Week 47 - The Journey of Saint Photina
"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." [The woman] said to him, "Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the well is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?" Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." John 4:7-15
The encounter and the invitation. It is hot and Jesus is tired from His travels. He waits in Samaria at the well knowing He would encounter someone at this time of day. Jesus does not avoid conflict or the effects of sin, He encounters it and offers the free gift of life.
Jewish people and Samaritans did not mix, they did not like each other. There was another path Jesus could of taken but He chose to encounter these people and share the good news.
The woman was doing her normal routine going about her day as usual when this Jew asked for water. He should not talk to her, it isn't customary, yet He does. There is a peace about Him, He doesn't look down on her, just asks for a drink as He is physically thirsty. She on the other hand is spiritually thirsty. She too is tired, life has become monotonous, nothing seems to satisfy. She has tried many things, part of the reason she is fetching water in the middle of the day.
Jesus engages in conversation with a purpose. He knows the effects of sin, He knows a weary traveler when He sees one. The invitation is appealing, it is different than anything she has been asked before and her spirit says yes, give me this living water, I am tired.
The well spring of life is available to each of us and we become, over time, the vessel that carries Jesus who is the living water.
What is God saying to me? There is more to come, do not avoid conflict, engage it in peace, My peace and drink.
Dear Father, I sit at the well, drinking in the Peace of Christ. We all encounter situations, You give us the living water that we can respond with purpose. Help us understand the purpose is to be the vessel that carries the water not the vessel that carries the sin. Bless this day Lord, bless our words and our actions. Prayers for the blessings of living water to rain down upon us. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
Mary, Queen of Heaven, Pray for us.
St Joesph, Terror of Demons, Pray for us.
Viva Cristo Rey
Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. 1 John 4:4b
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