Understanding the Word

By Br. John R. Barker, OFM

After their deliverance from Egypt, the work of forming Israel into  God’s people continues. Although they have seen God’s power to  save, they have not experienced God’s ability to provide. Until they  come to trust that their God is capable of meeting all of their needs,  they will not be able to be faithful to the covenant relationship. The  cry for water, revealing doubts that God is “in their midst,” is thus  a “test” of God’s trustworthiness. God’s quick provision is intended  not only to provide life-giving water, but also to inspire trust in the  God with whom they will shortly enter into covenant relationship. 

In his letter to the Romans, Paul explains that, whereas sin alienates  us from God, faith in Christ brings about peace with God. More  than this, Christ makes it possible to share in the divine life, which  gives hope of future glory. This hope is firm because the believer  already experiences the “love of God,” which can mean God’s love  for the believer, the believer’s love of God, or both. In the first case,  the Spirit and the life of grace are from God, a gift of love and a firm  promise for the future. In the second case, the believer is able to love  God through the transforming power of grace. 

Today’s Johannine reading dramatizes a central theme found in  the Prologue. Just as the Word was in the world but the world did  not know or accept him (1:10–11), so at first the woman resists  Jesus, “knowing” only that he is a Jew, estranged from Samaritans.  But Jesus persists, declaring that if she really knew who he was  she would have asked for “living water” from him, a metaphor for  divine life and grace (“to those who did accept him, he gave power  to become children of God” [1:12]). Eventually the woman comes  to believe that he might “possibly be the Christ.” As a result of her  testimony, others encounter Jesus and come to “know that he is truly  the savior of the world.”

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