The samaritan woman (English)

1. 1
“Lord, give me this water” (Jn 4: 15)
An “initial proclamation” accomplished by Jesus
Sr. Maria Ko
In harmony with Strenna 2018 of the Rector Major to the whole
Salesian Family, we pause to meditate today on the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman described
with freshness and liveliness by John. We are before one of the most suggestive scenes of the fourth Gospel.
We contemplate it from the perspective of the ‘initial proclamation’. Here it is Jesus himself who, with art
and wisdom, arouses interest, fascinates, gives birth to, and germinates an initial faith full of promise. The
conditions are unfavorable: a woman "far away", a "peripheral" and inhospitable area, a heavy hour under
the scorching sun of midday, an atmosphere of tiredness and fatigue. All seemingly random circumstances ...
But, behold, an event of unsuspected fruitfulness!
Three itineraries of faith guided by Jesus
We will appreciate the beauty of the passage more if we consider it as part of the section of chapters 3 to 4,
in which the evangelist cleverly approaches three meetings of Jesus with three singular characters:
 Nicodemus (2: 23-3,36)
 The Samaritan Woman (4: 1-42)
 The King’s official (4: 43-54)
They are three very different characters by gender, ethnicity, origin, social position, culture, tradition,
religious attitude, orientation of life. They have different expectations and interior dispositions. Jesus
initiates them into three distinct, personalized itineraries of faith. Even the weather (night, noon, one hour
after midday) and the environment of the meeting (at home, near the well, on the way) are diversified.
Under the pen of John, the three characters represent three types of people that can be found in every time
and three paths of faith that can be implemented even today.
Different from Nicodemus – a Pharisee cultured, rooted in tradition, who seeks a confrontation with Jesus
imagining, perhaps, to be able to discuss on an equal level with Him; also different from the official of the
king - who goes to Jesus moved by an urgent need; the Samaritan woman emerges from everyday life in
which most human beings move, and who have neither a role nor a name that needs to be remembered. She
is intelligent and sensitive, but superficial: she has neither great ideals nor deep desires in life.
At the Well
At noon, under a scorching sun, Jesus, tired and thirsty, sits near a well (Jn 4: 4-4). The well: in every culture,
it is something that has a strong link with life: it guards the fresh water that flows from the heart of the earth;
it speaks of a humble, free, and generous gift; it evokes the effort of piercing and drawing, alluding to the
quiet dwelling of water in the mysterious depths.
The well dug by the ancestors benefits the children from generation to generation. It is a dynamic, vital
inheritance. Its connects generations. In the passage of time, the well remains the same, but the water that
is born in it is always new, capable of quenching parents and children and children's children. The well
combines the memory of the past and the dreams of the future; it speaks of gratitude, responsibility, and
hope.
The well, the vital knot of the people, is also a meeting place: a place where lives intertwine, where water is
requested and given, where unexpected interpersonal relationships are established, where foreigners
become friends. The well is a place particularly dear to women. While for men, the public square and the city

2. 2
gate represent the typical meeting points, for women the tacit appointment is always at the well. The well
offers them the possibility for social life, the exchange of news and experiences, participation and solidarity,
sharing the small events of everyday life: joys, sorrows, problems, worries, desires, dreams, curiosities. At
the well, the space is free to be able to combine the private with the public, personal life with that of the
community, work with idleness. In the Old Testament, we find various icons of women at the well and
several meetings took place near a well: between the servant of Abraham and Rebecca (Gen 24: 11-14),
between Jacob and Rachel (Genesis 29: 9-11), between Moses and the daughters of Jethro, a priest of
Midian (Ex 2: 15-22) etc.
The dialog
The dialog between Jesus and the woman (4: 7-26) is not only dense from the theological and
anthropological points of view, but it also has a singular literary beauty. In a crescendo of intensity and
depth, it develops in a totally linear way: the two speakers simply alternate. It can be divided into two
sequences (7-15, 16-26). Each sequence is divided into 3 remarks for each speaker.
Jesus: “Give me a drink”.
9The woman: “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”
10Jesus: “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”.
11The woman: “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the well is deep; where then can you get this living water?
12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his children and his
flocks?”.
13Jesus: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; 14 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”.
15The woman: “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water”.
16Jesus: “Go. Call your husband and come back”.
17The woman: “I do not have a husband”.
Jesus: “You are right in saying: ‘I do not have a husband’. 18For you have had five husbands, and the one you have
now is not your husband”.
