This week’s reflection comes from Peter Murnane:

Our lives depend upon water. It covers about 70% of the earth’s surface and makes up about 60% of our body. Unless we maintain this level we are soon in serious trouble. This is why many stories have been written about persons struggling with the lack of water when lost at sea or in the desert.

Today’s readings contain two powerful stories about thirsty people. The first is from the mythical forty-year journey of the chosen people after they escaped from Egypt. There were “about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children” (Exodus 12:37) so it is little wonder that they ran short of water! They began to rebel against their leader Moses, but God showed him how to find water by striking the rock with his staff. Message? God is the generous source of life, and will not let us down.

The second story, in the gospel of John, is more personal. Jesus is tired after travelling on foot on a hot day.   At midday he comes to a well outside a Samaritan village, where a woman is drawing water. Why is she not with the rest of the women when they come to draw water at sunset? She must be some kind of social outcast. The reason emerges in her conversation with Jesus: she has broken many social taboos: she has had five husbands, and is not married to her present partner.

Jesus is not deterred by social rules which forbid Jews from talking with Samaritans, or men from conversing with strange women. He is not ashamed to ask her for a drink of water, and is interested in her as a person, steering the conversation to show her that each of us has the capacity to find God within us. If we are awake to the Good News that Jesus teaches, we can “repent”, see the bigger picture of a merciful God pervading every part of our world. We can work in harmony with this infinite God within ourselves. This is like a source of living water, giving us access to inexhaustible joy, which can be shared with others.

These stories underline the truth that our beautiful planet, emerging from the Infinite Mystery that is our origin, contains enough resources for everyone’s need, but not for billionaires greed. The stories put to shame those who would segregate people from each other, as Palestinians are segregated from Jews in the apartheid state of Israel. They also remind us that our meeting with God is not confined to churches, mosques or synagogues: God lives equally in all people. Why are we so slow to see this beauty?