Dear friends,

Obviously Jesus did not attend one of those “Virtus” courses organized by the Archdiocese that strongly discourage a priest to have a conversation with a woman. Such conversation is also condemned according to the Jewish Law and the Muslim Law that do not allow a woman to have a ride with a man on a motorcycle or remain alone in the house.

The woman does not have a name because she represents not only that specific woman , but also she becomes a symbol for all of us, who, like her, were not part of the “chosen people” and were looked upon as outsiders to God’s love.

She is one of the three characters we shall find on our journey to Easter: next Sunday will be a blind man, Barthimeus, and then a dead man, Lazarus. The Church has chosen these Gospels to tell us that all of us are: blind, walking dead, and outsiders to God’s Kingdom.

Today’s long Gospel story begins with a simple, human scene: a thirsty traveler, a communal well, a woman come to draw water.
But something significant happens.
During their extended conversation, Jesus’ identity is gradually reveled: first as a Jewish man, that a prophet, then Messiah. Finally, the townspeople come to recognize Jesus as “the savior of the world”.

The woman does not have a name, is just a woman, a bad one to this since she is a “Samaritan”, i.e. a traditional enemy of the Jews, and a prostitute with a very turbulent past of five divorces. She stands for all the sinners who little by little sense in the Jew standing in front of them a different presence, the presence of the Messiah.

It is Jesus that starts the conversation, breaking all the Law. There was a proverb that run:” It is better to drink the blood on a pig than to drink from a Samaritan well”, such was the despise the Jews had towards the half breed of the Samaritan.

Jesus humbles himself not only drinking of that water, but begging for a drink. We learn that God asks of us only to give us back a hundredfold. He asked of me my time, my sexuality, my talents to give me back a hundredfold now and eternity of joy in the world to come.

Jesus will again be thirsty, this time on the Cross. Thirsty not for water, but for our love.

I keep meeting young people. I try to welcome them to the best of my ability. I see that they have everything, but they don’t look that happy to me. They are thrsty, they themselves do not know for what.

“Times will come when people will be thirsty, but not for water. Hungry, but not for bread, but for every word that comes from the mouth of God”; proclaimed the prophets , and these times have come.

This woman  had come to draw water from the well, and she runs away leaving the jar at the well. Inside herself she experiences a joy unknown before. Her heart is singing in her chest and she wants to share this wonderful experience with her townspeople. People accepted her testimony, but after they had experience Jesus’ mercy by themselves, they say to her:” we no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

The Church has chosen this Gospel because she wants us to understand that we, who have been baptized long ago, and our Catechumens, are that “Samaritan woman”.

Our thirst for meanings and values has been quenched when we trunk from the “living water” that is the Holy Spirit and now that water is welling up from the most inner parts of our being, reaching out to God Himself.

Undeserved mercy has been shown to us at that we should run to share this joy with our “townspeople”. We have been touched by the fire of God’s love and we are burning, wishing that other people, the people we love should have a similar experience

If we, as a parish, are so laid back, lazy, seated on the fence is because most probably we never had such experience, we never had our heart singing for joy.

To the Samaritan woman, and to all those who in some way find themselves in her situation, Jesus makes a radical proposal in this Sunday's Gospel: Seek another "water," give meaning and a new horizon to your life.