What if the greatest satisfaction you've been seeking is not in material wealth, but in a divine encounter? Imagine Jesus, breaking the barriers of his time and reaching out to a Samaritan woman, an outcast, to quench her spiritual thirst. This episode will take you on a deep exploration of the story of Jesus and the Woman at the Well, shedding light on the societal norms of that time, and how Jesus challenged them. We, your hosts, Jordan Whiteko, Father Andrew Hamilton, and Father Christopher Pujol, aim to bring to you a fresh understanding of this tale and what it signifies about God's boundless mercy.
Now, let's break down the well-known phrase, "God is love". Are we taking its profound implications for granted? As we grapple with this query, we’ll share insights on how the immense love of God reaches out to us, especially during our deepest struggles. We’ll discuss how Christ meets us at the nadir of our lives and how these special encounters can alter us in profound ways. Moreover, we’ll reflect on the idea that, in a world overflowing with material wealth, the true meaning of life is unearthed in God. This episode is a gentle reminder, a nudge, to never hesitate to turn to Jesus during tribulations.
What if the greatest satisfaction you've been seeking is not in material wealth, but in a divine encounter? Imagine Jesus, breaking the barriers of his time and reaching out to a Samaritan woman, an outcast, to quench her spiritual thirst. This episode will take you on a deep exploration of the story of Jesus and the Woman at the Well, shedding light on the societal norms of that time, and how Jesus challenged them. We, your hosts, Jordan Whiteko, Father Andrew Hamilton, and Father Christopher Pujol, aim to bring to you a fresh understanding of this tale and what it signifies about God's boundless mercy.
Now, let's break down the well-known phrase, "God is love". Are we taking its profound implications for granted? As we grapple with this query, we’ll share insights on how the immense love of God reaches out to us, especially during our deepest struggles. We’ll discuss how Christ meets us at the nadir of our lives and how these special encounters can alter us in profound ways. Moreover, we’ll reflect on the idea that, in a world overflowing with material wealth, the true meaning of life is unearthed in God. This episode is a gentle reminder, a nudge, to never hesitate to turn to Jesus during tribulations.
Jordan Whiteko:
You're listening to the Catholic Accent Podcast. In this podcast, we discuss the acts and miracles that Jesus performed that stunned his disciples. Today's topic is the Woman at the Well. I'm Jordan Waiko, along with Father Andrew Hamilton and Father Christopher Pujol. Ready guys, ready, and we're back, just kidding.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Thanks Jordan for that round of applause.
Jordan Whiteko:
In our studio. Okay, let's just jump right in. The Woman at the Well. I know the stunned disciples come a little bit later, so set the stage of who the woman at the well is In the gospel. The disciples were surprised that Jesus was talking to her.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Oh, everyone would have been because you know she first of all was a Samaritan and even before we get into her questionable living situation, Now, can you explain first what a Samaritan?
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Absolutely so. The Samaritans were an offshoot of the Jewish people and they intermarried with their conquerors when Rome came in, and so they weren't clean. They weren't seen to be clean by your mainstream Jews. They had their own temple. They didn't worship with them, they did their own sacrifices, so it was almost like two parallel religions. But they were definitely seen as lower people, unclean and your average. You could not contact them. It's like two rival high schools. They really hate each other.
Jordan Whiteko:
It's like valiant.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
One of the ways that we would know this, too, is because, for example, when they would go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which you had to at the main feasts of the year in the Jewish calendar, the Jewish people in Galilee, where Jesus was from, would go around. They'd go across the Jordan River, jordan, and then down and then they would come back up through Jericho. So we know basically exactly where John the Baptist was baptized, because that's Jesus coming up through there and then up to Jerusalem. But they would go around Samaria.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
So they literally take a long route around Samaria so as not to come to them, just so they didn't even come to get close to it.
Jordan Whiteko:
All right, thank you.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Go on.
