Master·evangeli.net
Today's Gospel + short theological explanation
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” —For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.— Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water”...
Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me everything I have done.” When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. Many more began to believe in him because of his word...
The Samaritan woman. The Jesus’ weariness
EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)Today we contemplate the conversation with the Samaritan woman. The woman went every day to draw water from an ancient well, and on that day she found Jesus sitting beside the well, “wearied from his journey”.
Saint Augustine comments: “Not for nothing was Jesus tried. The strength of Christ created you, the weakness of Christ recreated you. With his strength he created us, with his weakness he came to seek us out”. Jesus’ weariness, a sign of His true humanity, can be seen as a prelude to the Passion. In the encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, the topic of Christ’s “thirst” stands out in particular. It culminated in His cry on the Cross “I thirst”. This thirst, like His weariness, had a physical basis. Yet Jesus thirsted for the faith of that woman, as He thirsts for the faith of us all.
—God the Father sent Him to quench our thirst for eternal life, giving us His love, but to give us this gift Jesus asks for our faith. The omnipotence of Love always respects human freedom.
