The woman at the well. This is one of the best stories in all of the
Gospels. There is so much here to
unpack. This story is used for the first
Scrutiny with those preparing to be baptized at the Easter Vigil; Jesus speaks of water “welling
up to eternal life”. The woman
experiences a conversion of heart; we are in Lent, a season of conversion of
heart. We see her inner conversion exemplified
even in the way her address of Our Lord progresses: from “Jew” to “Sir” to “Prophet”
to “Messiah” to “Christ”. Also, the well
is a deep structure; the Lord goes deep with her as He has gone deep with us in
the past or will go deep with us in the future.
But, I’d like to focus on the well and what is really going on here.
The well was where people met their future
spouses. In the Old Testament, we see
many of these encounters. Isaac met his
future wife at a well. Jacob and Moses
also met their wives at a well. And, the
Samaritan woman meets her true husband at the well. Jesus talks to her about her “husbands”. Interestingly, the Hebrew word for husband
commonly used was “Baal”. A Baal husband
was like a master-husband…like a master to a slave. Men in the Old Testament often had a free
wife and a slave wife. Abraham, for
example, had Sarah, his free wife (the wife he was supposed to have) and Hagar,
his slave wife. When the Lord says to
the Samaritan woman that she has had five husbands, he is referring to her five
Baal husbands.
And then, he says, “and the one you have now is not
your husband”. Not yet, at least. He is referring to himself. Samaritans knew what
the prophets foretold: that the Messiah would be the true spouse. She recognizes this and says, “you are a
prophet”. I think she recognizes him,
too, as the Messiah at that moment. She recognizes that he is her true spouse
and that can be free in relationship to him.
We might see her as the first consecrated woman. We see the fruits of their spousal
relationship when she evangelizes those in her town, essentially giving birth
to her new-found relationship in Christ.
How many women do we see evangelizing others in the Gospel! Mary Magdelene,
for example, evangelizes the whole Christian world when she announces that
Christ is risen.
The Samaritan woman is in a position to recognize
Christ. Life has pretty much brought her
to her knees; we might say that she is at rock bottom. Because she has suffered so much from the
slavery of her Baal husbands, she can recognize and appreciate her true, free
spouse in Christ. We might have been in
the same situations when we’ve had such powerful experiences with encountering
Christ. We have had our own Baal
spouses: addictions, vices, sin, attachments (Lent helps us move away from
attachments), maybe even tragedy or suffering.
We have been slaves to these “masters”; Christ has come to us as he came
to her. Maybe this was on a retreat or
in prayer or in some other powerful moment.
He meets us where we are and doesn’t force himself on us. He goes to the matters of our hearts…those
things which means the most or have troubled us the most. He reveals himself as our true love and offers
us his freedom. We are more able to
recognize him when we’ve been brought to our knees…recognize him as the Christ
and as our true spouse.
Finally, we have the same opportunity for an
encounter with Christ that the woman had. We encounter him in the Eucharist at Mass or
in prayer; it is the same Christ. May we
recognize him as our true and free spouse.
May we have the same experience that she had: of having him change our
heart and change our life.
No comments:
Post a Comment