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| Chagall -- Moses and the Striking Rock |
Symbols
are indispensable to theology and religion, because often it is only through
symbols that we can talk about both the world in which we live, and the reality
that transcends it. In the Bible, ‘bread’, ‘water’, and ‘light’ are used
symbolically again and again. It is easy to see why. All of them are essential
to biological life, and so they readily lend themselves as means by which to
point beyond the biological, to the essential elements of spiritual life.
The
Old Testament lesson and the Gospel for this week are linked by one of these
symbols – water. Moses, tormented by yet more complaining demands on the part
of those he has led out of slavery – on this occasion it is “Give us water” --
cries out to God in his frustration. God responds by aligning himself (almost
literally) with a miraculous supply of water in the wilderness. “I will be
standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb”, he tells Moses, “Strike the
rock, and water will come out of it”. Thereby, the Israelites’ biological need
for water is satisfied, but also made the means of demonstrating their dependence upon God.
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| Jesus and the Samaritan Woman -- Duccio |
The
episode reveals both God's providential generosity and the weakness and waywardness of the Israelites.
They have taken it upon themselves to test God, and thus expose their
underlying faithlessness. The Gospel passage offers us an interesting reversal.
Here too the symbol of water plays its part, and the need for it is made the
means of a test. But it is God in the Person of Jesus who needs water, and the
humble Samaritan woman who is asked to provide it. Being Samaritan, she is not one of
the ‘Chosen’ people, but part of a group regarded by Orthodox Jews as
renegades.
Nevertheless,
she passes the initial test by drawing water from the well. This proves her
worthiness to be put to a deeper test. Does she long for ‘living’ water of a
different kind, and can she see that Jesus is offering it? The woman is
convinced, almost, by the extraordinary insight Jesus shows into her life and character.
This gives us a clue to the nature of the ‘eternal life’ to which Jesus refers
-- life in God. In the Epistle, St Paul’s description of this life also
makes an implicit reference to water. “We have obtained access to this grace in
which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God . . .
because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that
has been given to us”.
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