Lenten Campaign 2025
This content is free of charge, as are all our articles.
Support us with a donation that is tax-deductible and enable us to continue to reach millions of readers.
Each episode in Jesus' life has many layers of meaning; some are more obvious than others. The conversation Jesus has with the woman at the well is one of those events that teaches us a variety of spiritual truths.
It's true that at the surface level, there was a woman at the well and Jesus' words were directed first to her.
Yet, that is not the only meaning, as St. John made sure to write it down for our own benefit, having been inspired by the Holy Spirit to do so.
Woman at the well
This interpretation comes from St. Augustine's commentary on the Gospel of St. John. In it, St. Augustine starts out by explaining how the woman represents the Church:
A woman came. She is a symbol of the Church not yet made righteous. Righteousness follows from the conversation. She came in ignorance, she found Christ, and he enters into conversation with her. Let us see what it is about, let us see why a Samaritan woman came to draw water. The Samaritans did not form part of the Jewish people: they were foreigners. The fact that she came from a foreign people is part of the symbolic meaning, for she is a symbol of the Church. The Church was to come from the Gentiles, of a different race from the Jews.
In this way we can identify ourselves as the woman, as most of us have not come from the Jewish people and are "foreigners."
Eventually Jesus not only asks for water, but promises water to the woman. St. Augustine believes we should see that as Jesus offering to us water, not physical water, but the Holy Spirit.
He was promising the Holy Spirit in satisfying abundance. She did not yet understand. In her failure to grasp his meaning, what was her reply? The woman says to him: Master, give me this drink, so that I may feel no thirst or come here to draw water. Her need forced her to this labor, her weakness shrank from it. If only she could hear those words: Come to me, all who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Jesus was saying this to her, so that her labors might be at an end; but she was not yet able to understand.
Placing ourselves in the story
One way that we can make this scripture passage come alive is by placing ourselves in place of the woman in the story.
We can do this by pausing what we are doing and imagining ourselves inside the story and that Jesus is approaching us at the well.
He offers to use the life-giving water of the Holy Spirit, promising that we will never thirst again.
The biggest question always is, "Do we accept it?"
The next time you read or listen to this passage, consider how Jesus is speaking to you and try to respond to his loving invitation.
