photo #1896041

Tonight's second reading in the Office of Readings is St. Augustine's treatise on the story of the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:4-42. Verses 16 through 18 are interesting: 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly.” One of my many study Bibles has this note: "Five husbands. The woman’s life story serves as an apt allegory for Samaritan history. During the years of Assyrian conquest, five foreign tribes intermingled with the Israelites of the former Northern Kingdom, and each introduced to the region its own deity, or Baal, which means 'lord' or 'husband.'" We know this is true because 2nd Kings 17:24 states: "And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharva′im, and placed them in the cities of Samar′ia instead of the people of Israel; and they took possession of Samar′ia, and dwelt in its cities." The note goes on to state: "Recall, too, that the three Old Testament Patriarchs - Isaac, Jacob and Moses - each first met their future wives at a well (cf. Gn. 24:10-20; 29:10-20; Ex. 2:15-21). Allegorically, Christ could be seen as encouraging the Samaritans to repent of their own sins and inviting them to him, the Bridegroom and one true God (CCC 401, 710)." The five husbands are listed above and the man whom Samaria is with now - Rome - is not her husband. We know this is true because John 4:27 says: "Just then his disciples came. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, 'What do you wish?' or, 'Why are you talking with her?'" The disciples knew the stories of unmarried Isaac, Jacob and Moses all having met their wives at a well, and here was unmarried Jesus talking with a lone woman at a well at noontime, long after all the respectable ladies of the town had gotten their day's supply of water in the morning. So just think of what was going through their minds! Now you will understand why St. Augustine writes what he does: Second ReadingFrom a treatise on John by St Augustine A Samaritan woman came to draw water A woman came. She is a symbol of the Church not yet made righteous. Righteousness follows from the conversation. She came in ignorance, she found Christ, and he enters into conversation with her. Let us see what it is about, let us see why a Samaritan woman came to draw water. The Samaritans did not form part of the Jewish people: they were foreigners. The fact that she came from a foreign people is part of the symbolic meaning, for she is a symbol of the Church. The Church was to come from the Gentiles, of a different race from the Jews.   We must then recognise ourselves in her words and in her person, and with her give our own thanks to God. She was a symbol, not the reality; she foreshadowed the reality, and the reality came to be. She found faith in Christ, who was using her as a symbol to teach us what was to come. She came then to draw water. She had simply come to draw water; in the normal way of man or woman.   Jesus says to her: Give me water to drink. For his disciples had gone to the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore says to him: How is it that you, though a Jew, ask me for water to drink, though I am a Samaritan woman? For Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans.   The Samaritans were foreigners; Jews never used their utensils. The woman was carrying a pail for drawing water. She was astonished that a Jew should ask her for a drink of water, a thing that Jews would not do. But the one who was asking for a drink of water was thirsting for her faith.   Listen now and learn who it is that asks for a drink. Jesus answered her and said: If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” perhaps you might have asked him and he would have given you living water.   He asks for a drink, and he promises a drink. He is in need, as one hoping to receive, yet he is rich, as one about to satisfy the thirst of others. He says: If you knew the gift of God. The gift of God is the Holy Spirit. But he is still using veiled language as he speaks to the woman and gradually enters into her heart. Or is he already teaching her? What could be more gentle and kind than the encouragement he gives? If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” perhaps you might ask and he would give you living water.   What is this water that he will give if not the water spoken of in Scripture: With you is the fountain of life? How can those feel thirst who will drink deeply from the abundance in your house?   He was promising the Holy Spirit in satisfying abundance. She did not yet understand. In her failure to grasp his meaning, what was her reply? The woman says to him: Master, give me this drink, so that I may feel no thirst or come here to draw water. Her need forced her to this labour, her weakness shrank from it. If only she could hear those words: Come to me, all who labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Jesus was saying this to her, so that her labours might be at an end; but she was not yet able to understand.