AUDIO MEDITATION: 

Ivan Meštrović (Croatian, 1883–1962), Christ and the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well, 1957, bronze and marble. Shaheen-Meštrović Memorial, University of Notre Dame. Photo by Matt Cashore, copyright 2010.

FULL TEXT:

“Jesus came to a town of Samaria … and Jacob's well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’”

Ivan Mestrovic’s sculpture of this encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well stands at the head of south quad on Notre Dame’s campus. The figures are dramatically different—Jesus stands upright, the woman seems burdened with some kind of weight. In the Gospel, we hear that Jesus initiates this conversation—he is thirsty from his journey, and he is thirsty for this lost woman. She doesn’t yet see what he is offering, but he will lead her to accept his offer of living water.

Jesus approaches us today. What keeps us from recognizing his thirst for us? What gets in the way of us responding to the living water he offers?