Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 4, 5-42
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.Jacob’s well was there.Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well.It was about noon.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 Godand 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 cistern is deep;
where then can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob,
who gave us this cistern 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.”
Jesus said to her,“Go call your husband and come back.”The woman answered and said to him,“I do not have a husband.”Jesus answered her,“You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.What you have said is true.”The woman said to him,“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”Jesus said to her,“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Fatherneither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews.But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.God is Spirit, and those who worship himmust worship in Spirit and truth.”The woman said to him,“I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.”Jesus said to her,“I am he, the one speaking with you.”
At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?”The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, “Come see a man who told me everything I have done.Could he possibly be the Christ?”They went out of the town and came to him.Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”But he said to them,“I have food to eat of which you do not know.”So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?”
Jesus said to them,“My food is to do the will of the one who sent meand to finish his work.Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’?I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.The reaper is already receiving payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”
Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in himbecause 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, and 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.”
If you knew the gift of God
1) The well. There is a story to the place where Jesus meets the Samaritan woman, and she reminds him of its importance. You must understand that behind things or situations you want to change and behind every person you meet there is a story, something that has left a mark on his or her life. Today, I invite you to look at the people around you and try to understand their lives, because if they act in a certain way, it’s because they were educated like that or because they have gone through something in their lives that led them to behave that way. I am not asking you to understand why each person acts the way they do, but I am just saying that they act in a particular way because something has marked their life, just as you have also been affected by situations that have led you to think and act in a specific way today.
2) If you knew… This is the time when you have to stop and look at everything that God has been lovingly doing in your life. Something you have to be very careful of is guilt – and I’m referring to feeling guilty, hurt and distressed not about something wrong you have done but about something good that has happened or is happening to you. This is something you have to work on, because this misplaced guilt won’t allow you to enjoy life, and you’ll feel you need a hard penance for something that is not even a sin. God reminds you that his greatest gift is mercy and that there is time to change every day; the key is to want to and to remember that God’s love is above all sin and error. His love is greater than all pain and all guilt. Today, ask God that you may feel his love.
3) Living water. In the face of so much thirst and need, Jesus wants to set you free, to relieve you of so many worries and ailments that swirl around in your head and in your heart. He wants to give you that water of peace and love, so that you know that you are loved by someone in this world. Keep going in search of the peace that only Jesus can give you. Soothe your heart and trust in God.Remember that something good is on the way! God bless you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
