Readings (Year A):
Exodus 17:3–7
Psalm 95:1–2, 6–7, 8–9
Romans 5:1–2, 5–8
John 4:5–42
Reflection: For all who are weary and heavily burdened
It seems everyone on a college campus carries a water bottle plastered with stickers that communicate something about the person: places they’ve traveled, music they love, causes close to their heart, or messages they want to convey to the world. I wonder: if the jar the Samaritan woman took to the well that day was a contemporary water bottle, what stickers would she have?
So I asked people. “Something with nature.” “A rock band.” “A pro-Samaria sticker.” “A hot sun.” “Rosie the Riveter.” “An LGBTG+ ally sticker, because she knew what it was for people to make assumptions about her and to judge her.” Several simply said, “Hope.”
I think she might simply have had “Tobit 3:11–15.” This is the prayer of a woman named Sarah: “You know, O Master, that I am innocent . . . I have not disgraced my name . . . Already seven husbands of mine have died . . . hear me in my disgrace.” Sarah and the Samaritan woman, sisters across generations, knew what it was for people to make assumptions about their lives; they knew the disgrace of being judged, of being outcasts. They knew weariness and fatigue.
I know many who are weary this Lent, some because they, too, have lost loved ones recently; others know the fatigue of being cast aside, looked at with suspicion.
The Samaritan woman in the hot noonday sun, the Israelites in the desert. This Lent, we are with them in a world that is thirsting for answers, struggling with anxiety, wondering who and what to trust, longing for justice and peace to kiss. Scripture says today that even Jesus is tired. Perhaps he, too, is weary of the divisions and thirsting for a new community, for the kingdom of God, here and now.
Here at the well, two tired, weary people meet. And something miraculous happens. They do not judge one another. This Jewish man and Samaritan woman certainly pick up on clues about one another’s identity, like we might from those water bottle stickers. On the face of it, they should avoid one another. Or shout at one another. Certainly, judge one another. But they don’t.
The Samaritan woman remains curious. Jesus names her reality, without casting shame. They talk about real differences—differences in politics and worship, and understandings of God.
They look at scripture and tradition. They dialogue, honoring one another’s human dignity, and look to the future together with hope. This is evangelization at its best! In this encounter, the Samaritan woman found Christ, and she could not contain herself. She left her water bottle and ran to tell the good news. And because of her, many believed that Jesus is the Messiah.
Theologians will point to the symbol of her leaving her jug at the well, having found living water. However, I can’t help but return to the question about stickers. Some people I asked offered stickers that represent her new life in Christ. I think that if she later found her water bottle, like so many who lose and find again, as the first person to proclaim the good news of Christ’s coming, she might add at least one new sticker: “Proclaim!”
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