
towards others. Jesus reminds us of our
moments of weakness not to judge or
condemn us but rather to reveal himself
to us as the merciful and saving Lord.
He has the power to bring healing and
restoration no matter the situation. He
longs to have communion with us in a
most intimate way.
Therefore, let us be assured that
nothing could ever prevent the Lord
from giving us his living water, unless we
reject it ourselves. The season of Lent of-
fers a unique opportunity for us to leave
our buckets behind, like the Samaritan
woman, and go rather for Jesus’ living
water. The bucket says St. Augustine, is
our concupiscence which draws pleasure
from the dark wells of the world but is
never satisfied for long. But conversion
to Christ moves us, like the Samaritan
woman, to renounce the world, leave
behind the desires of our earthen vessels,
and follow a new way of life.
Accordingly, we must leave behind
our buckets of irreverence and indiffer-
ence, of avarice and licentiousness, of
gossips and calumny, of meanness and
narcissism, and of lust, covetousness,
greed, envy, jealousy, backbiting, slander,
defamation of character or character as-
sassination etc. And this underscores our
need for the sacrament of reconciliation
so as to be reconciled to the Father and
share in his communion but sometimes
we avoid the confessional thinking that
our sins are too great to be forgiven.
Dear friends, the Lord wants us to be
sure that his hands are always wide open
to welcome us back home just as he did
with the prodigal son when we are true
sorry for our sins and make conscious
resolve not to go back to them.
The Samaritan woman came to Jesus
not even realizing how burdened, thirsty,
and alone she was; but she ended up ex-
cited, fulfilled, forgiven, and surrounded
by fellow believers. She became certain
that her sins had been forgiven and
her guilt removed. She tasted the living
water of divine mercy, and her life was
transformed. so shall it be for us when
we will yearn for Christ the living water
to quench our taste and give us life.
May the Father of mercies give us this
living water to quench our thirst, give us
peace, tranquility of mind and body and
reconcile us to himself. Amen!