Jordan Whiteko:
Explain who she is and why they would be surprised Jesus was coming.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
She had an interesting past, as Father had alluded to. She was building the scene there.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
She would be what we would say a little promiscuous Gotcha, but something that should give pause, I think and Father feel free to chime in she's going to the well in the middle of the day. Now we're in Israel, it's hot. I mean, we've been having record heat waves here right, and here she is out in the desert going for water at the hottest point of the day. Anyone else would have gone first thing in the morning or in the evening, when it was a little bit cooler.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
So contextually, basically, it's laying out for us that she's somewhat outcast from her peers.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Even within the Samaritan group, she's out.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
And this would have been work that basically women had done to go get the water from the well to then bring back to the home. So the other women of her society seemingly did not want to associate with her, whether they felt guilty by association or whatever it was, and so she didn't feel welcome then, and so that's why she's going towards the middle part of the day, which then leads into her encounter with Jesus, who comes to the well in the midst of the day, and she was surprised by Jesus as well.
Jordan Whiteko:
It wasn't just one.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Oh yeah, she would have been very surprised because really, as a man, he should not have been alone with her and she should not have been alone with him, because they're not related, there's no context there with them. And yet he goes to her and he would know that she was an outcast, not only that she was a Samaritan and he should stay away, but that she's there by herself. He should have gone nowhere nearby in a cultural context.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
And like we see this in today's culture too. Right, like we see groups of people that are outcast and we try to stay away from them, but in reality we're called to reach out and go to them. And so this is where Christ is setting that scene for the Christian mission to go to all people. And so he goes, and it's like give me a drink of water, I'm thirsty, like I just got back from the beach.
Jordan Whiteko:
It's the hottest point of the day Like I need some water and that, like the sands blow and it's hitting you.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
I was just at the beach and it was blowing one day and I'm laying there and the sands pelt me in the face, I thought, oh, I got to go inside. Well, this poor woman, she's trying to get a cup of water. It's going to be all sandy. And yet Jesus goes and says I'm thirsty. And what does she do?
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Well, she basically leads right into with who are you Right? That would be the first thing that you would ask somebody especially, and she already knew, when we get from the scriptures, that he was Jewish. So it's playing upon that interaction between the Jewish people and the Samaritans. Why would you, as a Jew, be talking to me, a Samaritan, especially Samaritan woman? And so then Jesus starts to basically look into her life. Well, who are you Right? He kind of flips it around on us. Often when we ask who God is, we start to learn actually our own identity through that lens and he's picking up on the fact that this is just water. Your thirst will come back. I'm what you actually want. That will provide for you forever and you will go without thirst then.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
But it doesn't end there. So, as this whole scene is playing out, we see that this ancestral well right, it's the well of Jacob and the well has not run dry in a very, very long time. And so last episode you were asking about all this abundance of wine, and this plays right into that, that the abundance of God doesn't run dry. But in this life we continue to thirst and we continue to have those earthly needs that we need met. But here Christ is saying to this woman even though she's not in communion with him, she's not in communion with her people that by drawing on him spiritually and by changing her life, she will receive the grace as necessary. And that's the whole point of the story, and not that it was real nice that he shared with this woman, but it was that after he realizes and calls her out on her sinfulness, she stops and her life has changed. It's that whole experience of metanoia, that whole conversion and there's a risk in both Like.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
That's one thing to highlight, certainly that God takes a risk right. It says that we share nothing in common as Jews and Samaritans we were talking about in the last episode, with the water jars being for ritual cleansing Huge context that we don't really get in our modern day. You had to do certain things to be ritually clean so that you could offer sacrifice at the temple. Their entire mindset was a religious one, an ancient Judaism, Whereas, like you know, sadly we kind of have sometimes people one hour on a Sunday. That's maybe your religious attitude or experience.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
And then these people lived the rest of the week.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Right, this is what they did, and so if you couldn't then be ritually clean to go offer sacrifice, you were really like in some sense set apart from society, so you wanted to reconcile that or avoid things that would make you ritualistically unclean.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Being unclean separates you from God and from your community, and we'll see this all throughout the scriptures. I'm sure, as we continue this series, that in every miracle there's a restoration of the individual to the community and the individual to God.
