2nd June Trinity II
John 4:1-26
At this time, the Lord
became aware that it was rumored among the Pharisees that Jesus was finding and
baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize,
though his disciples did.) Therefore he left Judea and went back again to
Galilee.
Now
he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar,
near the plot of land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was also
there. Jesus was weary with the journey, and he sat down by the well. It was
about midday, the sixth hour.
Then a Samaritan woman came
to draw water. And Jesus said to her, "Give me to drink," for his
disciples had gone into town to buy bread.
Then the Samaritan woman
said to him, "How can you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a
Samaritan woman?" For the Jews avoided all contact with the Samaritans.
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| Tissot |
Jesus answered her, "If
you knew how the
divine world now draws near to human beings, and who it is who
says to you, 'Give me to drink,' you would ask him, and he would give you the
water of life [or, the living water].
"Sir," the woman
said to him, "you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From
where will you draw the living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his flocks
and herds?"
Jesus answered, "Everyone
who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the
water that I will give them, their thirst will be quenched for all time.
Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up
as true life for eternity."
The woman said to him, "Sir,
give me this water, that I may never be thirsty again, and need never come here
again to draw."
He said to her, "Go
call your husband and show him to me."
"I have no husband,"
she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You
have well said that you have no husband. Five husbands
you have had, and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said
truly."
"Sir," the woman
said, "I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this
mountain, but you Jews say that only in Jerusalem is the place where one should
worship."
Jesus answered, "Believe
me, O woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on
this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship a being you do not know; we worship
what we do know. That is why salvation had to be prepared for among the Jews.
But the hour is coming and has now come
when the true worshippers will worship the Father with the power of the Spirit
and in awareness [or, knowledge]
of the truth."
Then the woman said to him, "I
know that the Messiah is coming who is called Christ. When he comes, he will
teach us all things."
Jesus
said to her, "I AM he who stands before you and speaks to you."
2nd
June Trinity
June
6, 2021
John
4:1-26
Sometimes
a person is too ill to take anything by mouth, and it becomes necessary to give
fluids directly into the bloodstream. As a result, the person feels no thirst,
for thirst is quenched by another source.
In
this gospel reading, Christ meets a woman drawing water from an ancient well.
It was a well established by Jacob the Patriarch and over the centuries had
quenched many a thirst. But over those same centuries, humankind had become
more and more ill. This illness produced a deep existential thirst that needed
to be quenched in another way.
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| Julia Stankova |
The
hope was that this thirst for meaning, a thirst for guidance and purpose, could
be quenched by the five senses, represented by the woman’s five husbands. She is
the Soul, looking everywhere for her missing half, for her completion by the
Spirit. She looks for meaning through taste and touch, through sight and sound
and scent. She looks to the past and the ancient ways; she looks for purpose in
high worship on the mountain. But no longer does any of this suffice. This
experience is captured by Rumi:
I have a thirsty fish in
me
that can never find
enough
of what it’s thirsty
for!
Show me the way to the
ocean!*
Humanity’s
Soul is ill. She needs the World Physician who will quench our deep thirst
another way. “Whoever drinks the water that I will give her, her thirst will be
quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I will give her will become in her a
spring of water welling up as true life for eternity.” John 4:14
Through
our union with Christ, our deep existential thirst will be quenched, for we
will be connected to the Source; we will find our way to the great ocean,
drinking in, filling ourselves with His life-giving love.
