The Gospel for the third Sunday of Lent is the woman at the well encountering Jesus (John 4:5-42). Only John’s gospel tells us of this deeply spiritual exchange. Central to it is Thirst and Water. Both she and Jesus are thirsty, both speak of water, yet we clearly see in this story the physical and spiritual implications of Scripture. This is just one of several occasions in which Jesus uses the imagery of water for the Holy Spirit. “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “‘If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, “Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.”’ Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37-39).
The encounter is in Samaria. Samaritans figure prominently in Scripture both in factual accounts like this one and in parables like the Good Samaritan. As I explained in another post, they are descendants of Israelites despised as apostates because of their corrupted bloodlines and separate temple. She speaks of “our father, Jacob” and knows “that the Messiah is coming.” Samaritans are at once both Jew and Gentile, which Christ came to fully unite in His new body, the Church, so completely that distinctions no longer exist. “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” Paul later writes, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:27-28).
John points out, “It was about noon.” Jesus rested while the disciples went into town. At the hottest part of the day, this woman goes to the well because no one else would be there, so she can avoid encountering other women who gather water in the cool of the morning – a consequence of her sin. While Jesus asks for a drink, his physical thirst is not his concern; it is his thirst for her conversion. But it takes a bit before the woman can understand what Jesus is telling her.
Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Not until her sins are revealed and she completely believes that Jesus is the Messiah does she understand. Even she forgets her physical thirst, leaving her water jar to tell the whole town the Good News without shame. As in the confessional, this encounter is between her and Jesus alone, and she leaves healed in exuberant joy, praising God.
Seeking the spiritual and physical healing of patients has always been central to Catholic health care. The tireless work of Catholic clinicians is sustained by the desire to serve the spiritual and physical needs of patients. This reflects Christ not wanting not to slake his own physical thirst but sought to quench the woman’s unknown and deeper thirst for personal and social wholeness. As pointed out in the general introduction of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services,
Jesus’ healing mission went further than caring only for physical affliction. He touched people at the deepest level of their existence; he sought their physical, mental, and spiritual healing (Jn 6:35, 11:25-27). He “came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (Jn 10:10). The mystery of Christ casts light on every facet of Catholic health care: to see Christian love as the animating principle of health care; to see healing and compassion as a continuation of Christ’s mission; to see suffering as a participation in the redemptive power of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection; and to see death, transformed by the resurrection, as an opportunity for a final act of communion with Christ.
Today’s gospel, also the story of St. Mary Magdalene, are two striking examples of women whose healing from their grave sins by Jesus Christ transformed them into extraordinary evangelists. And who among us cannot been so healed? Women are the quiet source of the greatest evangelization. Mothers and grandmothers are typically recognized as “religious” by their descendants and often credited as inspiring their faith. I see mostly women devoutly and steadfastly praying at daily Mass. This evangelical potency of Catholic women, through witness and prayer, reflects that of the Blessed Mother who cooperates in a distinctive way with the saving work of Christ. This is unrecognized and unsupported by the culture and often even the Church.
In health care, the PA workforce is 65% to 70% comprised of women, 87% to 89% for the APRN workforce. As for Catholic APPs, as Saint Paul says, “there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus,” among colleagues and patients. We acknowledge – and celebrate – the distinctive charisms of men and women clinicians that enrich the healthcare system, those charisms rooted in Jesus Christ.
Lenten blessings,
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