The gospel readings for the Sundays of Lent, especially in the cycle that we read this year, are very powerful. They lead us on a journey of encounters of faith where Jesus brings about a transformation. And that is very appropriate for Lent, because it is meant to be a time of transformation. In the tradition of the Church, people who feel called to become Catholic enter into a deeper sense of preparation during these final weeks before Easter, when they are fully initiated into the Church. For members of the Church, it is a time to reflect on our own lives, and to seek transformation (especially through the Sacrament of Reconciliation) so that we once again made present ourselves before our Lord with the white garment of our Baptism.
Today’s gospel has many layers, and portrays a rich symbolism. The verse right before the gospel reading mentions that “Jesus had to pass through Samaria.” Geographically, that was not true. Jews avoided Samaria, and would take a route across the Jordan to do so. Jesus had to pass through Samaria because the encounter he was about to have was very important.
A Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well at noon. At the hottest time of day, when no sensible person would come out to the well. We learn in the gospel that there was a good reason for this – she is ashamed. She is known to the villagers as a very sinful woman, and she avoids them. Frankly, they would not want her to be around when they got their water.
So, she is probably quite surprised to see Jesus there. And he tells her: “Give me a drink.” To us that sounds rude, but to her, it sounds insane. No Jews would ever drink from a vessel handled by a Samaritan woman, because she was considered impure. She even points this out to him. But perhaps she starts to notice something… as a very vulnerable person, shunned by her community, she is encountering Jesus who is making himself vulnerable.
The conversation then takes an almost absurd turn, with role reversal and misunderstanding. Jesus challenges her faith (“if you knew the gift of God”), and expresses it is she who would be asking him for water – and it would be living water. She misunderstands and humors Jesus. How is he going to get her water if he does not even have a bucket? But… she does not let the faith reference slip! “Are you greater than our father Jacob?” She is not going to let this Jew get away with implying that Samaritans are not true descendants from Abraham through Jacob.
Jesus is slowly leading her to the truth, and does so by calling out her sinfulness – not in a judgmental way, but as a matter of fact. And she does not dispute it! And as he revealed himself to her, the Samaritan woman left her water jug, went into town, and witnessed to the Messiah.
This woman, who was too ashamed to get water from the well when there might be other people there, no longer cares about the water. And she is no longer ashamed. She has become a witness for Christ. She was transformed – a repentant sinner.
What about us? Do we acknowledge our sin? Do we repent? Do we recognize that we God? Do we understand that, no matter how unworthy we may feel, God wants us with him in heaven? Do we thirst for the living water, the “spring of water welling up to eternal life.”