The well and thirst: the encounter that leads to living water

A midday in Sychar: the request that opens the way to eternal life

This Gospel episode places us in the setting of Sychar, a town in Samaria; specifically, it places us at Jacob’s well, the well from which Jacob, his sons, and even his animals drank in their time. Jesus arrives there around midday, weary from the journey. A Samaritan woman comes to draw water from the well, and unexpectedly she meets Jesus. He says to her, “Give me a drink,” and thus this encounter begins—with a simple request, yet one laden with meaning that ends up becoming a leap toward eternal life. Let us examine that request of Jesus and recognize that, rather than taking something from us, Jesus in fact comes to give to us. Let us delve into this episode and enter into the living water that Jesus offers us, and may we, like the Samaritan woman, know how to say in faith at the end: Lord, give us always of that water!

Two ways of approaching the well: drawing water or allowing oneself to be found

A woman who seeks to draw water and a man who asks for a drink may seem to have the same intentions when they find themselves at a well; but if we attend to the account with insight, we can discover subtle nuances that allow for another reading of the situation. Jesus asks for a drink; however, he scarcely refers to the well. The Samaritan woman, by contrast, goes straight to the point: her aim is to draw water from the well, and only after some time will she take a further step beyond her own interests. How much this can speak to our lives! Perhaps we do not go with a real need for water, but in our lives we experience thirst; and it is there that we want to draw water. Then, like the Samaritan woman, we may go to Jacob’s well, have had five or six husbands, seek to worship God on Mount Samaria or in Jerusalem, or do anything else that suits us more; and, in the end, we may keep drawing water, but in reality we never truly quench our thirst. Yet Jesus asks the woman for a drink, and in his request he invites her to a profound knowledge; he invites her to an encounter with living water. This request is offered as a way out of that tainted search for water; it is the opportunity to connect with a spring that brings relief in spirit and in truth. Jesus, like the Samaritan woman, asks us for a drink, and in that gesture he surprisingly offers to transform our lives so that we may truly drink from a living source.

Leaving the jar behind: discovering the gift of God and bearing witness

And it is then that, by ceasing to draw water as we have habitually done, we come to know the gift of God and discover in Jesus someone who is more than any source of satisfaction for us. Our life is transformed in him; for any well of water, however deep it may be, now falls into the background, since we realize it does not grant us fullness. For now we have discovered a water that is not merely something external, but a water that becomes within us a spring of eternal life; it is a water that we feel permeates everything we have done in our life; it is a water that knows us and channels us into currents of full life; it is a water that saves us from that desperate thirst that at times seems unbearable. From now on, like the Samaritan woman, let us leave behind any jar for drawing tainted waters and go to bear witness to the experience of living water; from now on may we point others to where they can truly relieve their thirst and, as Jesus indicates, may we be part of that storehouse of fruits for eternal life, knowing to whom to say: “Give me a drink!”