{"id":1568,"date":"2017-05-14T09:13:08","date_gmt":"2017-05-14T13:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sjcmetheology.wpengine.com\/?p=1568"},"modified":"2017-05-14T09:13:08","modified_gmt":"2017-05-14T13:13:08","slug":"water-and-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/water-and-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Water and Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my academic career, I must confess to never having been tasked (or, is it tortured?) with reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner<\/em>. Samuel Coleridge\u2019s epic of death and guilt on the high seas may not have been part of your formal education either, but without a doubt you\u2019ve used one or both of its most famous lines more than a few times in conversation. For the intellectually curious (or anyone who likes word-search puzzles), check out the poem<\/a> in its entirety and look for the familiar lines. One of them (with which I\u2019ll \u201cwhet\u201d your appetite in a moment. Hmmm\u2026is that a clue?) came to mind as I reflected on this Fourth Sunday of Pascha<\/em> (Easter<\/em>, for Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Christians), in which we commemorate Jesus\u2019 encounter with the Woman at the Well<\/em>.<\/p>\n

You probably know the story, but if not you can read the Gospel account here<\/a>. The upshot is that a sinful woman is ostracized by the people in her town \u2013 and likely the subject of a lot of gossip. As a result, she comes to draw the day\u2019s water from the common well when the sun is at its hottest, guaranteeing that she won\u2019t meet anyone along the way, or suffer ridicule as she simply fulfills a daily duty. It\u2019s hot<\/strong>, and the woman might mumble some choice words as she struggles to bring up her bucket from the deep well. Sweat soaks her clothes, her muscles ache, and her frustration sizzles in the hot sun. Her trips to the well aren\u2019t just exhausting; they\u2019re deeply isolating. There\u2019s no small talk, no laughter, no catching up on the day\u2019s news for this Woman. Yet isolation beats having a mirror held up to her by the other women; a mirror reflecting her every sin and mistake. If only she could escape this place \u2013 these people \u2013 and their judgment. If only she didn\u2019t feel somehow convicted<\/em> by their words. If only she didn\u2019t have to return to this well again and again, a reminder of her status as an outsider. If only she didn\u2019t need water<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Gospel doesn\u2019t reveal the inner life and dialogue of the Woman, but it\u2019s easy to imagine these thoughts and feelings, because they\u2019ve so often reflected my own. Sure, I\u2019ve been judged unfairly by others, and made to feel inadequate by people whose purpose was just that. But I\u2019ve also been convicted of my sins by the Holy Spirit<\/a> (Jn :7-9) through the words and counsel of others. Sometimes we need someone to hold up a mirror in front of us so that we can see more clearly what we often know in our hearts to be true. But when Jesus meets this Woman, He\u2019s not holding up a mirror the way the people in town do; nor is He holding up the same one. His mirror is very different, and reflects to the Woman not only her sins, but her beauty. Jesus wants her to really see<\/em> herself the way He does. Jesus wants to restore her sight, and help her to \u201csee rightly\u201d from now on. He doesn\u2019t tell the Woman that\u2019s what He\u2019s doing, and He doesn\u2019t even tell her that her vision is impaired. He doesn\u2019t present her with a full account of her sins, rendering judgment on the spot. Instead, He asks her<\/em> for a drink of water<\/em>. This simple gesture \u2013 baffling to the Woman at first \u2013 is not meant to fulfill Jesus\u2019 need, but hers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u2026which brings us back to Coleridge (remember him?), and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner<\/em>. \"\"<\/a>One of the lines from the epic poem that most of us know (and misquote) describes what Jesus reveals to the Woman as she struggles to pull up her bucketful of this necessary nuisance:<\/p>\n

