Give me this water......

The Woman at the Well (John 4:5-42)
This Gospel passage is a beautiful story of Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well. It is full of metaphor and you can approach it from many positions: the woman having an encounter, a spiritual experience, direction from God. Or Jesus, a spiritual guide, a teacher, a comforter, challenging. Jesus meets her where she is at. He shouldn’t even have acknowledged her as she is clearly an outcast, a Samaritan woman with a reputation. This woman experiences conversion and growth at this well, not just physical quenching of thirst, but a spiritual one.

We can think of the millions of women and girls who make the hazardous journey to wells every day in search of water.

According to the UN 1.1 billion people are ‘water insecure’. Trócaire is working in Malawi with their local partners to provide water security for many communities. By 2020 it is estimated that water available for agriculture in the region will drop by 50%. We all have a part to play in this with climate change one of the biggest contributors to water shortage. This is a problem that requires more than charity giving to solve. We need to radically change how we use the resources given to us; we need to be more conscious of how much we use; how we recycle; how we can walk or cycle more instead of driving. The woman in today’s Gospel experiences conversion at the well; we too are in need of conversion so that we live more in solidarity with those who are suffering and thirsting for justice.

'Give me this water so that I may not be thirsty’ (John 4:15.