Christ
is risen!
Brother John was convinced that dowsing
for water was real. The dowsing rod looks to me like a large wishbone. It was
the technique used to find the right location to dig our wells at New Skete and
it was successful here. Once one finds the right spot, then to dig a well, one
first has to break through the top layer of soil. Today's gospel lesson is
about dowsing for, what Jesus calls, living water. And the scene takes place at
Jacob's Well. And a well is the perfect image for the conversation that ensues
between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. For like the modern day drill that digs
for the well water, Jesus, with this woman, is digging down into her soul to
reveal to her where the font of living water is to be found.
One might argue that the most important
element of this story takes place before the story begins. The woman went to
the well to draw water as she undoubtedly did everyday. And that's when the
story begins. She is about her normal chores. But on this particular day, when
she got to the well she found her life looking at her: Jesus. She wasn't on a
pilgrimage to a holy site. We know of no particular issue in her life pressing
on her at this time. She was simply doing what she normally did. This is what
we can often miss in our own lives. Jesus is with us in our ordinary daily
activities. And the extraordinary will often emerge from the most ordinary
events, if we notice. This Samaritan woman found her salvation while doing her
normal work. It was in doing her normal tasks that Jesus met her.
So when we are about our normal tasks, we
are probably not thinking that Jesus is right beside us. After all, the
Samaritan woman had no idea that Jesus was going to be sitting at Jacob's well.
But Jesus knew. He also knew that this was the opportune time to break into her
life and move her away from the mundane to become an evangelist. And she was
ready, like the wise bridesmaids, to join Jesus in proclaiming the reign of
God.
The Orthodox Church has given this woman
a name, Photini, meaning the enlightened one. She is called equal to the
apostles. Her evangelizing work begins in her return to her village where she
tells the men and women there of her encounter with Jesus, whom she believes to
be the Messiah. She is a credible witness and they believe her, undermining the
often repeated theory that she must have been a sinful woman or an adulterer
because of having five husbands. But Jesus doesn't tell her to repent or to sin
no more. He knows the societal prejudices of his day. She may have had five
husbands because some predeceased her or divorced her. She may have needed a
man to survive in the society of her time that gave women no standing and no
rights. But her encounter with Jesus lets her break free of that restriction.
This encounter between Jesus and Photini
also models for us a liberating way to talk to God. She engaged with Jesus,
asked questions, debated, not to be contrary, but to learn and grow her faith.
She was seeking truth and Jesus never condemns her or dismisses her. He knows
her life story up to that point and he knows the rest of her story too. The
Orthodox Church fills in the rest of the story [a la Paul Harvey] having her
baptized and named Photini by the disciples, evangelizing other Samaritan
villages, traveling to Carthage and then called by Jesus to Rome at the time
Emperor Nero where she, her family and others were tortured and imprisoned.
Photini ultimately is martyred by being thrown into a dry well. The irony being
she already had the living water.
Even though the Samaritan woman's life
was ordinary, her conversation with Jesus shows that she was aware of life's
larger issues and nurtured a deep desire to seek the truth. She was able to
cultivate and irrigate that deeper desire even while doing simple chores. Jesus
knows all our stories. And he accompanies us on our life's journey. And we too
can meet God in the ordinary, if we cultivate that awareness of God's presence
around us and in us.
Christ
is Risen!
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