I WHO AM SPEAKING TO YOU, I AM HE

Today’s Gospel story

is one of growth, conversion and revelation.

     Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.           Here, where centuries before, his ancestor Jacob had   patiently courted and won his wife Rachel, Jesus patiently courts the soul of the Samaritan woman.

     Everything we hear of her is in unspoken contrast with what is expected. She was a woman, a Samaritan and an adulteress. For the Jews of her time she was not a likely candidate to be privileged with meeting the Messiah. Two thousand years and many saints later, even to us she is surprising.

     The story of the Samaritan woman teaches us that with the things of God we should expect the unexpected. In short we, too, are unlikely recipients of revelation. Yet our Lord courts us as well. In the midst of our sins, our distractions, our ignorance, our worldly concerns, just occasionally we hear his voice and recognise in it the voice of one who knows us profoundly.

     When Jesus won the soul of the Samaritan woman she put the disciples themselves to shame with the power of her witness. And what might he do through us when he speaks to us, and we listen to his voice and harden not our hearts?

                                                                         ~ Fr. Paul Dobson