DIVINE LOVE

In the Gospel of John (4:5-42), Jesus reveals Himself as the font of living water that becomes spring of water within us welling up to eternal life. The living water is the divine love that empowers us to participate in the life of God. He alone can satisfy the hunger and thirst of our hearts. He alone is our peace and joy. He fills the emptiness of our lives. He is the key to achieve authentic happiness and true joy. He fulfills the work of new creation. He is the embodiment of truth. Only God can make us truly blessed and happy. Our true worth comes from God alone. Jesus asks the Samaritan woman for a drink. He initiates the dialogue because the business of God is finding us. We are already found by God just like the Samaritan woman. It is not you who chose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go an d bear fruit (John 15:16). Jesus breaks boundaries especially that Jews despise the Samaritans who engage in intermarriages with non believers thereby compromising their faith and ethnic identity. He breaks all walls of division because God is present and available to all irrespective of creed, color, race and gender. God’s love is inclusive. The Samaritan woman recognizes Jesus in stages. It is a journey  of conversion from unbelief to belief. He guides her to a deeper truth that her deep thirst is only satisfied by Him. Her single and deepest thirst is to be loved completely. That is why when she recognizes Him as the Messiah, she leaves her water jar which represents her old way of life. She no longer needs it because she found a new life giving water that can never be held in any jar, container, cup or bucket. She no longer seeks love because she has discovered that she is loved already. She becomes an agent of salvation and conversion to her townmates because of her excitement and enthusiasm in proclaiming her encounter with Jesus. She becomes an evangelizer because she was healed by Him. Healing always leads to service. Evangelization therefore is telling starving people where to find living bread and that is Jesus. To be an evangelizer is telling people dying of thirst where to find living water and that is Jesus. Our witnessing becomes authentic when our lives are changed and we change the lives of others. This happens because we encounter Jesus, the perfect manifestation of divine love.