(John iv, 4-42.) Now He had to pass through Samaria. He came therefore to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the field which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus upon the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her: Give Me to drink. For His disciples had gone into the city to buy food. Then that Samaritan woman said to Him: How dost Thou, being a Jew, ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews do not deal with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her: If thou 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. The woman said to Him: Lord, Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; whence then hast Thou living water? Art Thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said to her: Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him shall not thirst for ever; but the water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting. The woman said to Him: Lord, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come hither to draw. Jesus said to her: Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said: I have no husband.
Jesus said to her: Thou hast said well, I have no husband; for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband; this thou hast said truly. The woman said to Him: Lord, I perceive that Thou art a prophet. Our fathers adored on this mountain, and you say that at Jerusalem is the place where one ought to adore. Jesus said to her: Woman, believe Me, that the hour cometh when you shall neither on this mountain nor at Jerusalem adore the Father. You adore that which you know not; we adore that which we know, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore Him. God is a spirit;
and they that adore Him must adore Him in spirit and in truth. The woman said to Him: I know that the Messiah cometh, who is called Christ; when therefore He is come, He will tell us all things. Jesus said to her: I am He, who am speaking with thee. And immediately His disciples came; and they wondered that He talked with the woman. Yet no man said: What seekest Thou, or why talkest Thou with her? The woman therefore left her waterpot and went into the city, and said to those men: Come and see a man who hath told me all things whatsoever I have done; is not He the Christ? They went forth out of the city, and came to Him. In the meanwhile the disciples besought Him, saying: Rabbi, eat. But He said to them:
I have food to eat which you know not. The disciples therefore said one to another: Hath any man brought Him to eat? Jesus said to them: My food is to do the will of Him that sent Me, that I may perfect His work. Do you not say, There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest? Behold, I say to you: Lift up your eyes and see the countries, for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life everlasting, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. For herein is the saying true, that it is one man that soweth, and it is another that reapeth. I have sent you to reap that wherein you have not laboured; others have laboured, and you have entered into their labours.
Now of that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him for the word of the woman giving testimony: He told me all things whatsoever I have done. So when the Samaritans were come to Him, they besought Him that He would tarry there; and He abode there two days. And many more believed in Him because of His own word. And they said to the woman: We now believe, not for thy speech, for we ourselves have heard Him, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.