The samaritan woman
Published Mar 8, 2026 12:05 am
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Updated Mar 7, 2026 03:31 pm
REFLECTIONS TODAY
Gospel • John 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42 [or 4:5-42]
Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”—For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.—Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?”
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. … “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. 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.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking with you.”
… Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him. When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. Many more began to believe in him because of his word, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”
A springtime of spiritual renewal
The word “Lent” is traced etymologically to an Old English word lencten, which means springtime. Lent is a time of spiritual renewal, a kind of “spiritual spring,” when a soul puts forth shoots of hope, purpose, and vigor. However, whenever we think of the Lenten season, usually the first thing that comes to our mind is that it is a time for mourning, for sorrow, for sadness. It is as if we are forbidden to rejoice throughout these 40 days and that we would be doing nothing but to pray, to fast, to give alms, and to be sorry for our sins. While these practices help us in making our Lenten observance more meaningful, they are, however, incomplete as they kind of discount the meaning of Lent as a season of grace.
Yes, Lent is the time to reunite ourselves with the Lord, but sometimes we forget that it is God who first takes the initiative to come near us and reach out to us. This Lent we are encouraged to avail the sacrament of Reconciliation, but oftentimes we forget that even our desire to go to Confession, even our thirst for God’s forgiveness, also comes from him.
Some of us think that praying, fasting, doing acts of mercy, and availing of the sacrament of Reconciliation are our bribes to God so that he will bless us and that he will restore our friendship with him. No! God does not accept bribes. We can never buy him off; it is God who first loved us. And he has never stopped loving us since.
In our Gospel reading, even before the Samaritan woman arrives at the well, Jesus has already been there all along waiting for her. Then, he asks her for a drink. But more than pining for a cup of water to slake his thirst, Jesus desires to offer her the living water that will satisfy her for eternity, the water that will make her life an enduring springtime.
Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2026.” E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.