had purchased, pressed Jesus to eat[1]. But He said to them: “I have food to eat that you know not of. My food is to do the will of Him that sent me.”
While He was speaking to His apostles, the Samaritans coming out of the city desired that He would stay there. He therefore remained two days[2] teaching and instructing them. Many of that city believed; and they said to the woman: ‘’We now believe not for thy saying, for we ourselves[3] have heard Him, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.”
COMMENTARY.
Jesus is the Messias and Redeemer promised by God. Our Lord made Himself known as such to the Samaritan woman: “I am He who am speaking to thee.”
Jesus is God. By revealing to the Samaritan woman the hidden secrets of her conscience, He manifested His omniscience.
Jesus is full of Grace and Truth. The living water which Jesus gives is His divine doctrine and grace. His doctrine and grace give supernatural and eternal life to the soul, which, without grace, is dead and in a state of mortal sin. The human soul thirsts for truth and happiness, and our Lord satisfies this thirst by His doctrine and grace. For he who believes in His teaching and lives in His grace, is at peace with himself and with God, finds joy and calm in the midst of the vicissitudes of this life, and will attain to the inconceivable happiness of heaven.
The Love of Jesus. In spite of His fatigue Jesus seized the opportunity to save the soul of the sinful woman of Samaria, and to reveal Himself to her and her townsfolk. His zeal for souls, that is, His ardent desire to save souls, made Him forget His hunger and fatigue.
- ↑ To eat. The disciples urged Jesus to refresh Himself with food, but He told them that He required no earthly food. He had forgotten His hunger, being possessed by the greater hunger to do the will of His Father, i. e. to fulfil His calling of Messias, and save souls; and this hunger could only be appeased by the conversion of the people of Sichar.
- ↑ Remained two days. They had taken the woman’s word that Jesus was the Messias, and He, seeing their good will, remained with them two days and taught them.
- ↑ We ourselves. The teaching of Jesus confirmed their faith, and they were able to say confidently : ‘ We know that this is the Saviour of the world!” The seed which Jesus Himself sowed in Samaria did not prove unfruitful, for we shall see in chapter LXXXVII that the Samaritans were in the time of the apostles the most considerable body of Christians outside Jerusalem.
