Readings:
Exodus 17:3-7
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7ab, 7d-8a.9
Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
John 4:5-42
John 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42
Dare to encounter
By Françoise Lagacé, theologian and member of Development and Peace — Caritas Canada in Gatineau
One of the most beautiful encounters, the one in the Gospel of John, is still so inspiring today.
A man, a Jew; a woman, a Samaritan.
It took a well outside the village in Samaria for Jesus and the Samaritan woman to meet that noon. For an unlikely dialogue to begin, a face-to-face, heart-to-heart conversation that was decisive, despite all social prohibitions.
It was not the time for meetings. No one dared venture out under the blazing sun. Yet there they were, the beggar and the unloved woman. Jesus, exhausted from the road, thirsty, so close to the well, but with nothing to draw water. A woman, without a name, came to draw water, far from prying eyes.
But thirst is greater than all prohibitions, and she initiates a great upheaval.
“How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”
In these few words, she highlights everything that separates them; all the prejudices that keep us distant and suspicious of one another, even today.
But now, the same thirst unites them: the thirst not only for daily water from the well, but also, above all, a deeper thirst that Jesus awakens in her.
At the edge of the well, each of them needs the other. And it is there, despite all the constraints imposed, that the Good News resounds. It took this deep quest and a daring freedom for this to happen.
“Tell me, if all this were true, I would say yes, oh, surely, I would say yes. Because it’s all so beautiful when you believe it’s true.”
― From Dites, si c’était vrai, a song about the veracity of the Gospel by Belgian songster-actor Jacques Brel (1929-1978)
The woman leaves her jug, goes into town and says to the men, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!”
They leave the town and come to him.
What movement, what decisive action in these few sentences. The woman dares to make this missionary return to her village. Jesus has given her back her voice and her dignity. She then became the first messenger of the Good News among the Samaritans.
This encounter at the well gives meaning to so many small daily gestures that connect us to one another. Pope Francis, in Fratelli tutti, calls us to the art of encounter. He speaks of this new dream of fraternity and social friendship.
A dream that sets us in motion.
“On the move, the hungry and thirsty for dignity, justice, and peace.
Yes, they will be satisfied,” translates André Chouraqui.
Dreams are built together, actively. We must, says the pope, come closer, listen to each other, look at each other, get to know each other, try to understand each other, seek points of contact… we must dialogue. To meet and help each other, we need to dialogue.
How does this story relate to us today? The Bible and Pope Francis offer some clues.
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
― John 13:35
“By acknowledging the dignity of each human person, we can contribute to the rebirth of a universal aspiration to fraternity…. ‘By ourselves, we risk seeing mirages…. Dreams, on the other hand, are built together.’ Let us dream, then, as a single human family… as children of the same earth which is our common home… brothers and sisters all.” Fratelli tutti, §8)
Let us engage in dialogue together at the edge of a well, rereading Fratelli tutti.
“Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
― John 4:15