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Jesus, tired from his journey,
sat down at the
well. The hour was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw
water, Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." ...The Samaritan woman
said to him, "You are a
Jew. How can you ask me, a Samaritan and a woman for a drink?" (Recall
that Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans.) Jesus replied, "If only
you recognized God's gift, and who it is that is asking you for a
drink, you would have asked him instead and he would have given you
living water." "Sir," she challenged him, "you do not have a bucket and
this well is deep. Where do you expect to get this flowing water?
Surely you do not pretend to be greater than our ancestor Jacob, who
gave us this well?" ... Jesus replied, "Everyone who drinks this water
will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will
never be thirsty; no, the water I give shall become a fountain within
him, leaping up to provide eternal life." The woman said to him, "Give
me this water, sir, so that I shall not grow thirsty and have to keep
coming here to draw water."
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"Suddenly I see, this is
what I
want to be. Why the hell it means so much to me? This is
what I want to be. Suddenly I see. And she’s taller than
most and she’s looking at me; I can see her eyes looking from the
page of a magazine. She makes me feel like I could be a tower,
big strong tower, yeah, the power to be, the power to give, the power
to see."
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Many
people who met Jesus Christ during his lifetime felt the desire to do
something better with their lives. They faced the question that is
implicit in K T Tunstall's song "Suddenly I See," namely, "What do you
want to be" and
answered, "Something better than I am right now." One such person
was the Samaritan woman in John's Gospel. The dialogue
between Jesus and her at the beginning of the story is a dialogue of
someone searching for something better and Jesus who could supply the
ultimate "something better," namely, eternal life.
The song and the Gospel passage of the Samaritan woman leads a concerned person to ask some questions that could lead to serious consideration. Right now in your life, with all the ups and downs, all the things that you have been through, what do you want to be? Do you want to be a little smarter, maybe a little more attractive, do you want to be happier that you are, more athletic, thinner? Maybe you know that there are some things that you should be, but you're not quite there yet, and your intention is do something about it, as the lady in K T Tunstall's song who sings, "This is what I want to be." We must accept the responsibility. We must live our lives the way we want to live them. Yes, we can take suggestions from other people, even from magazines, but ultimately it is our choice. Jesus offered eternal life to the woman in Samaria, but she had to choose to take it. It is the same eternal life that Jesus offers us as we live in this complicated world. If we choose to accept it, as the Samaritan woman finally did, it will mean some things that may be difficult, some things that we have to change in our behavior patterns perhaps, but in the end, after we make those changes, we will be exactly what we want to be. |
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THOUGHT
Ultimately, what do you
want to accomplish in your lifetime?
PRAYER Good and gracious
God, we have the choice of being what we want to be in life. You
have given us a free will that insures it. Help us accomplish
things in life that will help others in some way, and give us the grace
to accomplish things that will ultimately lead to our eternal life with
you. Be with us, we pray.
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©2007
Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America |