Today's Gospel (Jn 4:5-42): Jesus came to a Samaritan town called
Sychar, near the land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's
well is there. Tired from his journey, Jesus sat down by the well; it
was about noon.
Now
a Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus said to her, «Give
me a drink». His disciples had just gone into town to buy some
food. The Samaritan woman said to him, «How is it that you, a
Jew, ask me, a Samaritan and a woman, for a drink?» (For Jews,
in fact, have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus replied, «If
you only knew the Gift of God! If you knew who it is that asks you
for a drink, you yourself would have asked me and I would have given
you living water».
The
woman answered, «Sir, you have no bucket and this well is deep;
where is your living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob,
who gave us this well after he drank from it himself, together with
his sons and his cattle?». Jesus said to her, «Those who
drink of this water will be thirsty again; but those who drink of the
water that I shall give will never be thirsty; for the water that I
shall give will become in them a spring of water welling up to
eternal life». The woman said to him, «Give me this
water, that I may never be thirsty and never have to come here to
draw water». Jesus said, «Go, call your husband and come
back here». The woman answered, «I have no husband».
And Jesus replied, «You are right to say: ‘I have no
husband’; for you have had five husbands and the one you have
now is not your husband. What you said is true».
The
woman then said to him, «I see you are a prophet; tell me this:
Our fathers used to come to this mountain to worship God; but you
Jews, do you not claim that Jerusalem is the only place to worship
God?». Jesus said to her, «Believe me, woman, the hour is
coming when you shall worship the Father, but that will not be on
this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship without
knowledge, while we Jews worship with knowledge, for salvation comes
from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is even now here, when the
true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for that
is the kind of worshippers the Father wants. God is spirit and those
who worship him must worship in spirit and truth».
The
woman said to him, «I know that the Messiah, that is the
Christ, is coming; when he comes, he will tell us everything».
And Jesus said, «I who am talking to you, I am he».
At
this point the disciples returned and were surprised that Jesus was
speaking with a woman; however, no one said, «What do you
want?» or: «Why are you talking with her?». So the
woman left her water jar and ran to the town. There she said to the
people, «Come and see a man who told me everything I did! Could
he not be the Christ?». So they left the town and went to meet
him.
In
the meantime the disciples urged Jesus, «Master, eat».
But He said to them, «I have food to eat that you don't know
about». And the disciples wondered, «Has anyone brought
him food?». Jesus said to them, «My food is to do the
will of the One who sent me and to carry out his work. You say that
in four more months it will be the harvest; now, I say to you, look
up and see the fields white and ready for harvesting. People who reap
the harvest are paid for their work, and the fruit is gathered for
eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. Indeed
the saying holds true: ‘One sows and another reaps’. I
sent you to reap where you didn't work or suffer; others have worked
and you are now sharing in their labors».
In
that town many Samaritans believed in him when they heard the woman
who declared, «He told me everything I did». So, when
they came to him, they asked him to stay with them and Jesus stayed
there two days. After that many more believed because of his own
words and they said to the woman, «We no longer believe because
of what you told us; for we have heard for ourselves and we know that
this is the Savior of the world».
