Videos from Fr Claudio Doglio
Original voice in italian, with subtitles in English, Spanish, Portuguese & Cantonese
The Samaritan Woman
At the start of the Gospel of John, the section on signs traces a journey from the institutions of the Old Testament to the newness introduced by Jesus. From chapter 2 to chapter 4, this part is characterized by two signs set in Cana of Galilee.
Between the two episodes, there are other stories where Jesus meets different people and, through his words, introduces a new approach. We have already seen the reality of the renewed covenant at Cana with the sign of wine, the concept of the temple being replaced by Jesus himself, the newness of the law that Jesus presents in his dialogue with Nicodemus, and the fresh perspective on mediators, highlighted by John the Baptist, who, as a friend of the bridegroom, steps back and makes room for Jesus, the bridegroom. After going to Jerusalem for the Passover feast, Jesus decided to return to Galilee.
In chapter 4, we see a notable episode where Jesus has a simple encounter with a woman from Samaria. In verse 4, the evangelist begins the episode by saying, ‘he had to cross Samaria.’ Traveling from Judea to Galilee by passing through Samaria was an option. However, it wasn’t the usual route pilgrims took because Samaritans were seen as outsiders and unfriendly. They practiced a mixed religion that, in part, shared elements with Judaism—they kept the Pentateuch. But they also added other parts, creating a sort of Jewish heresy. The Samaritans were considered impure.
A Jew did not pass through Samaria because he feared ambushes. However, above all, an observant Jew was not supposed to pass through Samaria because he could become contaminated by touching impure objects, eating unclean foods, or coming into contact with impure Samaritans. Therefore, pilgrims from Jerusalem usually went down to Jericho, crossed the Jordan River, traveled north along the eastern bank, and then crossed the Jordan again at Bet She’an to reach Galilee.
Therefore, the evangelist’s opening statement, ‘he had to pass through Samaria,’ is provocative. It does not align with the customs and practices of the time; instead, it challenges them. Why did Jesus have to pass through Samaria? Because God’s path led him to be open to strangers in Israel and to the reality of corrupted religion.
The woman of Samaria symbolizes a certain type of religious humanity, but in her own way—religious in the wrong way. Jesus needed to encounter people like her as well. Nothing particularly dramatic happens in this scene. It’s not a healing, perhaps a conversion. If there is a dialogue, it isn’t prominently highlighted. There is a change, but it all stems from the encounter with Jesus. When she meets Jesus, she realizes she has found the meaning of her life and that her life has changed. But let’s examine the text carefully because, in the details, the evangelist shares valuable lessons. “Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon (the sixth hour).”
It is important to highlight the reference to the number six, which John sees as a symbol of imperfection. The sixth number represents humanity. The number of incompleteness leans toward the fullness of seven. The well is a significant symbolic place. The lovers’ meeting happened around wells in accordance with Old Testament tradition. Marriages were often arranged at wells because young women went there to draw water.
It was one of the rare times you could meet girls alone. Usually, in the early morning or evening, during the cooler parts of the day, women from the house went to draw water from the well. Jesus, exhausted from the journey, sits by the well. It is the sixth hour, the hottest part of the day, and no one is expected to be there. His disciples have gone to town to buy supplies for lunch. Unexpectedly, a woman comes to draw water. She is alone at an inconvenient hour.
The evangelist does not say anything about it, but he suggests to the listeners that the woman going to the well at an unusual time did not intend to meet anyone. She did not want to encounter the villagers and had something to hide or didn’t want to share with others. The woman of Samaria comes with an amphora to draw water, but she cannot because Jesus is sitting by the well. A well is a large hole in the ground that goes deep into the earth and allows water to be drawn from its depths.
It is a symbol of life, representing the primordial life that emerges from the depths. It is a maternal symbol of birth, of deepening, and of interiority. Jacob’s well, in the language of Judaism during the time of John, was an image of the law—the source of life—meaning that deep divine teaching that emerges and sustains life. Jesus, sitting by the well, takes the place of the law, and the woman must pass through him to draw water. He takes the initiative by simply saying to the woman, ‘Give me a drink.’
She reacts sharply, feeling offended. She recognizes from his accent that he is Jewish. She notices that he is a man, and then she reacts aggressively, saying: ‘You are a man and a Jew; you despise me as a woman, you despise me as a Samaritan. Now that you need, you ask me for water.’ The strange thing is that a Jew, who feels religiously superior, is asking for water from a jar belonging to a Samaritan woman. This is unusual; the person making such a request is not typical. The woman responds with surprise and even some rebuke.
Jesus, however, elevates the conversation. He asks for a drink but quickly reveals himself as the one who can provide it to the woman. “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water,” Jesus responds politely but theologically. He begins by saying, “You don’t know who I am. If you did, you would have asked me for water because I have water that grants eternal life.” The woman reacts almost jokingly, teasing him: ‘But who do you think you are? Are you more important than the patriarch Jacob, who dug this well? He, his children, and his flock drank and continue to draw this water for centuries.’
The legend says that when Jacob dug that well, the water rose to the surface and overflowed for a long time, so the flocks could drink peacefully. Is Jesus greater? He has nothing to draw water with; he doesn’t have a jar or a glass. How can he draw water? Jesus responds by accepting the challenge but raising the level of the discussion. “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst.” Water that quenches thirst means it fulfills everyone’s desire.
