Third Sunday of Lent (Year A Readings)
The story of the Samaritan woman is such an attention-grabbing story. This mystery woman draws our attention like few other characters in the gospel. I have written many homilies with the Samaritan woman as the central character. Today though, instead of putting her centerstage, I would like to reflect on her story in light of a larger story. The story of the Samaritan woman, in reality, is a Divine drama played out on the human stage. The central plot is very simple. “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). There is everything in this drama. There is love, there is a hero, there are villains, there is betrayal, there is sacrifice, there is tragedy, there is redemption, and there is a happy ending. But most of all there is hope. The Samaritan woman personifies the hope of the human race. No one who enters this drama is left hopeless. In fact, as Paul says in today’s second reading, “…we boast in hope.”
In my three points today, I am going to reflect on the Samaritan woman, but within the divine drama of proven love, reawakened hope, and human salvation.
Hope
Today’s second reading begins with “And we boast in hope of the glory of God.” There is a recent writing of Pope Francis that has placed much emphasis on hope. His letter for Jubilee 2025 is called, Spes Non Confundit, or “Hope Does Not Disappoint.” Pope Francis defines hope as, “The desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring.” He then says, “God’s word helps us find reasons for that hope.”
As we reflect on this with the Samaritan woman in the background, we see how her conversation with Jesus helps her discovers hope. It was his words that brought her hope. After all, he was the Word of God made flesh. This hope did not lie somewhere outside her. It lay within her. All along, she had searched outside. There were five husbands and the one she was living with was not her husband. And then she met Jesus. He said to her, “The water I shall give will become in you a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14).
Let me point here as an aside that some scripture scholars say that this is one of those passages where we see possibilities of Gnostic interpretations. The focus on the inner spiritual awakening over the emphasis on tradition, the focus on God as Spirit, and particularly toward the end, the Samaritan the woman's role as a vessel of knowledge, allow for gnostic interpretations. I will return to this point later, but I want to end this point by recalling the hope Jesus offered to her, and that he wanted her to discover it within herself.
Love
The “spring of living water” that Jesus offers the Samaritan woman is an important development in the Divine drama. According to Jesus, “…whoever drinks will never be thirsty again” (Jn 4:14). Perhaps the best way to explain the spring of living water that Jesus offers is Paul’s words, “And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Once again, the Samaritan woman had looked for love everywhere but within herself. And then she met Jesus. He who stood in front of her was divine love in human flesh. She probably had not understood everything he said, but very soon she will. Not only will she recognize him as the Messiah but will also know the love that would lead him the cross. But Jesus had evoked enough love within her to make her leave her water jar at the well, go to her town and say, “Come see a man who told me everything I have done” (Jn 4:28). She had come to know Love himself.
Salvation
As I said earlier, scripture scholars say that the story of the Samaritan woman opens up possible gnostic interpretations. Having said that, thinking that the hope and love the Samaritan woman came to recognize within her was merely a spiritual understanding is to miss the point of John’s story. Without ruling out the inner spiritual awakening in the Samaritan women, it was the person standing in front of her who becomes her hope. It was Jesus who offered her the living water. It was more than a spiritual reawakening. It was Jesus who became the source of salvation for her thirsty soul.
Salvation is not merely an impersonal spiritual reawakening within us. Salvation is God’s life offered to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Salvation is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is salvation. This is why the Samaritan woman was not content with the possibility of a spring of living water within her. He went to her town and said, “Come see the man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?” (Jn 14”28). They came. They saw. The believed. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world” (Jn 4:42).
I had said earlier that the story of the Samaritan woman in reality is a Divine drama played out on the human stage. But you and I are not spectators. We are actors in this drama. The Samaritan woman is you and me. We come Sunday after Sunday and stand before the One before whom the Samaritan woman stood. He is our hope. He is our Redemption. He is the One through whom “the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Like the Samaritan woman, let us too play our part in the Divine Drama. Like her, we too leave our jars at the well. Like her, we too go to the towns and tell others, “Come and meet the man who is my life, my love, my hope, and my redemption.”
- Fr. Satish Joseph