------------
19The woman: “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet! 20Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain; but you
people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem”.
21Jesus: “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem. 22You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation
is from the Jews. 23But 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. 24God is spirit, and those who worship him
must worship in spirit and truth”.
------------
25The woman: “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Anointed; when he comes he will tell us.
26Jesus: “I am he, the one who is speaking with you”.
A Trampoline
At first impact, Jesus always descends to the level of His interlocutor, gradually stimulates him to reflect, asks
him questions, arouses in him desires, induces him to search, and makes him proposals. Thus, He acts with
the Samaritan woman using the symbol of water. In dialogue He normally does not adopt a pre-established

3. 3
strategy, but He allows space to open up to novelty, to the dynamism of the meeting of two freedoms. For
this reason, the beginning is often misunderstood; however, as the dialog proceeds, with its interweaving of
words and silences, of symbols and images, of inner reactions and outward expressions, of surprise and
expectations, the misunderstanding is resolved, and the interlocutor makes a quality leap towards the higher
level to which Jesus guides him. Thus, it happens to the Samaritan woman.
“Give me a drink”. Jesus takes the initiative in the dialog. The request denotes His desire to enter into a
relationship. He eliminates suspicion, breaks the barrier between man and woman, between Jew and
Samaritan, and makes her breathe the free air of authentic relationships. A dialog is born (you…to me) and a
personal encounter.
“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” (v. 10). With keen psychological intuition, Jesus leads the woman from
wonder to wonder. He moves interest from the material well to the man, who now presents Himself as the
One who can give. He implies a possible reversal of the situation.
At first, the woman is full of questions: “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (v 9).
How can this unknown man give her water if He has no way of drawing it from the well? How can He dare to
pretend to promise her living water, of being greater than the patriarchs who had to dig a well? (Cf. vv. 11-
12). But gradually, she allows Jesus to involve her. She changes her way of looking at Him and thus even her
way of addressing Him. First, she defined Him as ‘a Jew’ (v. 9), then she addresses Him as ‘Sir? (v. 11), that
He is an extraordinary person, perhaps ‘greater than Jacob’ (v. 12). Even Jesus’ discourse is gradually
detached from the surrounding situation and becomes universal (“Whoever drinks this water”), open to the
future (“the water I will give”) and to an ever-broader horizon (“…will become in him a spring of water
welling up to eternal life”).
At this point, the trampoline has accomplished its function. Now it is the woman who takes the leap and
makes her request explicit: “Sir, give me this water”. Even though she still does not have a clear
understanding of what this water really is, she lets herself be attracted by Jesus, she trusts Him and is certain
that the water He offers her is an immensely greater gift that the water of the well.
The truth of oneself and the truth of God
But the marvel of the woman is destined to increase. Jesus tells her: “Go call your husband and come back”
(v 16). The change in the dialog is unforeseen. The imperative is direct, explicit, and precise. The aim is to
bring this woman to the truth of herself, preparing her to receive the truth of Jesus. Truth in itself and God’s
truth are revealed together. We need to start by sincerely acknowledging our limitations. The Samaritan
admits, “I do not have a husband”.
At Cana, Jesus’ mother turns to her Son saying, “They have no more wine” (Jn 2: 3). And the paralytic at the
pool of Bethesda will say that he cannot be cured because “he has no one…” (Jn. 5: 7).
In a completely unexpected way, the woman feels He is digging inside her life. Initially she still poses some
resistance, tries to hide and escape from herself, from her own history and from Jesus. She tries to transfer
the discussion to broad and vague issues, on common ground for discussion where everyone can say
something without serious responsibilities (“Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you people say
that the place to worship is in Jerusalem" v. 19), so as not to be the center of attention. But with delicacy,
Jesus frees her from her masks and her fears.
Jesus loves to reveal Himself by revealing man to himself. When He erupts into life and penetrates the heart,
we cannot help but feel the sentiments of the psalmist who confesses, “Lord, you see me, and you know
me… where can I go far from your spirit, where can I flee from your presence?” (Ps. 139). It is a similar state

4. 4
of soul from which flows the surprised exclamation of the Samaritan woman, “Sir, I can see that you are a
prophet”.
