Just before I previewed yesterday’s readings, I had been reflecting on the role of grumbling in our lives. There it was: the people grumbled to Moses about the lack of water (Ex 17:23). Oh, I do my share of grumbling. I get a red light when I want a green one, the elevator arrives too slowly or too fast, and so on. I can empathize with Moses, too, being on the receiving end of the grumbling, although the issues I deal with are seldom as life-threatening as lack of drinking water.
Then, in the Gospel, Jesus sits down with the Samaritan woman and us. He reaches past her sense of isolation and ours to start the conversation by using that universal need for a drink of water. He leads us to recognize and acknowledge the gift of God’s love for us. The community’s true thirst is for communion with one another and communion with our God.
Reflected in this Gospel, I see elements of communion and community recently discussed in these pages by Bro. Loughlan Sofield, CSC. Jesus’ disciples arrive on the scene. Then the townspeople show up, the very ones who had ostracized this woman. Now she receives the gift and call to evangelize them by wondering aloud whether Jesus could possibly be the Messiah. She experiences Jesus’ forgiveness of her past, and leads the townspeople to believe in him.
What different approaches and differing results in these two readings! Starting from the physical problems caused by lack of water, the Israelites escaping Egypt cast up to Moses everything else that appears to be going wrong. The woman at the well opens up to her encounter with Jesus, meets disciples who already believe in him, and introduces the people of her town to Jesus. A community of forgiveness is formed. How can we be the same as these Samaritans? How can I accept Jesus’ forgiveness and forgive whatever it is in my life that I need to forgive?