In today’s Gospel proclamation we see the Lord Jesus, the giver of living water, thirsty at the well, requesting water from a Samaritan woman. The Samaritan woman is a reflection of fallen humanity. We see how the Lord Jesus seeks her out and engages in a dialogue with her. He meets her at her mundane daily task of drawing water for herself and her household. She is surprised at his interaction.

She is a Samaritan and considered untouchable by Jews and she is a woman and it is unheard of for a Jewish man (a rabbi), to engage in conversation with a woman of the Samaritan race. The fact that she comes to draw water at the heat of the day indicates that she was avoiding interaction with the other women in her society who customarily would have come at the cool of the day to draw water. She was an outcast within her own society. Yet it is to her that the Lord Jesus reveals himself as the giver of living water.

The Lord Jesus’ encounter with this woman changes the trajectory of her life. She goes from avoiding interaction with her society to proclaiming to all she met “Come, and see a man who has told me all things whatsoever I have done. Is not he the Christ?”

Is this not what happens to us when we meet the Lord Jesus? We cannot contain our excitement of meeting the source of living water. Do we not want everyone we know and love to encounter him too? The encounter at the well not only changes the woman, but it changes many in the city of Samaria.

In today’s First Reading, we see Israelites who did not trust that God’s providence is good, but accused Moses and God of harmful purposes. The inability to trust God’s goodness was at the heart of their cry. They were the chosen race rescued from slavery in Egypt, they had witnessed multiple signs such as the ten plagues as well as great miracles like the parting of the Red Sea.

Why did they still falter in their trust in the goodness of God? Could this be because they themselves did not have a personal relationship with God but rather relied on Moses to be the mediator? Even here we see that God though angered, answered their need by providing water from a rock.

The Lord Jesus is the rock of our salvation. We are made right with God not by anything we have done or can do, but solely by the saving work of the Lord Jesus on the Cross. He is the living water who pours himself out for us. Let us not harden our hearts, but trust in him.

Prayer: Abba Father, may your living waters flow through my life to all whom I encounter. Amen.