COME AND SEE

“For when He asked the Samaritan woman for water to drink, he had already created the gift of faith within her. And ardently did He thirst for her faith that He kindled in her the fire of Divine love.”

As I was standing during Mass this past Sunday as the Priest gave the preface of the Eucharistic Prayer, these were the words that stuck with me. “He had already created the gift of faith within her.” Not because they were particularly powerful in the moment, but because they made me ponder and think.

“He had already created the gift of faith within her.”

With a simple question, that of “Give me a drink,” God not only made the woman believe in humanity and a world with no boundary between Samaritan and Jew, but in God the Father, and the Son, the one that was to come, has come, and was already present, speaking with and to her.

With this gift, a door was opened and a world was changed. The seed was planted, yielding rich fruit.

For those of you that don’t know the story of the Samaritan woman, I invite you to read it with me now:

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that 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.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” —For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.— Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,‘ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?”

Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.”

The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.”

Jesus answered her, “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. What you have said is true.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”

Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”

The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Christ; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one speaking with you.”

At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ?”

They went out of the town and came to him.

Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?”

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, ‘In four months the harvest will be here’? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest. The reaper is already receiving payment  and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”

Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me everything I have done.”

When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days.

Many more began to believe in him because of his word, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

The Gospel of the Lord. (Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ)

This gift of faith was not just an invitation to a reparation of a divide, but was, on a bigger scale, an invitation to further God’s reach, ministry, and Kingdom. The newly kindled fire of Divine love rooted in the Samaritan woman, went on to become a kindled fire of faith in the hearts of many. And at its root, that kind of fire will never burn out.

In regards to the story, the progression of how Jesus instilled faith within the Samaritan woman was threefold.

Here, faith was an underlying problem with a need to be met.

That of Jesus’s thirst to give her living water to quench her own thirst so that she can thirst no more.

Here, faith was a result of a connection that spans recognition.

Jesus telling the woman everything she has ever done.

Here, faith was the result of a claim.

“I am He.”

And indeed He was! Jesus, The Son of David. Jesus, The Messiah. Jesus, The Good Shepard. Jesus, The Teacher. Jesus The Redeemer. Jesus, Abba, The Father. Jesus, The Creator. Jesus, The Alpha and The Omega. Jesus, The King of Kings and Lord of Lords…..

Each day, we are invited to have the gift of faith instilled within us. Each day, we are invited to “Come And See” and drink.

As we head deeper into the work week, I invite you to accept the invitation of “Come And See”. So that you too may drink living water. You too may worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

From the second book in the To Exist Among Infinity series. Available worldwide. Visit harpernightingale.com/books to search for it in your Amazon marketplace.