Like the Samaritan woman, leave behind your ‘water jar,’ says Pope

March 24, 2014

Pope Francis devoted his March 23 Angelus address to the day’s Gospel reading, which describes Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at a well.

In beginning a conversation with a Samaritan and a woman, Jesus countered the divisions and prejudices of his time, the Pope observed. “When Jesus sees a person he goes towards that person because he is filled with love,” Pope Francis said. “He loves all of us. He does not stop before anyone because of prejudice.”

Jesus’ encounter with the woman led her to see own thirst-- the thirst of “an arid soul.”

“We too have many questions that we would like to ask, but we lack the courage to turn to Jesus,” Pope Francis continued. “Lent is the right time to look inside ourselves, allow our deep spiritual needs to come to the surface, and to ask the Lord for help in prayer.”

After her encounter with Jesus, the Samaritan woman left behind her water jar to speak with fellow villagers about him.

“We too can find the stimulus to ‘leave our water jar,’ the symbol of all that appears to be important, but that loses its value before ‘the love of God,’” Pope Francis said. “I ask you, and I ask myself: what is your water jar, the one that weighs you down and takes you far from God? Let’s leave it aside and with our hearts listen to the voice of Jesus who is offering us another kind of water, the water that brings us close to the Lord.”

 

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Further information:

• Le Parole Del Papa Alla Recita Dell’Angelus (Holy See Press Office)
• Pope Francis: do not turn away with prejudice, the encounter with Jesus changes our lives (Vatican Radio)