A reflection on "The woman at the well"

A reflection on “The woman at the well”

Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB

            The Gospel of St. John is called the Gospel of signs and the account of the woman at the well is one of the Gospel accounts from St. John. This Gospel passage is unique as it tells us about Jesus’ experience with a Samaritan woman. It is said that the Jews and the Samaritans could and would not get along with each other.


            There are a lot of things that we can learn from this passage of the Gospel of St. John. In the first place, we must note that this incident took place at a time when Jesus was tired. The Samaritan woman would go to the well to fetch water at this time. As mentioned before, the Jews and the Samaritans would just never get along and so the Samaritan woman was taken by surprise when Jesus, who was a Jew, asked her for a drink of water. It is interesting to see how Bishop Fulton Sheen interprets this entire Gospel passage. However, I would not want to delve much into it since it is quite elaborate. One thing, however, that I would like to highlight is that God uses the lowly of society for His purpose. We should note that the Samaritan woman was a woman of ill – repute in the sense that she was looked upon as a woman of loose character. Knowing well about her life, Jesus makes use of such a situation to evangelize. At first, she is reluctant and tries to change the topic. But then when she comes to know that He is the Messiah, she is filled with awe and amazement, so much so that she can’t wait to share this wonderful experience with others. Thus, we see how the stone which was rejected has now become the cornerstone. In fact, surprising as it may seem, it has been observed that when God wants anyone to work for Him, He always appoints the lowly, the neglected and the ostracized and brings them on top. Thus the words of the Psalmist have been proved yet once again, “He puts down the proud and exalts the lowly.”

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