Do you know the story about Living Water? Do you know how it starts? Yes. Where it was, there it was… A fairy tale is a literary form that especially wants to teach and educate children, and let’s add that at the end of a fairy tale, good, and truth always win.
Do you know the story about the Samaritan woman with whom Jesus talked at the well? Yes, we heard about it in today’s Gospel. The incident is not made up. Even today, he wants to remind us of many important things. We were baptized with water. We started a new life. And in this season of Lent, we should not only prepare for the Easter holidays but cooperate more with Christ for our salvation.
We are reminded of this by the words: “Many Samaritans from this city believed in him because of the word of the woman” (Jn 4:39).
The meeting of the thirsty Jesus at Jacob’s well with the Samaritan woman is an invitation for us to reflect on the rediscovery of the truth about “living water”. Jesus begins the conversation with the woman with a request: “Give me a drink” (Jn 4:7). The woman does not know that at the end of this meeting she and the Samaritan town of Sychar will believe in Jesus as the Messiah, although the Samaritans did not associate with the Jews. Jesus’ request to the woman became a gift, which the woman did not immediately understand, although she granted the request of the unknown Jew. She hands him water from Jakub’s well, and he offers her “living water”, after which one will no longer feel thirsty, a truth that the woman cannot yet understand. Only when Jesus, in the power of an all-knowing God, tells her about her five husbands. Here, with God’s help, the woman realizes her desire for the Messiah. Jesus introduces himself to her: “It is I who am talking to you” (Jn 4:26). So the conversation takes a new turn. The disciples are surprised when they see that their Teacher is talking to the Samaritan woman, and an even greater twist occurs when Jesus refuses the food and talks about another food: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (Jn 4, 34). The water that Jesus began to talk about becomes a reality when the apostles receive the command before Jesus’ ascension: “Go therefore, teach all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the world” (Mt 27,19-20). Here begins a new era of water, when the command of Jesus becomes “living water” for the whole world until the end of the world. Even then, this water entered the bottom of the Samaritan woman’s soul, and she confessed her sin. This water opens the way to God’s love for the believer,
Lent is a time to revive your relationship with “living water”. It requires asking some basic questions and truthful answers.
Do we even know “living water”? We ask about the meaning of life, fo,r whom, and why t. live? Even a Bantu man prays to his God like this: “Mulung, there are two roads ahead of us. Show which one is good. Mulung, there are two glasses of water ahead. Tell us which one is healthy.”
The Samaritan woman also had similar journeys. She went for water to live. She believed in the God whom the Samaritans worshiped on Mount Gerizim. Her moral life was not good. Although the water she drew from the well was clean and healthy, she was drinking the water of sin in her life. She changed men, and the one she was living with at the time wasn’t hers either. Jesus gives her the water of mercy, living water.
Our immoral life, living not according to God’s commands, but living in sin is similar to the Samaritan woman before meeting Jesus. It is up to each of us to stop and reassess our life about the sacrament of baptism, what we took on at baptism, and what obligated actions, duties, and also rights. We are invited to drink living water, not the water of sin. Only when we do the will of God can we quench our thirst. We are not in the world forever. We are invited after the end of our earthly life to another, eternal life, where only living water can ensure our entrance. It is necessary to choose again the living water that God gives because only it can fully satisfy us.
In Greek mythology, we can read about the suffering of Tantalus, who stands in water and suffers greatly from thirst. He can never quench his thirst. Every time he puts water in his mouth, it evaporates in his heated mouth.
The prophet Jeremiah calls out: “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to dig for themselves cracked cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jer 2:13). Every person endowed with reason and the free will chooses between living water and unhealthy, between a life that the Church teaches and is morally good and a life outside the Church. When the woman recognized the taste of the water offered to her by Jesus, she left the bucket with which she was drawing water and hurried to the city to share with others with joy.
When a Christian listens to the words of Jesus, he should be aware that he is called to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, who wants to teach him everything he needs for his salvation. A Christian begins to enjoy “living water” from the moment of baptism. He should actively remember it during the sacrament of confirmation, the sacrament of Christian maturity so that he professes his faith and lives according to it. This is how a Christian should realize that he is a son and daughter of God the Father, a brother and sister of Jesus, and a permanent sanctuary of the Holy Spirit. Being a Christian means using water during the sacrament of penance to cleanse the soul and during the sacrament of the Eucharist to ga row love for God, being, harbor, and oneself. When receiving the anointing of the sick as a reinforcement to endure illness and possibly old age. In the sacraments of marriage and priesthood, “living water” gives the chosen state of man the necessary graces for its implementation. So this water is everything to us.
Jakub’s well still exists today. As tourists, we can descend to a depth of 23 to 35 meters, depending on the weather, whether it is raining or dry. “Living water” is in the deep, and the Samaritan woman needed a bucket to draw the water. Jesus wants to remind us that the bucket is the person himself, our heart, our will, and our return to God. “Living water” is in each of us, we don’t have to look for it. Sv. Ignatius of Antioch felt her power at the moment when he was about to die, it gave him strength and courage ge, and he was looking forward to meeting Jesus, although before that he had to find himself in the teeth of a wild animal. After baptism, we have to draw this water for our duties, and tasks of everyday and festive life.
Christians are therefore often similar to a region with rare mineral water. What about the fact that the water is deep when they don’t want to bring it to the surface? The water in the well can also be lost when it is not pumped. If a Christian does not cooperate with God’s grace, he may lose “living water”. We can compare the bucket too, for example, the sacrament of reconciliation. When we have committed a sin and receive the sacrament, then through this sacrament we receive the graces necessary for a new life. Therefore, the sacrament of reconciliation cannot be taken lightly, received sacrilegiously, because the requirements are not met and “living water” does not reach the surface. It is the same when receiving other sacraments. We are to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, who is an inexhaustible source of “living water”.
It is right that we can draw “living water” daily for our life needs. Especially in prayer, when observing the Ten Commandments and other church commandments and God’s word, “living water” becomes a source of new graces. We have examples from the Virgin Mary, and saints, but also from our own lives. Today we are witnessing that many people do not appreciate and value water. They pollute water resources, endanger themselves, and destroy life in their surroundings. And so it is with “living water”. Whoever pours it out, underestimates it, pollutes it often with sin, is planning his destruction. We must realize that whoever receives “living water” often becomes “living water” for others. “On the last great day of the feast, Jesus stood up and cried: “If anyone is thirsty and believes in me, let him come to me and drink. As the Scripture says, streams of living water will flow from within him” (Jn 7:37-¬38). Whoever receives the Spirit becomes an apostle, he wants to give God to others. The Samaritan woman left the bucket and hurried to the city. The Virgin Mary rushes to Elizabeth. Ondrej goes to see brother Šimon – Peter.
In the Roman catacombs above the graves of the martyrs, you can see a painted rock from which a stream of water gushes. In the early days, this is how Christians reminded themselves of their faith in Christ. The source of life and the image at the same time reminded them of baptismal water.
We know why we tell children fairy tales. When a person grows up, he realizes the reality of life and it is not a fairy tale that the story concerns someone else, but each of us is responsible at least for the salvation of our soul. Therefore, in this year’s Lenten season, it is right that we pay more attention to the obligations, but also to the graces that are connected with “living water”, the sacrament of baptism.