Water, water, every where,<\/em><\/p>\n

And all the boards did shrink;<\/em><\/p>\n

Water, water, every where,<\/em><\/p>\n

Nor any drop to drink.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a literary scholar, but I\u2019m confident Coleridge didn\u2019t have the Woman at the Well in mind as he wrote. Yet these words describe the Woman\u2019s situation, and mine and maybe yours, and our world\u2019s: that there is so much water<\/em> around us \u2013 possessions, technology, opportunities to self-medicate our physical, emotional and spiritual pain \u2013 so much water<\/em> that we feel as if we\u2019ve nothing at all to drink. We greedily gulp this water<\/em> and find we\u2019re thirstier than ever. Like the Woman, we\u2019re tired, we often feel isolated, and we smash the mirrors that reflect poorly on us, unable to look at ourselves honestly as sinners \u2013 and to believe we are beautiful images of God.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t know the story of Jesus\u2019 encounter with the Woman, please read it<\/a>. If you do know it, read it again. Image yourself in the scene; imagine yourself in your daily life, your \"\"<\/a>work, your innermost thoughts, fears and desires. Consider which \u201cwells\u201d you consistently draw from and whether they contain the Water of Life, or the stagnant, polluted stuff that leaves you sick at heart and still thirsting. Now imagine it is you<\/em> whom Jesus encounters, you<\/em> whom He asks for a drink. He\u2019s not really concerned with His comfort, or in getting something from you. That\u2019s not why He approached the Woman at the Well either. Jesus offers Himself<\/em> as the cool, pure, refreshing Water<\/em> in which we see our reflection \u2013 our true reflection. Jesus doesn\u2019t dismiss or ignore our sins and our weakness (He certainly didn\u2019t tell the Woman her sins were no big deal.) But He leads us gently \u2013 as He did the Woman – inviting us to realize that nothing satisfies us like He does. We settle for a lot of dirty water<\/em> in our quest for meaning, for comfort, for love \u2013 for forgiveness and redemption<\/em>. Even the \u201cgood water\u201d (positive relationships, charitable acts, noble pursuits) can leave us dissatisfied when we pursue and enjoy them apart from Christ; when we don\u2019t rely on Him to sustain us, and put all our faith, our hopes and expectations in anyone or anything other than Him.<\/p>\n

The Gospel shows that her encounter with Christ opened the Woman\u2019s heart so that she could finally see herself reflected in Him. She no longer saw her sins as the \u201cbrand\u201d marking her isolation, but Jesus\u2019 \u201cway in\u201d to her lonely pursuit of something (Someone) she couldn\u2019t find \u2013 and didn\u2019t realize she was seeking. She is emboldened, no longer fearing the words \u2013 or the mirrors \u2013 of others, because she has become a reflection of Christ<\/em>. By Tradition, we know that Jesus literally \u201cturned the light on\u201d within the Woman, now known as Photine<\/a> (the Enlightened One<\/em>), making her a fierce and fearless witness to His merciful love, boldly proclaiming the message of the Gospel and the converted life. That\u2019s precisely what Jesus thirsted for: not water from a well, but that the Woman would realize who she is, who she\u2019s meant to be, and how much He loves her. Jesus wants the same for us. He meets us at our well<\/em>, in the isolation and dissatisfaction we don\u2019t even realize we live in anymore, so used to \u201cnever enough\u201d we are that we\u2019re resigned to its endless, pointless pursuit. Jesus sits with you<\/em>, at this very moment, wherever you are, whatever your thirst. Jesus offers you<\/em> the Water<\/em> and the Light<\/em> that will cleanse, heal and sustain you.<\/p>\n

Water, water, everywhere<\/em>\u2026. Jesus is asking you to satisfy His thirst for you<\/em> by drinking deeply of His merciful love.\u00a0 Will you give Him a drink?<\/p>\n

Ann Koshute<\/strong> teaches theology for Saint Joseph’s College Online Theology Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my academic career, I must confess to never having been tasked (or, is it tortured?) with reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Samuel Coleridge\u2019s epic of death and guilt on the high seas may not have been part … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sjcme.edu\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}