A reading from the holy Gospel according to John. John 4:5-42
In Samaria, Jesus came to the town called Sychar. This town is near the field Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well is there. Jesus was tired by the journey so he sat down next to the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to the well to get some water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” The disciples of Jesus had gone to the town to buy some food. The Samaritan woman was surprised and said, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan! You want me to give you a drink?” Jews are not friends with Samaritans.
Jesus answered, “If you really knew what God is giving you, and if you knew who I am that asks you for a drink, you would quickly ask me for a drink and I would have given you living water.” The woman said, “You have no bucket and the well is deep. How would you get this living water? Our father, Jacob, of long ago, gave us this well. He drank from this well himself. Also his sons and his animals drank from this well. Are you more important than Jacob?”
Jesus said, “Any person that drinks this water will be thirsty again. But if any person drinks the water that I give, that person will never be thirsty again. The water that I give will become like a spring of water flowing inside that person. That water will give eternal life,”
The woman said, “Sir, give me that living water so that I will never be thirsty again, and never have to come here to get more water from the well.” The woman said, “Now I realize you are a prophet. Our people (Samaritans) worshipped God on this mountain. But you Jews say: “People must go to Jerusalem to worship God.”
Jesus said to her: “Believe me, soon you will worship God not on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. You do not know the God you worship. But we Jews know the God we worship. Salvation comes from the Jews. But the time will come, really it is here now, when people with true faith will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. God is spirit and we must worship him in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah, the Christ, will come one day. And when he comes he will tell us everything.” Jesus answered , “I am the Messiah. I am the Christ you are talking about.”
Many of the Samaritan people in town believed in Jesus. They believed because of what the Samaritan woman had told them about Jesus. So when the Samaritan people saw Jesus, they asked him to stay with them. Jesus stayed for two days. Many more people believed because of the things Jesus said. The people said to the woman, “At first we believed because of all you told us abut Jesus. But now we believe in Jesus because of the many things he told us. We know that he is really the One that will save the world.”
The Gospel of the Lord
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