Jordan Whiteko:
So what was the miracle, if you will, of this woman at the well with Jesus? Just that he talked to her. He knew so much about her and brought her to the faith.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
I think, the acceptance of the community of her through the message of Jesus. So whenever she becomes, basically after meeting Jesus and realizing that he is the Messiah, her going back into the community that has ostracized her and doesn't want anything to do with her, but because of her message that she then takes to them, she becomes a great proclaimer of the good news and from there then is accepted back into the community. And so that's really the miracle, because with all of her husbands before in her past and everything else like that and baggage, she probably never believed that she would be part of the community anymore and that she could have a future with them. But yet the Lord provided away a path, even when it was unseen.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
And I think today too, we so often we hear Pope Francis talking about accompaniment and walking with each other, and this is really setting a model for that. But Bishop Kulik often reminds us that walking with someone doesn't mean that we walk them over a cliff. We meet them where they are, we walk, and then they have to have that changed experience. But we can't force that on someone, and so you never see in this passage Jesus forcing the woman to do anything, but rather, after that experience of seeing Christ, her life has changed, paused, and then she can change the lives of others.
Jordan Whiteko:
And I think the quote is Jesus says my food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work. So he's referring what you just said, that this is the work of God. I'm here to do that work. Follow me.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Which is a nice contrast, right, that he says that. But yet he sent his disciples to go into town to get food, presumably for him, right? So they come back with all this food in hand and they're like oh hey, you know, we got this for you.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
And then he's like look at my new friend and he's like he's.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Basically, I'm not hungry. I've already eaten. This is the work that we're doing right. This is the food for the journey that you're taking, which is to save souls and people that are in maybe the business of saving souls. You understand there's something that nourishes your soul and ministry more than having a really fine meal with a good steak and a glass of wine, and it's people coming to you and saying I found Jesus, I found something more here and my life has changed for the better.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
I can live off of that for weeks on end and reverse that and see that Christ truly is the food he becomes the food he becomes the Eucharist. And so, in that he's now feeding this woman, he's feeding with his life, with his mission, with his identity as the Son of God, and all of this is playing out in a way that this is the great difference between Christianity and the rest of the world. Right, everyone else is man's search for God, but in Christianity it's God's search for man and he's the one who's looking for us. Somebody famous said that before.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Yeah, not me.
Jordan Whiteko:
Don't quote me on that, so that woman becomes a missionary of Jesus? Does the woman have a name? Is there a name?
Fr. Chris Pujol:
The Samaritan woman, I just was curious.
Jordan Whiteko:
I didn't want to just keep referring to her as the woman, if she had a name.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Which in many ways helps to kind of just say it's like a more wide term that you read yourself into that.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Man or woman?
Jordan Whiteko:
Okay, yeah, is she accepted again once she starts like, or is she still kind of that outcast?
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
They have to see in some way to accept the message of Jesus, like after he comes there, like she's preaching to them, but then, like once they actually themselves meet the Lord, then they realize, like what they've been missing Absolutely. And there's a community that then forms around that.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
And we even hear. You know, the Samaritans began to believe because of the woman's testimony, and so if you look at it like in a courtroom, right, the Samaritan community becomes the jury. And somehow now this testimony of the woman is showing them that not only she's been changed, but their lives are going to be changed when they come to recognize who Jesus is. And then the most scandalous part is this woman. The community that can have nothing to do with Jesus or his disciples or your average Jewish community, says to him come and stay with us. And what's he do? Sure, I'd love to. I mean, that would have blown the disciples minds. And guess what? None of them became unclean because they had community with each other. He's taking the laws of the time and showing that that's not the end will be. Oh yes, they're important and I think the whole point of law.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Right is kind of you need these guardrails when you're kind of a little bit of a swerve.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Just like when father drives.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Yeah, a little bit of the wedding yeah after the wedding again. But so, basically, when you're young, you know and you don't have the skills, you need something to kind of hone you in.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
Just like good parents right.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
It's like the bumpers on, like if you're at a bowling alley get yourself a little bit of confidence with the bumpers.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
it gets you down the lane and then, when you come to a better, mature, fuller sense of bowling, you don't need them anymore and you're throwing strikes. So this is what Jesus is doing with the law that the law was placed for an immature Israel that needed all of these things, and to help them, and then now they have to see what the law was actually for, which was guiding them towards the principle of gathering the nations together To himself because Christ is the law.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
The last line of this passage is so critical Because it's not the Jewish people recognizing who Jesus is, but it's this outcast group who says quote this truly is the savior of the world. They've seen now the completion of the covenants and they see him as the one who is the law, the prophets altogether, while his own people continue to reject him.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
I think it's like tongue in cheek sometimes from. John and some of the other writers that what's given as examples of faith in Christ are people that would be least likely to accept the message or they're outside of what is the house of Israel or understanding of people, and so they kind of shame those Jewish believers that grew up with Jesus that are around them all the time, that the familiarity has led to.
Jordan Whiteko:
The woman from the well was amazed by Jesus. When have you been amazed by Jesus that you want to share the good news with others?
Fr. Chris Pujol:
I think every morning I'm amazed. Some days I wake up and think how could this kid be a priest now? And I know Father probably thinks similar.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Do you? Yeah for sure. Yeah, I didn't see myself being a priest whatsoever. I was amazed by, like, the simplest line, which also comes from the Gospel of John right, god is love essentially, and that's something in catechism you're taught and it's told you all the time and it's like, okay, what's that really mean? It becomes cliche. You hear it so often. Which cliches are something that has a truth to it, but it's said so often that you just discard it essentially.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
And for me, the great love of God reaching out, as Father Chris talked about before, that God comes into this world so as to be with us and try to save us, even though he doesn't need to. God's perfect in himself, doesn't need us, but rather comes into this world to raise us up, even in the midst of suffering, taking that on for himself. That's what changed my life, and so from there, that's where I start to pray, that's where I start to actually talk to people about Jesus and not think religion is just like some weird thing that people that need mental help do or something else like that, right.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
It's not like a self-help group or yeah, just like a club for us to hang out in and ring bells and burn incense, but it's a life-changing reality and I think for me, every day there are moments that stun you right, whether it's in the confessional saying mass or simply encountering someone on the street. And then, when you start to really live out the gospel, you start to encounter Christ in these profound ways, just like the woman at the well met.
Fr. Andrew Hamilton:
Christ, and I think the woman at the well meets Jesus at a low point in her life, and I'm big on this, that sometimes, even in the midst of darkness, you meet the light of the world and you find your way forward. And I think that that's really true and speaks to a culture where we seemingly have everything that we would need. We're the most material wealthy country in the history of the world, in the United States, and what are people still doing? Looking for meaning. It's obviously not found in money, it's not found in things that we could possess or have. It's found in God, and so we have to have kind of this religious reawakening to look back to the person that really matters in the midst of all of this world, which is Jesus himself, who then gives us our mission and from there we have a purpose and we have to stop running from those dark moments.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
You know, we overmedicate ourselves just so we don't have to feel that darkness or feel alone. But it's in those very moments that Christ came for and that's where he wants to seek and that's where we can reach out and find him so immensely, with a great love and a great hope. But I think also we have to realize too that Jesus, through this woman, is showing us that we should never be ashamed. We should have a feeling of maybe regret, a feeling knowing that we did something wrong.
Fr. Chris Pujol:
But there's an inherent dignity to us as people, as sons and daughters of God, and so we should never be ashamed to go to him in our problems, even when it seems that everyone has cast us out. It's that great point of. He'll accept you, and then we accept him, and then the great love story continues.