It is a gift from God. What is he talking about? About the Holy Spirit—the Spirit is God’s gift. If that woman knew, she would ask him because the Spirit, the living water, is the water Jesus will give. For now, it’s a promise: the water that quenches thirst. The woman doesn’t understand Jesus’ theological words. She stays grounded, thinking only about water in a literal sense. She sensed that this strange man might have some powers. It would be valuable if he had water that permanently quenched thirst. She wouldn’t need to come back every day to draw water.
She asks Jesus, “Give me that water.” Jesus makes a surprising point: “Go call your husband and come back.” The woman feels exposed. She started the conversation with a stranger talking about water, but now she’s being asked about her personal life. She has to admit she has no husband. Jesus calmly responds, revealing her life by showing that He knows her and her mistakes. “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.”
There are six. Once again, it shifts back to the symbolism of five. The woman of Samaria, who experienced marital instability and a tumultuous marriage, is above all an image of the Samaritan people—of humanity—spiritually misguided, filled with various idols and divinities. The image of the husband recalls God as the people’s spouse. The number six leans toward seven. Jesus is presented as the seventh, symbolizing the fullness of the spousal relationship.
The true bridegroom, through the well-ordered marriage, symbolizes the new relationship between Christ and humanity. That sinful woman, representing humankind in its spiritual wrongness, is corrected and redeemed by Christ. The woman is amazed and struck by her human vulnerability, which deepens the religious conversation: “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.” ‘So, tell me: Where is the place we should worship?’ “Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”‘You who know, tell me where the place is.’
And Jesus responded to her with a powerful Trinitarian statement: “The Father must be adored in spirit and truth.” Often, this phrase is misunderstood. The Spirit is not the opposite of matter; thus, it does not imply a ritual less, purely inward worship that relies solely on personal conscience. Likewise, ‘truth’ does not denote the absence of hypocrisy or inconsistency. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit, and the truth is Jesus himself.
In the language of John, ‘truth’ means ‘revelation.’ Jesus is the truth because he reveals the Father. Therefore, the Father desires and must be worshiped in the Spirit given by Jesus, who is the truth. The Father seeks such worshipers. And the woman has sparked the theme. At the heart of this encounter with the Samaritan is the question of worship. Where can God be worshiped? Jesus says: ‘Neither on the mountain nor in the temple, but in the Holy Spirit given by me, who am the revelation.’ It signifies the rejection of a cult linked to nature, like the mountain, or a ritual tied to the religious structure, the temple. Christian worship happens in the Holy Spirit, a gift from Jesus Christ, who makes us children and unites us in communion with God the Father.
This is the miracle Christ brings to the woman who was religiously misguided. She leaves the jar she used to draw water and runs to the city to tell the people. An important detail: she leaves the container she came with. Nothing changed; she didn’t take, give, or receive water from Jesus physically. They talked, but a transformation happened in her. That woman who went to draw water when no one was around to avoid meeting anyone now calls the villagers together to see Jesus. She says, “I found a man who told me everything I did.”Most likely, the villagers already knew what she had done. They probably told her too. She avoided meeting them to avoid blame or insults for her actions.
In Jesus, she found a person who, despite knowing her flaws, offered her a new chance. She became an evangelist. Her life has transformed since her encounter with Jesus. She encourages her community to meet Jesus as well. The Samaritans rush to see Jesus.
Meanwhile, his disciples arrived, and the second part of the encounter began. The disciples bought something to eat, told Jesus to eat, and Jesus started a strange discourse. “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” The disciples reasoned practically, like the Samaritan woman, thinking that someone must have brought him something to eat. Jesus elevates the level of his discourse, beginning with material things.
They are always symbols that Jesus uses to reveal a higher, more spiritual reality. “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me… Look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.” He is indicating the fields with his hand. We should imagine that the Samaritans are approaching, and Jesus points to a ripe harvest as they arrive.
At this point, he states: ‘I have worked hard, and you must take over my work. I labored to sow so that a harvest could be gathered. You, my disciples, are sent to reap what I have worked for.’ Remember that Jesus was portrayed as tired and seated by the well at the beginning. That image of Jesus sitting, fatigued, reflects his passion. Jesus will again be seated in Pilate’s praetorium at the sixth hour when he is mockingly presented as the king of the Jews. Jesus’ fatigue symbolizes his life, missionary work, passion, and death.
That is the fatigue that gives birth to the harvest, and the disciples, in their time, will gather them. The Acts of the Apostles tell us that Philip, one of the seven, then Peter and John go down to Samaria, and many Samaritans receive the Gospel. When did Jesus pass through Samaria? When the disciples Philip, Peter, and John evangelized that territory, many Christians—like the woman of Samaria—who were previously scattered worshipers of idols in many cults, adhered to Jesus, recognizing him as the truth and receiving from him the Holy Spirit, which keeps them in full communion with God the Father, making them authentic worshipers of the Father in Spirit and truth.
The journey ends in Galilee, once again in Cana, completing the circle. In Cana of Galilee, where everything started, Jesus returns and performs the second sign: a man is healed and lives. The first part concludes, and the second begins.