Sermon of Fr Tony Currer, of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian
Unity, at PSA 25th January 2015
The theme chosen by the National Council of Churches of Brazil for this year’s Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity is “Give me to drink” (Jn 4: 7). It comes from the meeting of Jesus with the
Samaritan woman at the well. The encounter begins with this simple request of Jesus, but with
these few simple words Jesus reveals his weakness. Jesus is in a position of weakness because he
is wearied from his journey and in need of rest during the heat of the day. He is needy because he
is thirsty. It is impossible not to think forward to Calvary when Jesus, again in weakness, says, “I
thirst”. Both on the cross and in this meeting Jesus gives us a model and it is one in which he is not
afraid to take a position of weakness. When we dialogue with others we tend to gather our
strengths, our good arguments, to rehearse the irrefutable logic of our position. However, the
model of dialogue that Jesus gives us does not begin with our strengths but with the humility to
open a conversation in need, with disarming weakness, and to begin by asking others for help.
How many situations of conflict in our world need this disarming humility?
The weakness of Jesus is not purely physical, he is in a position of weakness because he is a
stranger in a foreign land. The gospel tells us that it was necessary for Jesus to go through Samaria
in order to return to Galilee but in fact many Jews travelling between Galilee and Jerusalem often
took a route that avoided Samaria, and this because Samaria was hostile territory. The Samaritan
woman is surprised that Jesus speaks to her because, as the evangelist says, Jews and Samaritans
would have nothing to do with one another. Jesus chooses to go into territory where he is a
stranger and where he could expect little warmth, help or welcome. These two peoples did not
speak to one another. That Jesus begins a dialogue in this context is extraordinary and
unexpected. If we are the Lord’s disciples it is necessary to venture into foreign territory, and to
meet those who are different from us. If we are the Lord’s disciples it is necessary that we refuse
to live in isolation from those who belong to different communities, refusing to talk, to exchange,
to enter into relationship with them. If we are the Lord’s disciples it is necessary for us to make a
journey into Samaria and take the initiative of speaking to those who think relationship with us
impossible.
The Samaritan woman asks Jesus about the right place of worship: Gerazim or Jerusalem. She
knows that Jews and Samaritans don’t speak to one another, but she also knows what they
disagree about, so if they are to talk it must be to rehearse this old argument. How this mirrors the
disputes between Christian communities today; we don’t really know one another but we know
the disputes we have inherited. This particular dispute over the correct place of worship is
uncomfortably close to our own disputes over which Church to belong to, and the competitive
attitude that Christian communities, all too readily, have towards one another. Too often we are
driven by the logic of the marketplace, the logic of competition, and so other communities
become competitors rather than our brothers and sisters. These Christians are not our
competitors they are fellow labourers in the Lord’s vineyards, fellow evangelisers bringing a gospel
of joy and hope to the lost and the needy, because we share with them the mission of bringing
God’s love to the world. Jesus sees beyond the old arguments and the old choices and divisions.
His vision is of a people no longer divided but united because they are “true worshippers” and
they worship in “Spirit and in truth”.
We can understand the well at the centre of the story as a symbol of God himself. The Samaritan
woman says that the well was given to them by their father Jacob. The well belongs to her then,
and not to Jesus. Moreover, the well is deep, and Jesus has no means to draw water out of it. God
himself is the well from whom we draw life. He has been given to us by fathers and mothers, by
ancestors and faithful men and women down the ages. But this does not mean that he belongs to
us, that we have an exclusive right to Him, or that we can control access to Him. The mysteries of
God are deep, unfathomable. No one tradition has plumbed the depths of God, can claim to
understand the mystery. With our buckets and ropes each Christian community draws life from
the mystery of God, but how much richer we might be if we helped each other to draw life and
how much deeper we might reach into the profound mystery of God’s love if we joined forces.
As disciples we follow the Lord along the road. We go where he leads us, even if this is into foreign
territory and we must accept the encounters we have as opportunities for grace. We do so
because we want to learn from him, to grow closer to him, and to grow in maturity as Christians.
Our Christian lives are nothing if they are not about this growth, and so we beseech the Lord in
prayer that he will give us the grace to grow, to turn away from sin, to be more faithful in prayer,
to be more loving, generous and courageous in our response to others. It is sometimes true that
the Lord has already answered our prayers for his grace by putting into the hands of our brothers
and sisters that for which we ask and what if these brothers and sisters belong to other Christian
traditions? Our Christian growth can be dependent on us learning to have the humility to turn to
these brothers and sisters and asking, “Give me to drink” because into their hands God has already
given the grace that we need for our growth.