tana?" Non enim coutuntur Judæi Samaritanis.

10. Respondit Jesus et dixit ei: "Si scires donum DEI et quis est qui dicit tibi Da mihi bibere, tu forsitan petîsses ab eo, et dedisset tibi aquam vivam."

woman? For the Jews do not communicate with the Samari

tans.

10. Jesus answered, and said to her: If 10thou didst know the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou, perhaps, wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

Two nice questions are solved by this very interesting episode. What distance should we hold with heretics? How should we try to convert them? The first question is decided with regard to those who fall into heresy. We should barely salute them. The second is to follow the laws and dictates of charity.

Our Divine Lord sets us a beautiful example here which makes some of the laws about heretics appear harsh. He converses with one born in heresy in order to convert her and her friends and acquaintances. She seems to reject His attempts at conversation, and shows herself both an impudent and ill-conducted woman; but His sweetness and superior knowledge so gains upon her that she becomes an apostle to the whole village.

1The Pharisees.-These had already encompassed the imprisonment of John, and were trying to move the secular powers against Jesus as well. His hour was not yet come.

2Did not baptize.-Some suppose that He baptized one or two, but there is no record of it. When S. John said before that He baptized he meant, Qui facit per alim facit per se. He gave all power to baptize.

He left Judea.-His presence there would have created a disturbance, and that was not required just yet.

Sichar. This is supposed to be Sichem, a place full of renown and ancient recollections from the days of Jacob even unto the dispersion of his children.

5 Sat on the well.-The well was covered over with a vaulted roof, inside which were seats for weary travellers and those who came to draw water.

"Give me to drink.-This was the gentle way of beginning a conversation. The Easterns are delighted to give you a drink, which is a luxury to the traveller and costs them nothing.

"Disciples. He had but four or five at this time.

A Samaritan woman.-She felt being despised, and yet was impudent and not like her countrywomen, who are very obliging in giving to drink. The Jews.-This was sauciness, seeing Our Lord dressed as a Jew, because He adapted himself to the customs of the people,

10Didst thou know. He treats her like Nicodemus, and brings her thoughts to heaven from the very water. She was stupid enough but became enlightened afterwards.

Communicatio in divinis :

Ist. Never lawful because truth and error cannot mix lawfully.

2nd. Cannot be allowed for fear of perversion.

3rd. Always condemned by the Church.

In civilibus:

Ist. Perfectly lawful and charitable.

2nd. In this good example.

3rd. Charity wins many to the truth.

11. Dicit ei mulier: "Domine, neque in quo haurias habes, et puteus altus est : undè ergò habes aquam vivam ?

12. "Numquid tu major es patre nostro Jacob, qui dedit nobis puteum, et ipse ex eo bibit, et filii ejus et pecora ejus ?"

13. Respondit JESUS et dixit ei: "Omnis qui bibit ex aquâ hâc sitiet iterùm : qui autem biberit ex aquâ quam ego dabo ei non sitiet in æternum ;

14. "Sed aquâ quam ego dabo ei fiet in eo fons aquæ salientis in vitam æternam.”

II. The woman saith to him: Sir, thou hast 'nothing wherein to draw, and the well is deep : from whence then hast thou living water?

12. Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

13. Jesus answered, and said to her: Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but he that shall drink of the water that I shall give him 'shall not thirst for ever.

14. But the water that I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up unto 'everlasting life.

15. Dicit ad eum mulier : "Domine, da mihi hanc aquam,

ut non sitiam neque veniam hùc haurire."

16. Dicit ei JESUS: "Vade, voca virum tuum, et veni hùc."

17. Respondit mulier et dixit: "Non habeo virum." Dicit ei JESUS: "Benè dixisti quia Non habeo virum :

18. "Quinque enim viros habuisti, et nunc quem habes non est tuus vir: hoc verè dixisti."

19. Dicit ei mulier: "Domine, video quia propheta es

tu.