The discovery, however, is not over. There is something even greater in this man sitting at the well. He is
able to free her from the old dilemmas in which she tries to take refuge, attracting her attention to the
newness that breaks into the present: "Believe me, woman, the hour is coming, ... and is now here". Then He
reveals to her who the Father is, who "searches" with love for His "true worshipers". Jesus wants to transmit
this message to the Samaritan woman: "It is not you who seek God, but God who seeks you, knows you, and
loves you. You have been found by God ".
The leap is strong. The woman does not immediately find the right level in which to place herself. It oscillates
between the fossilized past and a still vague future: "I know that the Messiah is coming: when he comes, he
will tell us everything". At this point the explicit self-revelation of Jesus takes place that helps His interlocutor
to make the decisive leap: "I am He, the one who is speaking with you". The Samaritan woman thus becomes
the first recipient of the "I Am" who will resound many other times in the Gospel of John.
To recapitulate this meeting of "initial proclamation": the event opens with a simple request and ends with a
solemn affirmation of Jesus himself: "I am He, the one speaking with you". At the beginning, Jesus is seated
at the well and asks for water. At the end, He digs into the secret well of the woman's heart and gives birth
to a spring that gushes life.
She goes with a pitcher and returns with a spring
After the meeting, the woman forgets her jug and runs to the city to proclaim Jesus to the others. She
abandons what was her only concern: now she has found something better. As for Andrew and Philip, the
encounter with Jesus had as a consequence running to his brother or his friend, so it is for the Samaritan
woman: running to her fellow citizens with a personal testimony (v. 29: "He told me everything I have done ")
and a question ("Can he be the Messiah?”). This is not a mandatory announcement, but a question that
stimulates, provokes, attracts, and opens the space to search for an answer (v. 42: "This is truly the savior of
the world").
Not only does the woman forget her jug, but Jesus forgets His tiredness, His need for water and food. He too
has found something better. His real thirst, that of communicating salvation, has been relieved. His hunger,
that of nourishing Himself on the Father’s will and accomplish His work, has been satisfied.
References to Salesian spirituality
Jacob’s well and Valdocco’s pump
In Don Bosco’s time, there was at Valdocco, a fountain, or rather, a water pump. After a century and a half,
in spite of all the restorations and changes, the pump is till there, it has survived. If we look attentively in the
first courtyard of Valdocco, leaning against one of the pillars that form the portico in front of the Pinardi
chapel, we discover something that speaks to us of those times, and even today we can quench our thirst at
that Salesian water.
Don Bosco considered that pump a place of exceptional strategic importance for his education. Fr. Joseph
Vespignani, a priest originally from Ravenna, a bit more than twenty years old, confirms this. He had come to
Valdocco in 1876, to become a Salesian. He was immediately received by Don Bosco. The good Fr. Joseph
was certainly not left idle; he became Don Rua’s secretary and was entrusted with a ‘small’ catechism class
of about 120 boys around 12 years old! We can imagine the fright of poor Fr. Vespignani!

5. 5
The first Sunday he explained his lesson conscientiously prepared in three points, as they had taught him in
the seminary, but it was a real disaster: noise and racket, an uncontrollable chaos. After the storm, Don
Giuseppe ran to Don Rua, who encouraged him by inviting him to try again the following Sunday. Another
total failure! At this point there was only one thing for Don Giuseppe to do: go up the stairs and knock on the
door of Don Bosco's study, to ask advice from the good father. We hear the story directly from the young
Salesian:
So, I appealed to Don Bosco, telling him about the two failures and expressing doubts and about my
ineptitude to fulfill the main offices of the Salesian, such as catechizing the boys and teaching school. Don
Bosco, smiling, asked me why I was so timid as to be scared of a hundred boys, ready and willing to listen and
learn; all the difficulty was in not knowing each other.
— And how can I get to know them and make them know me?
— Oh, great! Being with them, treating them familiarly, acting as one of them.
— But where and when should I go with them? I am not made for playing, running, laughing with them; my
illnesses, the weakness of my chest stop me from doing this.
— Well, go to the pump. There, at breakfast time, you will find many young people there to drink, talk about
their studies, school, games, of many things. Place yourself among them, become their friend, and then
return, and you will succeed.
These suggestions gave me life, and although I did not understand their importance then, I resolved to do just
as Don Bosco had told me. Breakfast time came, and I stood close to the pump of the old well near the
Pinardi house, a pump that is still there, although today it gives drinkable water that comes from on high and
is no longer drawn from below.
At that time, breakfast consisted of the famous ‘roll’, given to the young as they left the Church. Receiving it,
they ran to the water pump to eat it. They all came, sooner or later, through the courtyard for their games.
