Today’s readings: Exodus 17, 3-7; Romans 5, 1-2.5-8; John 4, 5-42.
There are vicious circles in life which serve as our prisons, or even as comfort zones, providing a routine in life that actually kills meaning. The story of the woman at the well in John’s gospel is a case in point where Jesus substitutes routine with rhythm, and hence with inner harmony.
We often hear stories about the heart of a woman that gets pushed aside, wounded, buried. Here is the story of a woman whose soul is unveiled, disclosing within her, the thirst to find the life she was meant to live. It’s the art of Jesus to enter soul-talk, to connect with people going beyond barriers of any sort.
The Scriptures tell us that the heart is central. “Above all else”, we read in the book of Proverbs, “guard your heart , for it is the wellspring of life”. This is what this third Sunday of Lent is about. God knows that our heart is core to who we are. It is the source of all our creativity, our courage, and our convictions.
On the mountain of the Transfiguration, Jesus discloses his identity to the eyes of three of his disciples. It was just a momentous glimpse. Now in the town of Sychar near Jacob’s well, he discloses his true identity to the heart of a woman, captivating her but at the same time unveiling the mystery of her soul.
Jesus, in his deep knowledge of humanity, knew very well how to address a woman’s heart. It was very different from the way he dealt with Nicodemus or with Zacchaeus.
The woman at the well was probably a woman moving from lover to lover trying to fill a void within her. Here Jesus’ journey is not as usual to Jerusalem but to a woman’s heart.
The God we believe in is not somewhere out there, possibly far away. He is just in front of us. In the encounter with this man Jesus, a stranger, this woman did not find what she was in search of, but something radically different and definitively more meaningful and lasting.
From this dialogue, it transpires that in the depths of her heart she was a believer and had some expectancy in life. Probably, as many do today, she had also her delusions with her religion. Yet she was ready, unlike many of her contemporaries and ours, to discover the gift of the Lord’s presence.
It was not that easy for Jesus, in that specific culture and instance, to start a discourse with a woman from Samaria. Most probably he should not have even dreamt of doing it. It was surely not appropriate at all, according to the religious rules. But he did it. For him there were no political, cultural, or religious barriers, let alone barriers of prejudice.
He also had a strategy. From just “give me water to drink”, he passes to a deeper, spiritual level, almost playing with words. Her first reaction was aggressive; her second was common sense. To enter into some form of spiritual dialogue with people who claim to be, or who are non-believers seems to be one of the most difficult challenges we believers face today.
Spirituality, as Jesus most ably demonstrates, does not necessarily use, or start with God-talk. Unfortunately in a culture allergic to dogmatism and which is becoming relativistic, we continue to opt for security by dishing out answers before finding ways of empathising to understand the questions in the hearts of people. Spirituality is about sharing the deep insights within our heart and opening to the deeper meaning of life.
In The Audacity of Spirit, Jack Finnegan writes: “As societies go into ethico-moral and cultural decline the spiritual search re-emerges, not because spirituality is a symptom of socio-cultural deterioration but because it represents an active reaction against it”.
These are the times in which we now live. This is what challenges us mostly when we ponder on the possibilities of connecting with people and with present-day culture. I often wonder how and when we can recover this art of connecting which we have lost in many respects. Will we grasp the chance in the footsteps of Jesus?