15. The woman saith to him: Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come hither to draw.

16. Jesus saith to her: Go, call 'thy husband and come hither.

17. The woman answered, and said: "I have no husband. Jesus said to her: Thou hast 'said well, I have no husband:

18. For thou hast had 10five husbands and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. This thou hast said truly.

19. The woman saith to him : "Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

This impudent woman was as stolid as she was bold. She did not understand that there was anything spiritual in Our Lord's words. He was accustomed to realism in all its ugliness; so He adroitly aroused her curiosity, went on shewing her to herself until He brings her to a candid confession. Then she perceives He is a prophet.

The patience of our Lord in meeting foolish objections from shallow people, who think they know a great deal, is a lesson which should not be lost upon His followers. How often we meet in the course of our ministry, half-educated heretics— especially women-who have certain stage scripture words to fling at us, and pity us withal as if we had never read or studied a word of the Sacred Book.

1Nothing. She took His words literally, looked down into the deep well, isolated as it was, miles from other wells.

2Whence ?-Living water is also spring water or running water. Her curiosity is raised.

3Father Jacob.-Jacob was not really their father, but they claimed him by some intermarriage or legend.

4Shall not thirst for ever.-There are various explanations given of this passage. The most reasonable seems to be: Whosoever drinks of

sanctity shall not thirst for earthly consolations, unless he throws his grace away; and his thirst for heavenly things will always be satiated.

Everlasting life.—This is the real satiety to which the water flowing from His Side brings us.

"Give me this water.-This was rather pert, and not put in a reverent

manner.

Thy husband.-Here was a lesson. She should not be there alone, in the middle of the day, when every decent woman was indoors. Her husband should be with her.

"I have no husband.—Our Lord took occasion from this to admonish her of her evil life.

Said well.—That is to say-the truth.

Five husbands.—The most general opinion is that these were lawful husbands, who either died or divorced her. We suspect that one was living and that she left him to live with another. If polygamy prevailed this is the only explanation of her sinful state.

"Sir, I perceive. She acknowledges her fault and is converted.

citis: nos adoramus quod scimus, | know not: we adore that which quia salus ex Judæis est. we know: for 'salvation is of the Jews.

23. "Sed venit hora, et nunc est, quandò veri adoratores adorabunt Patrem in spiritu et veritate. Nam et Pater tales quærit qui adorent eum.

24. "Spiritus est DEUS, et eos qui adorant eum, in spiritu❘ et veritate oportet adorare."

25. Dicit ei mulier: "Scio quia Messias venit (qui dicitur Christus): cùm ergò venerit ille, nobis annuntiabit omnia."

26. Dicit ei JESUS: "Ego sum, qui loquor tecum."

23. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorer shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore him.

24. God is a spirit and they that adore him must adore him in spirit and in truth.

25. The woman saith to him: I know that the Messias cometh (who is called Christ): therefore, when he is come, he will tell us all things.

26. Jesus saith to her: 10I am he, who am speaking with thee.

Remark the change in the woman at once. She now begins to enquire earnestly after eternal things, the right place and manner of worshipping, and wants to have the opinion of the prophet, whom she has discovered, upon the subject.

All our Lord's ways are unlike our anticipations. His coming was in the night-the beginning of His miracles was in an obscure village in Galilee-and His first clear statement of His being the Messiah was made to a woman of no character, at a solitary well, away from human habitations!

Yet see how this grain of mustard-seed bore fruit. She went and told the villagers; they came out to Our Lord, invited Himself and His disciples to come and stay with them. The seed sown produced good fruit, as we find Philip (Acts viii. 6) gathering an abundant harvest there after Pentecost.

1On this mountain.-Garizim, where the Samaritans had a temple, offered the Jewish sacrifices and had idols also.

2Adore. The word adore as used by Jews, at that time, meant offering sacrifice, when it had reference to the Temple. To worship privately or pray in the Temple did not mean the same.

3Adore the Father.-Our. Lord tells her that the time is coming-and will last to the end-when both these sacrificial temples will be abolished.