The Samaritan Woman

The Gospel of John presents women positively, and they play significant roles in the narrative. We focus on the Samaritan episode in John 4. In this missionary episode the evangelist makes a woman the protagonist. This is also one of the few texts in the Gospels where the issue of women is explicitly raised by the characters and responded to by Jesus. It not only reflects the socio-cultural reality of the community of St. John but also pre-figures the modern ideals, aspirations and struggles of women in the mission of the Church. The example of the Samaritan woman, the critical and creative dialogue partner of Jesus, who actively participated in the apostolic ministry can be a model for the women of today. This is so because the episode challenges us to review our understanding of Church, so that our understanding may focus on God’s presence and lead to a fuller and more authentic humanization of all women and men.

A woman at the center

This is one of those rare passages in the Gospels, in which the issue of the female gender is raised explicitly (Jn 4:9,27). In fact, the Evangelist makes a woman the central character in this missionary episode. What experience or circumstance in the community prompted the author to choose a woman as the central character of this story? Why did the community preserve it and accept it as part of Scripture? Because of the Gospel’s normative authority, it is unlikely that the community would accept a fictitious account of a woman playing such a significant role in the apostleship as part of the Gospel. It seems more reasonable to suggest that there were Christian women who played important roles in the community of that time, and that the author wanted to authenticate and legitimize their roles as initiated, approved and appreciated by Jesus.

The Role of Women in the Church

The Samaritan woman is remarkable for her openness, conviction, initiative and decisive action. She is not afraid of confronting a Jewish man, even though Jews looked down upon Samaritans. She is not depicted as a passive receiver, accepting unquestioningly all that is said by Jesus. Her theological background, personal interests and spontaneous appropriation of the role of an apostle to bear witness to Jesus in the city are very outstanding and significant. The Samaritan woman takes the initiative in the mission of proclaiming Jesus without looking for approval from anyone and without seeking the permission of anyone. Patriarchal cultures regard women as psychologically sentimental, intellectually inferior, socially marginal, religiously impure and culturally insignificant, and thus incapable of leadership. The qualities of the Samaritan woman, as presented in our Gospel text, refute this claim of the patriarchal culture. If we understand leadership as an animating role characterized by a critical attitude, creative initiative and committed action, the Samaritan woman is presented here as an excellent leader of her community.The Samaritan woman actively engaged in theological discussion, freely witnessed to her faith in public, efficiently proclaimed the Gospel (good news of salvation) using the Samaritan categories (inculturated proclamation), and courageously assumed the role of the "originator" or the leader of the Samaritan mission in Sychar.

The story of the Samaritan woman could empower Indian women to awaken their dormant spiritual energy, the life-giving force. The rebirth of this spiritual energy will enable them to embrace a "hermeneutics of suspicion" of traditional spiritualities, interpretations of the Scriptures and understandings of the Church and her mission in society.This awakening is needed for women to look at their presence and mission in the Church from a new perspective.

The Samaritan woman invites women in the Church to be confident and rooted in their religious traditions. She challenges them to be in touch with the current issues and problems of their people. She empowers them to break the barrier of the ‘male stereotype’, viz., that women are dependent on their male counterparts and require their permission and approval to embark on any undertaking. She encourages them to take initiatives and participate actively in all the ministries of the Church, including leadership and decision making. Like the Samaritan woman all women are called to be both creative and critical dialogue partners and bridge-builders in the difficult and demanding task of dialoguing with ‘others’, ‘strangers’ and those of other persuasions.

A Challenge to the Church

After many centuries of invisibility, silence and alienation in many forms and guises, women are gaining confidence and rediscovering their strength. Our understanding of the Church needs to take into account this changing and challenging social reality more seriously. We cannot think of mission in the third millennium, without awakening our soul to the alienated experience of half of the human family. In this context, the mission of the Church from the perspective of women is "one of reconciliation, the overcoming of the fundamental sin of alienation between female and male".

The Samaritan story envisages a community guided by the Spirit and characterized by radical egalitarianism, in which equality is presupposed, universality is assumed, unity is maintained, communion is understood and commitment is implied. This radical egalitarianism rejects all the distinctions based on gender, race and class. The mission of the Church needs to be a response and a radical commitment of persons inspired and infused by the Spirit to foster human dignity, equality, and freedom for all, both women and men. The breaking down of all gender and racial barriers will bring about a radical egalitarian understanding of the presence of the Church in the world.

In the Johannine model of the Christian community, all members are branches, the authority of the Twelve consists in the primacy of witness and not in the primacy of power and domination.As Vatican II clearly states, in Baptism, all are called to participate in the mission of the Church and its ministries (Lumen Gentium, n. 33). Therefore, the appropriation of ministerial roles must be governed by gifts, abilities and aptitudes rather than by any static classification based on gender. We are called to rethink the structure of the Church in the light of the "signs of the times". The celebrative, group-oriented, enduring and hope-filled qualities, which are typically feminine characteristics, can transform the Church which is facing the serious problems of brokenness, despair and disintegration. Hence an inclusive leadership and animation can be a renewing force in the life and mission of the Church.

The bridge-building, constructive, dialogical approach of the story of the Samaritan woman can be a model for the Church in dialogue. In this dialogical process, there is no elimination of differences between the dialogue partners. It allows a growth-promoting and enriching interchange, which is in no way detrimental to their identity, whether, male or female, Christian or Non-Christian. The Samaritan episode projects also a world in the process of a dynamic movement from personal alienation, social discrimination and religious exclusion to human solidarity, liberating communion and transformative integration. Our understanding of the Church must be such that difference is perceived not as a cause of division but as a source of enrichment. If the Church has to fulfill her prophetic and liberating mission in the third millennium, that is, in a world marked by increasing pluralism, then it will be imperative that she discovers a new identity, that is to say, a new way of being, that is inclusive and a new way of functioning which is dialogical.<WM

WOMEN IN THE CHURCH

There is a growing awareness among us today that women are not given their rightful place in Biblical exegesis and theology, and in the life and mission of the Church. This month World Mission special focuses on the missionary role of women, starting from a biblical approach through the story of the Samaritan woman is St John's Gospel.