Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

4 ​Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2​ ​although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3​So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

4 ​Now he had to go through Samaria. 5​ ​So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6​ ​Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

7 ​When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8​ ​(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 ​The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[​ ​a​]​)

10 ​Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 ​“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 1​ 2 ​Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 ​Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 1​ 4 ​but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 ​The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

● Reflection

This passage of scriptures starts with the RECOGNITION that there is division. There is pain in the separation of the communities (here Jews and Samaritans). There is an apparent impossibility of cohesion and synergy and communication between them. Jesus shows us that it’s because we are not seeking the right water. We are seeking the dead water instead of the living water.

Every healing process starts always with a recognition of what is happening. In our endeavor to end racism, let’s first get out of denial, observe and accept the reality of the pain we are in. Let’s take this day to put the light on what is going on in our country as much as what is going on in ourselves through the lens of our Head.

● Prayer and contemplation

How does racism make me feel?
Where do I see judgment around me?
In which part of my life and with whom do I hold judgment? Do I judge myself and others?

We invite you to light a candle, take a cross or a bible, and go simply in a calm space and start breathing for a few seconds.
Shine the light on a particular issue that you recognize.
Ask God to support you in your pain and towards happiness.

Ask the Holy Spirit to heal you and everyone.
Ask the Son, Christ, to be with us and in us so we can not only believe, not only follow but abide.
Together we pray.

Let’s end racism, once and for all. One human family, in God.

Here is the link to the Prayer Guide Introduction