In today’s Gospel, we listen to Jesus’ teaching about himself as the source of living water. During the sojourn in the wilderness, God’s people thirsted bodily, and God satisfied them with water. The wilderness narratives remind us Christians of the experience of disruption, transition, or adversity. As we struggle, do we believe that where God calls, God provides?
In the second reading, St Paul reiterates that it is from Jesus Christ from whom we have obtained our faith. Our faith is a gift from God. We have every reason to hope, because God has gone out of His way to make us right before Him. He has paid our penalty. He has made us righteous through His Son.
The dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman in the Gospel reveals to us the doctrine of grace. As water is necessary for human life, the water that can truly quench man’s spiritual thirst flows from the grace of Christ. The effect of grace on the Samaritan woman is remarkable. All her thoughts thus became centered on Jesus, and, forgetting what brought her to the well, she leaves the water jar and goes off to tell the people what she has discovered. The Samaritan townspeople return with her to meet Jesus for themselves. This is the process of evangelisation at work – the Samaritan woman’s encounter increased and brought about her enthusiasm to tell others about Jesus.
This episode also shows that the salvation brought by Christ should be made known to everyone. His love extends to all souls. Jesus asking for a drink tells us that he thirsts for people to discover the love of God.
How thirsty are we for God’s love and grace? Have we realised that through the water of baptism, we are children of God, and our first vocation is the call to holiness? The call to be perfect as he is perfect. How willing are you to give of yourself to the call? We often feel unworthy, forgetting that it is the Lord who makes us worthy by his grace and love and what is required of us is to say, ‘Yes’. Luke 1:37, reminds us that “nothing is impossible with God”. Let us go forth then, undeterred, to make Him known to others as imperfect as we are.
Written by Milly Tan