Power of the living well
Maykol Nack/istock
Recently at Mass we heard the Gospel story of the Woman at the Well (John 4:5-42). A line at the beginning of the story really caught my attention: “Jesus, tired out by His journey, was sitting by the well.” I guess I never thought about Jesus getting tired.
It makes sense. After all, Jesus is not just 100 percent God, He is also 100 percent human and humans get tired. On the day we had this Gospel at Mass, I too was tired. It had been a long week. Maybe this is why this verse jumped out at me. I was thinking, “me too!” It’s comforting to know that Jesus knows what it is like to be tired from the day and needing some refreshment.
We have just finished our long Lenten journey and this idea of Jesus getting tired stayed with me all through Lent. I bet He got tired a lot. Tired from being challenged all the time by the authorities; tired of His disciples bickering and not understanding who He really is; tired from the spiritual battle as His Passion approached; and of course tired from the physical beating He took from the garden to the Cross.
We too can get beaten down by life. The grind of work, family, commitments, chores, bills, and all the other daily stressors that just greet us anew every morning can be crushing. We can find ourselves simultaneously like the woman at the well, struggling in life, and like Jesus, tired from the day’s journey.
Yet, what are the things we turn to in times like this for a “pick-me-up”? Sometimes all we really need is a snack and a nap to get back on our game, but other times our need is much deeper. Often, we turn to things that are not life-giving, or at the very least, are a temporary patch for a long-term need.
At Jacob’s Well, Jesus offers “living water” to the Samaritan woman in juxtaposition to the water from the well. He is highlighting that our temporal attempts to quench our thirst will only take us so far. But he doesn’t simply scoff at our basic water, he proposes a thirst-quencher that will eternally satiate and sustain us.
The Living Water is Jesus Himself. He is the remedy we all need.
But how do we access this Living Water? I think it is all wrapped up in the power of the resurrection.
The constraints of this earthly life weigh us down, but the resurrection opens up for us the font of eternity. Accessing this font is not that different from what we do when we enter a Church. We dip our fingers in the holy water font and trace the cross over our bodies. In this simple gesture, the temporal and eternal meet. The holiness of God that has transformed earthly water into the waters of baptism become for us a threshold of encounter with the Living Water promised at that well in Samaria.
God becoming human, suffering death, and then transforming death into victory means Jesus has redeemed the entire world. Thus, every object, moment, and person is an opportunity for connection to Jesus.
To live in the power of the resurrection means to look with eyes of faith at the world around us, and especially in the sacraments of the Church, and to drink deeply from the never-ending source of refreshment, the Resurrected Jesus.