There, close to that gathering, was the strategic point indicated to me by Don Bosco.
There I was at my observation point, I would say, at my Jacob’s well. I walked very slowly under the portico
without losing sight of the pump and its arrivals who quickly flew with their roll in hand. While some were
drinking, others talked about their lessons, homework, conduct grades, scholastic materials. Some speak of
the difficulty met in the topic; others speak of their aspirations without hiding their vocation. I approached
them, began speaking with them, asking questions about the day’s school items. I asked who was better at
which subject. I even asked them what they thought about catechism, and I saw gather around me little by
little a swarm of those imps who were so troublesome in class and they all speak with me. I became confident.
I asked them why there was so much noise during catechism class. There are many explanations, from which
I understood that we did not know each other and therefore could not understand each other. I returned
there some other mornings to the same gathering and I saw them around me with some freedom, that
attested to their good disposition. (Taken from: G. VESPASIANO, A Year at the School of Blessed Don Bosco
(1876-1877), Turin, SEI 1930, 68-69).
The icon of Jesus with the Samaritan woman for Mother Mazzarello
The figure of the Samaritan woman is very dear to Mother Mazzarello. In exhorting her sisters to prepare
themselves with joy to receive Holy Communion she says: “We must act like the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s
well and ask Jesus for that living water with which one never thirsts again” (Maccono II, 86), and also, “We
must think that Jesus is waiting for us like He waited for the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well: He waits for
us because He wants to come into us and give us His graces, and we must hasten His arrival with the liveliest
desires of our heart” (Maccono II, 136). The icon of Jesus seated at the well, waiting to offer His living water

6. 6
must have been very attractive for Mother Mazzarello. This icon continues to fascinate the FMA generation
after generation.
The well of Sychar and the well of Mornese
In the environment of Mother Mazzarello there are two wells full of symbolic meaning. The first is the one of
the Valponasca farmhouse at the bottom of the valley, where the young Mary Domenica went daily to draw
the water needed for the day. It is the symbol of the union between contemplation and diligent daily work
that characterized Mary Domenica from her youth.
The second is found at the center of the Motherhouse of the FMA Institute, the ‘Collegio-School’ of Mornese.
This is the well from which the first community that lived with Mother Mazzarello drew their water. It is
witness to a simple community, where poverty was lived with joy; relationships were open and transparent;
work was carried out with shared responsibility. It was the place of educative accompaniment, of apostolic
fruitfulness, and of missionary ardor.
Today, enhanced and restored, it remains the symbol of the spirit of Mornese. Each year, many groups of
FMA from various parts of the world arrive for the first time or return to pause beside this well and to draw
from its inexhaustible water, the spirit that dwelled in their Mother.
The well of Mornese is also materially reproduced in many FMA houses on the five continents. It is the sign
of the gift of water that became a fecund source gushing forth eternal life (cf. John 4:14).
Some thoughts taken from Strenna 2018 proposed by the Rector Major, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime: “Lord,
give me this water”. Let us cultivate the art of listening and of accompanying.
 The encounter happens in a profane place and “in the open”, a well in the middle of the countryside that will
be transformed into the place of encounter with God.
 Jesus, the real protagonist and first subject of the encounter, of listening and of the initial dialog, “designs”
the strategy of this encounter, begun by listening to the other person and her situation, which He intuits.
 Sometimes, these encounters and these casual conversations can “open doors” toward a deeper journey of
growth … This is what happened during Jesus’ encounter with the woman, who had simply gone to the well
to draw water.
 Jesus leads the anonymous Samaritan woman to realize that He understands her situation more than she can
imagine, and that He intuits the pain and suffering which, in a certain way, she had to bear…He leads her to
experience compassionate empathy.
 Jesus does not accuse her but dialogs and proposes… in dialoging with the Samaritan woman, He proceeds
calmly, without hurrying to present Himself as the One who can change her life, gradually awakening in her
interest in accessing a water source that promises a special, different, and better life.
 Jesus does not offer a broadening of their knowledge and their awareness of whom they are meeting, as in
this case with the Samaritan woman, but rather gives them a proposal for growth and change their life.
 The conclusion of the encounter goes beyond what would be expected in a normal ending, that is, the
woman would return to her ordinary life with her jar filled with water. On the contrary, the amphora that
the woman abandons empty to go to call her people, speaks of a gain and not a loss.