Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘ you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.” Jn 4:5-42
There was a man travelling in the desert by car. He soon ran out of gas. The last gas station he passed by was 9 miles away. Nonetheless he took the risk of walking back. But he had a heat stroke and died. Ironically had he only walked forward he would have found the next gas station only a mile away.
In life we often look for the wrong things in the wrong places. We are like the Samaritan woman who was looking for water at Jacob’s well when right in front of her was Jesus who could give her living water.
In Exodus the thirsty Jews once more complained to Moses that they had no water in the arid desert. Yet God did give them water unexpectedly from the rock that was hard as their hearts. Ex 17:3-7
The Responsorial Psalm reminds us not to be like these stubborn Jews when we responded, “If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
But God disregards hard hearts, as St. Paul told the Romans it was when we were still helpless sinners that Christ proved His love for us and died for us. Rom 5:1-2, 5-8
The woman at well was a prostitute with five husbands. She qualified well as hard of heart. Jesus in doing something taboo when He as a Jew had asked water from her, in the end softened her heart. Out of joyful gratitude she even brought Jesus to her neighbors. She had always hidden herself from them by drawing water only at noontime. But now converted she became an apostle to these people who once had discriminated against her.
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