FAUSTI - After repeating that Jesus is baptizing, it is now specified that not Him, but His disciples are baptizing. Their baptism is in fact the same as that of the Son, who immerses us in the love of the Father and generates children for us. After the episode in Judea, Jerusalem and the Temple, the heart of Israel's institutions, the Bridegroom now returns to Galilee, where He had begun His signs. Sicar, probable Greek corruption of Shechem, recalls the beginning of salvation history. It is the first piece of promised land that his father Abraham met: there, by the oak of blackberries, he built an altar to the Lord who had renewed his promises, but Shechem is mainly linked to Jacob. In the dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman there is the passage from the well to the gift, from the law to the Gospel, from the toil to the gratuitousness of what the Son offers to His brothers and sisters. Once He has quenched His thirst, He Himself will quench for ever the thirst of those who have come to the well. The living water we thirst for is a gift from God. God Himself who gives Himself: it is the love of the Father, who loves the world so much that He gives His Son (3:16), so that in Him everyone may become a son. Lord, you have nothing to draw from" We sometimes ask ourselves if God is capable of responding to our needs; sometimes we think that others know how to do it better than Him. The woman knows the difficulty of drawing from the deep well. She wonders where the water that Jesus promises comes from. She still ignores that there are different waters, like different births: one from below, from the well, and one from above, from heaven. Water is life; but what is generated by flesh is flesh, what is generated by the Spirit is Spirit. The water that Jesus promises and gives is the Spirit, the source of living water that flows from the heart of every man who knows the Father. It is the mutual love between Father and Son, our communion of life with God. To all those who have abandoned Him, "a spring of living water, to dig for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns that do not hold water" (Jer 2:13), the Lord promises. "Beyond the well of the law - reduced by our non-observance to cistern, empty like the hydries of Cana and that of the woman - the prophets spoke of a living and pure water: the Spirit of God who renews (Ez36,25-27), an infinite love and tenderness, who makes the unfaithful bride faithful, and makes her children "theodidated" (Is 12,3). (Is 54, 13). There is no longer any need to draw on an external well. Everyone has the inner source of knowledge and love, which makes him capable of loving as he is loved. This is eternal life, which is already gushing forth now. And the hour is now, when we meet the Son, who thirsts to give us living water. It will flow from the wound of love of the One we have pierced (19:34-37).
FAUSTI - After repeating that Jesus is baptizing, it is now specified that not Him, but His disciples are baptizing. Their baptism is in fact the same as that of the Son, who immerses us in the love of the Father and generates children for us.
RispondiEliminaAfter the episode in Judea, Jerusalem and the Temple, the heart of Israel's institutions, the Bridegroom now returns to Galilee, where He had begun His signs. Sicar, probable Greek corruption of Shechem, recalls the beginning of salvation history. It is the first piece of promised land that his father Abraham met: there, by the oak of blackberries, he built an altar to the Lord who had renewed his promises, but Shechem is mainly linked to Jacob.
In the dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman there is the passage from the well to the gift, from the law to the Gospel, from the toil to the gratuitousness of what the Son offers to His brothers and sisters.
Once He has quenched His thirst, He Himself will quench for ever the thirst of those who have come to the well. The living water we thirst for is a gift from God.
God Himself who gives Himself: it is the love of the Father, who loves the world so much that He gives His Son (3:16), so that in Him everyone may become a son.
Lord, you have nothing to draw from" We sometimes ask ourselves if God is capable of responding to our needs; sometimes we think that others know how to do it better than Him.
The woman knows the difficulty of drawing from the deep well.
She wonders where the water that Jesus promises comes from. She still ignores that there are different waters, like different births: one from below, from the well, and one from above, from heaven.
Water is life; but what is generated by flesh is flesh, what is generated by the Spirit is Spirit.
The water that Jesus promises and gives is the Spirit, the source of living water that flows from the heart of every man who knows the Father.
It is the mutual love between Father and Son, our communion of life with God.
To all those who have abandoned Him, "a spring of living water, to dig for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns that do not hold water" (Jer 2:13), the Lord promises. "Beyond the well of the law - reduced by our non-observance to cistern, empty like the hydries of Cana and that of the woman - the prophets spoke of a living and pure water: the Spirit of God who renews (Ez36,25-27), an infinite love and tenderness, who makes the unfaithful bride faithful, and makes her children "theodidated" (Is 12,3). (Is 54, 13).
There is no longer any need to draw on an external well. Everyone has the inner source of knowledge and love, which makes him capable of loving as he is loved.
This is eternal life, which is already gushing forth now.
And the hour is now, when we meet the Son, who thirsts to give us living water.
It will flow from the wound of love of the One we have pierced (19:34-37).