Moses almost fell out with God for the sake of the people, and with the people for the sake of God. The dilemma faced by the most important prophet of the Old Testament is palpable in the First Reading (Ex 17: 3-7): ‘What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!’

It’s no doubt lonely at the top—if we venture to do things alone! As for Moses, He had God on his side. He more easily saw God face to face and heard Him than he could humour the fickle-minded and ungrateful Israelites. Here was a man who had led them out of an oppressive land, across the Red Sea, and into freedom; yet his countrymen pined for the fleshpots of Egypt!

But God did not give up; He knew that doubting pointed to a seeking. He commanded Moses to strike the rock and there would be water in abundance to quench the people’s physical thirst. For their moral guidance, He declared the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. And one day, there would be a New Moses issuing a new Commandment of Love, and from His heart wounded by a lance on Mount Calvary would come forth blood and water.

In the Gospel (Jn 4: 5-42), Jesus offers the Samaritan woman that much sought-after water of eternal life. At first, mistaking this water for the sparkling water of Jacob’s well that Jesus had asked for, she was confused. When Jesus dispelled that doubt, she goes to town, exclaiming, ‘Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’ Obviously, open as was to divine grace, she welcomed the Word of God.

Meanwhile, Christ’s disciples kept urging Him to eat and satisfy His bodily need; they failed to see the significance of what He had said: ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know.’ What a far cry from the Samaritan woman who had understood the Lord. Hence, the perceptive St Augustine sees in her the figure of the Church that was about to be founded. And the fact that it took a Samaritan woman to proclaim Jesus as that much-awaited Christ shows that none is a prophet in one’s own land; and that the Church is destined to attract the whole wide world!

The Bishop of Hippo has this to say of today’s Gospel passage: ‘The things spoken there are great mysteries, and the similitudes of great things; feeding the hungry, and refreshing the weary soul.’[1] Indeed, of great profit are his interpretations of the Lord’s weariness; the sixth hour; the five husbands; the fountain and the well; the living water; the harvest and the labourers, and, of course, the woman herself.

God promises to reveal to us the treasures of His love by degrees; and Jesus did the same to the Samaritan woman. He is the Bread and Water of Life, and woe to us who do not believe it. We, who are heirs to the Holy Scripture and the Apostolic Tradition, should not go by new-fangled notions; when we have the Living Bread and Water, of what use are sensory delights? And is it not downright stupid for us–who already know the Saviour of the World–to dip into in the weird world of petty godmen, false prophets, or cult leaders who go about ruining souls?

Let us, then, turn a new leaf. Let us harden not our hearts but praise and thank God, bow down in worship, and kneel before Him who made us (cf. Ps 94: 2, 6-7). Let us pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into our hearts and be sure, as St Paul teaches in the Second Reading (Rom 5: 1-2, 5-8) that ‘since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God.’

That does it mean to be ‘justified by faith’? It means receiving God’s grace to be cleansed of sin and be inwardly sanctified, starting at baptism. When convinced of and grateful for this immense blessing, we too will go forth, give witness and proclaim that Jesus is Lord. What a grace it is to have a God who cares for all our needs. The Living Water fully quenches our thirst.

[1] St Augustine, Homilies on the Gospel of John, Tractate XV, § 1. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/s/schaff/npnf107/cache/npnf107.pdf

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