Lent is definitely a journey to Easter just as Advent is to Christmas. We dispose ourselves several weeks before the coming of the Lord Jesus to life; first at his birth and second at his resurrection. The First Sunday of Lent introduced Jesus as a person who prepares for his mission that was after the Baptism at Jordan River. Knowing that his task requires strength of character and clarity of vision, Jesus struggled to control the human in him for forty days and nights. Yes, like us humans, he was also tempted by the devil and resisted it. The Second Week of Lent, Jesus prepared his friends for the mission. They need to understand and accept the suffering of Jesus but they also received the promise of his victory over sin and death. Also presented was the last temptation of the devil using Peter. Jesus was tempted to stay in the glory of Mount Tabor and Peter is ready to settle in there and thus forget the mission of Jesus. But once again Jesus succeeded in resisting the temptation for comfort. The story closed with Jesus going down the mountain to bring the Good News to the sinner, the sick and the poor. And so the remaining three Sundays of Lent are all about the encounter of Jesus with a sinner, with a ailing person and to the grieving poor loved ones of a dead person. Jesus will bring the Good News to all of them. For these three Sundays, Jesus will stand out as the Way, the Truth, and the Life of humanity waiting for redemption.
Meeting the Woman at the Well
That great mission starts today. The Gospel presents Jesus and a woman at the well. The Old Testament is full of stories about the well and in those stories; the characters [man and woman] end up in marriage. The servant of Abraham met Rebeka near the well and the latter married Abraham's son Isaac. Jacob met Rachel at the well. Moses met the Zephorah at the well. The well is the analogue of town plaza during those times. A place where women use to see and chat with each other. They get their water provision from the well and they come either early in the morning or before dusk. So it is very unusual that the woman in today’s Gospel, who is a Samaritan, went into the well to fetch water at the height of the sun. Perhaps the woman is afraid to socialize with other women. Jesus told us why; this woman is living a sinful lifestyle.
This is one of the most interesting stories in the Bible. In broad day light, we see two very opposite persons conversing with each other filling the entire chapter 4 of John. One is a man and the other a woman. One is a Jew and the other a Samaritan. One is purely holy and the other a sinner. The Samaritan woman was shocked by how Jesus talked to her. How can a man who is a Jew talk to a woman who is a Samaritan and a sinner at that? Jesus is breaking cultural stereotypes in here.
Jesus opened a way for the woman to be reconciled to herself and to God. She restored the dignity lost when she swam into sin. Jesus is not only offering forgiveness to the woman; he wants to convert the woman and turn her into an evangelizer. The woman drastically change 360® and left her jar announcing to the world that here is a man whom prophets long foretold, a man who converted her. Before she met Jesus she was ashamed of her life. She didn’t even want to be seen by the people in fear that they might talk about her lifestyle. Now, after she met Jesus, she shouted out to the world to know that she was changed suddenly by a man she met at the well. For an ordinary woman, the jar means everything and by leaving the jar of water, the woman walked the path that leads her to the water that lasts for eternity. She left everything in exchange of that water promised by Jesus. Jesus told her that there is a way to get that water and a better way to enjoy this life. The water that quenches her thirst is just the same as the desire for the man. It will satisfy her temporarily but after sometime she is wanting even more. The woman is not only looking for living water that takes away her thirst forever, she is looking for an eternal spouse, like you and me. The woman mistaken those men to be the groom of her life but none lasted. After talking to Jesus, she finally found who [not what] she is looking for and immediately ran to the isle that leads her to the groom. She became part of the Church which is the spouse of Christ. The story also ended up in marriage. She is now waiting for the bridegroom to come as written in the book of Revelation. She will take part to the Wedding of the Lamb, the most awaited wedding in human history. She tried so many ways and yet found no groom until she met Christ.
Jesus is the way to conversion. Jesus is the only way. Jesus is the right way. He not only shows us or points us the way but he himself is the way. Only when the woman talked to him that she understood how to change her ways. Through the intimacy developed between Jesus and you/me, we reform the way of living that once imprisoned us. Let us ask Jesus to show us the fountain of living water to keep us going. The way of Christ is here, it is up to us if we will take the path like what the Samaritan woman did.
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