by Sr. Lourdes Galeazzi
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Lent, the well of the Samaritan woman.
To sit alone and in silence with one’s own truth. Jesus is tired from walking. His life is a continual journey through towns, proclaiming that better world God desires for everyone. He needs to rest. Suddenly a woman arrives; she comes to quench her thirst.
Jesus is the one who begins the dialogue. “Woman, give me a drink.” His need becomes evident. He is the one in need. He is a God who thirsts within us. He presents himself as one who is in need.
He needs to drink and seeks help in the heart of that woman. Our basic needs unite us: weariness, loneliness, thirst for happiness, fear, sadness. At that moment, Jesus expresses his desire to her: “If you knew the gift of God… If you knew that God is a gift.” The woman knows nothing of what is free.
She has had to pay for everything. Jesus is a man who knows how to listen to the human heart. The poor do not feel heard by those of us who claim to follow Jesus. We must sit down and listen. This Lent invites us to step out of our comfort zone to encounter the friends of Jesus.
Who are those friends? The sick, migrants, street children, Indigenous people, the elderly, the homeless, those who cannot read or write, and many more faces. We must go out in order to encounter them.
