In the desert, God feeds his people with the gift of manna and with that of water. Manna is a bread that comes down from heaven, which we have never known. The water, however, flows from the rock, rises from the earth. So it is the word of God: there is a word that comes down from heaven, which we could not know if God did not reveal it to us, but there is also a word that rises from the earth of our human experience, which we can listen by paying attention to our experience, questioning it with discernment. This is what Jesus does with the Samaritan woman met at the well. It leads her to know the true gift of God, to desire the living water that can really quench her thirst, helping her to recognize what thirst inhabits her existence, the deepest desire that flows from the well of her human experience. This woman has had many men, but has not yet met the real spouse who can fulfill her desire. Jesus reveals himself as the expected fulfillment. In him our life is fulfilled by now being able to meet God in spirit and truth. In that truth that Jesus is, in that Spirit that he gives us. The woman is thus transformed into a source of water for the thirst of others, of her fellow citizens of Sicar who now believe thanks also to her testimony. The love of God that the Spirit pours into our hearts quenches our life and turns us into wells for the thirst of others.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey