Speaking Parts: Jesus, Samaritan woman, Narrator, Commentator

Environment: A candle and incense are on the altar. Someone lights the candle while another offers the incense while the congregation sings the opening song.

Song: Come Holy Ghost. ( Today's Missal Music, Oregon Catholic Press, 2001)

The Woman brings a jar of water, places it on the altar and takes her reading place. Jesus brings an empty cup, places it beside the water jar and takes his reading place. The Narrator and Commentator take their places.

Narrator: Jesus was passing through Samaria on his way to Galilee. Around midday he came to the village of Sychar which is near Jacob's well. Tired and thirsty, he sat by the well while the disciples had gone ahead into the village to buy some food. He was alone.

Commentator: Jews and Samaritans were enemies of long standing. The break between them is first mentioned in 2 Kings 17 but became more intense around 300 BCE when the Samaritans built a shrine of worship on Mount Gerazim that competed with the Temple at Jerusalem This shrine was destroyed by Jewish troops in 128 BCE.

Narrator: A woman came to draw water.

Jesus: "Please, give me a drink."

Woman: "How can you a Jew, possibly ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?"

Commentator. The woman lets us know that a Jewish man should not be talking to a woman, much less to a Samaritan woman. He should not be asking her for water, much less drinking water from her jar. It is probably equally true that a Samaritan woman should not be talking to a Jewish man, nor be giving him a drink. So this is a two sided scandal: for the Jews and for the Samaritans.

Strong traditional cultural and social conventions of long standing swirl around these two. But Jesus chooses to break through these constraints, to open boundaries by engaging in conversation. He breaks open boundaries between male and female; between "chosen" and "rejected," between Jews and Samaritans.

How many enmities in our time have long and strong cultural traditions: Israel-Palestine; Christian-Muslim; Hutus-Tutsi; Orthodox - Roman; French-English; Muslim-Hindu; "Liberal"- "Conservative." And many more.

Narrator: Let us invite Jesus into our moment of history, to be present now as he was present in the conflicts of his day. Listen for words of wisdom and compassion that will bring healing.

Time of Silent Reflection: Reflective music may be played here or after a time sing "Only in God" (John Foley SJ Gather, GIA, 1994)

The Reading of the Gospel continues

Commentator: In conversation Jesus challenges the status quo by offering the Samaritan woman, a foreigner and traditional enemy, the gift of the water of life. In doing this, Jesus shows that the grace of God is available to all: friend or enemy, neighbor or stranger.

Bible commentators have marveled at the offer of life to the Samaritans. But they were blind to the remarkable offer of living water to a woman, whose gender made her as marginalized as her Samaritan heritage. They question her morals and interpret her situation as one of aberrant sexual behavior. The second bias was to discount the woman's interest and ability in theological discussion. Jesus , however has neither questions nor doubts.

Jesus: "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is asking you for a drink you would have asked me for a drink instead. And I would have given you living water."

Woman: "Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, with his household and his cattle?"

Jesus: "Whoever drinks water from this well will continue to thirst, but whoever drinks the water that I can give will never thirst again. For the water that I give becomes an inner spring welling up to eternal life."

Woman: "Sir, give me this water that I may never have to draw from this well again, that I may never thirst again."

Narrator: In the presence of Jesus, let come to mind the many ways in which women and the marginalized of every nation have thirsted for living water but whose search was frustrated by cultural norms, gender bias or religious taboos. Every religion and culture of the world has its own way of denying access to the living water that would set people free. Make room for the women, the poor and the discounted. Ask Jesus to hear our prayer.

Time of Silent Reflection:

Song: River of Glory (Dan Schutte 1991 in Today's Missal Music, Oregon Catholic Press, 2001)


The reading of the Gospel continues

Narrator: Jesus then said to her:

Jesus: "Go fetch your husband."

Woman: "I have no husband."

Jesus: "Indeed you have no husband. You have had five husbands and now you are living with a man to whom you are not married."

Commentator: The text does not say that the woman was divorced five times, but that she has had five husbands. Even the naming the men as five husbands says that these relationships were socially recognized. This number of husbands can describe the Levirate marriage situation where brothers marry the widow of a deceased brother. If the last brother is not willing to marry her, she remains unmarried and therefore without status in society.

The response Jesus gives is not one of condemnation but awareness and perhaps compassion for her situation. Whatever the case, his response helps the woman to see Jesus with new eyes. She begins to see him as a man of God which opens the possibility of a more important theological question than her marital situation. She is moved to ask about the religious issue that stands between Samaritans and Jews: the lawful place of worship.

Woman: "You are a prophet. Then explain this to me. Our ancestors worshiped here on this mountain, yet your people say that Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."

Jesus: "Believe me, the hour will come when you will worship God neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. The hour will come. It is already here, when true worshipers will worship God in spirit and truth."

Commentator: Jesus does not try to convert her, to change her mind nor to prove one side right and the other wrong. He moves the question of worship beyond the boundaries of a particular religious decision. Are we also arriving at Jacob's well asking the same questions as the Samaritan woman? How to relate to people of faith traditions different from ours is a question that is still with us.

The woman understands the issue, but perhaps is not ready for the implications of the response Jesus provides, so she tentatively suggests that the Messiah, a higher authority, when he comes, will know the right of it. And with this, Jesus is moved to his own self revelation as Messiah. It is his first public acknowledgment of his mission as described by this Scriptural title.

Woman: "I know the Messiah is coming, the one who is called Christ, it is he who will show us all things, when he comes."

Jesus: "I who am speaking to you am he."

Narrator: As members of a world community, we have more understanding about cultural and religious diversity than ever before. We have come to know that God is honored and worshiped in many religious traditions and that they also lead people to God and to Godly behavior. Let us invite Jesus into our midst, into our experience of this reality and ask him to guide us, to guide the Church, with the wisdom out of which he spoke to the Samaritan Woman.

Time of Silent Prayer:

Song: Eye Has Not Seen (Marty Haugen, 1982 in Gather, GIA, 1994)

The Reading of the Gospel Continues

Narrator: The disciples returned and although they dared not ask, they were scandalized that he was speaking to a Samaritan woman. The woman left her water jar and hurried into the village to spread the news.

Woman: "Come, see a man who has told me everything I've done. Can this man be the Christ?"

Narrator: And they left the village to come to him.

Commentator. On the basis of the woman's testimony many villagers believe in Jesus and go to meet him for themselves. To witness to Jesus- to see Jesus and tell others about the experience- is one of the primary marks of discipleship in John's Gospel: John the Baptist points him out to his own disciples; Andrew sought out his brother Peter; Philip found Bartholomew. The Samaritan woman brings the villagers and in this action the Samaritan woman joins the list of witnesses and disciples. And she is the first person to whom Jesus speaks about his awareness that he is the Messiah.

Narrator: Many Samaritans from the village believed in him on the strength of the woman's testimony; that he revealed what she had not told him. They begged him to stay, he remained two days, and many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman: "we have heard for ourselves, and we too believe that he is the savior of the world."

Time for further reflection, silent, and shared:

Let us Pray:

1. O Fountain of Living Water,
You are like a mountain spring.
Gratefully, I sip from the deep down freshness
Of your never failing love.

2. You are like a summer rain
O Sudden Benediction
drench my soul,
quench my thirsting spirit
with your peace.

1. You are like a raging sea
O storm Upon the Ocean
braking to bits my fragile bark
as I learn to lean on you.


2. You are like a waterfall
Oasis in My Desert
Source of my heart's survival
in the press and stress of life

1. You are like a Cleansing Flood
River of Reconciliation
Washing away the selfish,
Self -serving signs of my sinfulness.

2. You are like a bottomless well,
O Cup of Live-giving Water.
Full-up to overflowing
Praise be to you God of Life
Who is Life to me.
Miriam Therese Winter

Closing Song: Diverse in Culture, Nation, Race (Text: Ruth Duck, 1992 Tune: Tallis' Canon Gather, GIA, 1994)

Commentary taken from the Women's Bible Commentary, ed. Carol A. Newsom and Sharon H. Ringe Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, KY. 1972. Gail R. O'Day, John, Pages 295-296.

Prayer service prepared by Estelle Demers for Medical Mission Sisters, February 2002. www.medicalmissionsisters.org


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