By Pater Inutilis

St. John tells us of his gospel that “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing, you may have life in His name.” In this chapter four, he will present two incidents of believing in Jesus the Christ: the ready and generous belief of the citizens of Sichar, the Sichem of the Patriarchs, and the tardy and gradual belief of Galileans, reminding the Apostle of a saying of Our Lord: “A prophet hath no honor in his own country” (relatively). St. John will spread himself over the pleasing picture of the Samaritan woman and her townsfolk and sparingly over that of the ruler come to Cana from Capharnaum.

All pilgrims and travelers from Galilee to Judea, or vice versa, had to pass through Samaria, as now Jesus did. These two peoples of necessity had to deal with each other, but their relations were not cordial: “The Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans.” The disdainful and hostile attitude of the Jews towards the Samaritans is centuries old, and explained by the latter’s history. After the deportation of the Ten Tribes of Israel to Assyria in the eighth century B.C., the Assyrians peopled it with other subjugated peoples, each bringing their own gods with them. But they also still worshiped the God of the land according to His law and ceremonies, that He be placated. The Samaritans kept the Mosaic books, the Pentateuch, only. They even built a rival temple on mount Garazim, destroyed by the Jews 160 years before this coming of Our Lord to Samaria. They were, therefore, of mixed blood and mixed religion. There is a people that “is no nation, which I hate... the foolish people that dwell in Sichem.” The Samaritans were the pits; and to insult Our Lord the Jews could think of nothing worse to call Him: “Do we not say well that Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?” Even St. John, on another occasion, wanted fire to come down from heaven and destroy a Samaritan village that closed its gates to them going to Jerusalem.

And now Our Lord comes to Samaria. He comes to Sichar; He comes to Jacob’s well. Thither comes a woman of Sichar at the sixth hour, much later than the other women of the town would have come—because of her life situation, to have had five husbands and now be with one who is not her husband. Jesus will address Himself to her, “Give Me to drink.” As His “I thirst” on Calvary, this has a material and a spiritual meaning. Our Lord will play on this double meaning sweetly to draw her to higher needs. “If thou dídst know the gift of God... he that shall drink of the water that I shall give him, shall not thirst forever.” He has piqued her curiosity, but it is when He reveals to her that He knows things hidden, that He is a “prophet,” that she straightaway passes to the realm of religion: the difference between that of the Samaritans and that of the Jews. Jesus tells her that the Samaritans are in the wrong, “You adore that which you know not,” having a diminished idea of God, allowing others besides Him, whereas the Jews have been in the right. But even the religion of the Jews is to be surpassed: God would no longer be adored just in Jerusalem, but in spirit and in truth, for “God is a spirit.” Our Lord is speaking as loftily to her as He had to Nicodemus, but more plainly, for a more simple soul and one without knowledge of the prophets of Israel. She, too, is not following too well, but believes that God will send His Messiah, His Christ, and then all will be put right. “I am He who am speaking with thee.” Extraordinary. His own disciples will have to work that one out for themselves, and Jesus certainly will not be so open with His Jewish interlocutors, who are poorly disposed.

Christ and the Samaritan Woman, by Duccio di Buoninsegna

“You adore that which you know not.” One can have a right idea of God, indeed one must, that still leaves much implicit—St. Paul tells the Athenians their “unknown God” is what he is preaching to them. And one can have a partial idea of God, affirming Him too; what he is not, e.g. materiality, or positively denying what He is: Three in One. St. Thomas Aquinas explains that then one’s idea of God is not God, the true and living. To adore that false idea of God is to adore a false god; false religions are idolatrous, and separate farther from the God who is to be adored in spirit and in truth. St. John, for his part, will say quite simply “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father.” In saying this, he will become a “son of thunder” again: “Whosoever revolteth and continueth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God... If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house...” There is no foundation for religious liberty in Scripture.

The Samaritan woman, known also as St. Photina (feast 3/20 in the Roman Martyrology), is thrilled, and abandons her waterpot. Going straight to the Sicharites, she very prudently invites them to the conclusion that Jesus is the Christ from what He had spoken to her: His knowledge of things hidden. Jesus will spend two days evangelizing them—His “meat to eat”—leaving them convinced “this is indeed the Savior of the world.” This expression in its spiritual and universal sense is found only once elsewhere: St. John will adopt it.

After the two days, they move on to Cana of Galilee whither a ruler of the Jews will come to Jesus from Capharnaum begging that He heal his son. It is Capharnaum that Christ made “His own city” during His public life, where He worked most of His miracles, and which He eventually quit with a damning farewell. There are different degrees of faith. Our Lord shows Himself reserved towards that faith which is mainly an emotional impression caused by His miracles, or, worse, just feeds the appetite for the wondrous, or loses sight of their spiritual purpose, treating them as “useful.” This ruler believes Jesus can heal his son; but is this just a “last resort”? “Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not.” A common attitude among the Jews shared, it would seem, by this ruler. He is desperate, and so again pleads that Our Lord “come.” Jesus pities him and works the miracle, but without going there. “Go thy way, thy son liveth.” The man believes, and even more so when a report comes of the healing, performed at the very hour of Our Lord’s word. Jesus Christ wants from us a great faith, through thick and thin; more of that when next we see Him teaching in Capharnaum.

Titian and Workshop, Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos, c. 1553/1555.