We know of the incident in the Bible about the Samaritan woman who left the scene with such delight and enthusiasm to the people who wouldn’t give them to her at the time. It was only due to her timely encounter with Jesus.
During the Lenten Season, it is very apt to read the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. She has been with a complicated past, the object of gossip and shunned by her neighbors. She came to the well to draw water at a time when no one else would be at the well to judge her. But there was a person, Jesus, with whom she should not be speaking at all. And yet a robust conversation about life and faith takes place. At the end we see her running to her people with unusual enthusiasm.
What made the woman to run to her people with such enthusiasm? It was her encounter with Jesus that brought about the changes in her. Jesus saw her, not merely as a woman with a bucket, but as a person in need of healing from the wounds caused by her own wrong choices. She was in need of grace to heal her weary soul. Despite her bad choices, God chose to love her.
Lent is a precious time for penance and prayer. It is also a time for introspecting our understanding of the season. Do our conversations bring about some delight in others? That too can be the fruit of our observance of Lent. To be encountered and forgiven by God means that we are to do the same with others. Let this Lent be a challenge for us to realize that there are the wells where Jesus is waiting for us and where we need to encounter him.