The Samaritan women in these few moments emerges as a new person and in the bold light of day sees all that she is in a different light.  She emerges as a subject, an actor, in her own right, rather than an object reflecting the biases of her culture.  Jesus, in being unconcerned with her past, though knowing it well, instead promises connection to a source of life that can never be depleted.

By her story the Samaritan woman extends us an invitation to trust God to meet us in the unexpected person, the unacceptable situation, the rejected feeling, the prayers we are afraid to pray, and thus to begin our own journey towards wholeness. The story of the woman at the well tells us that Jesus comes to the Samaritan woman who is a part of each of us, the foreigner who's considered unclean, and the outcast with whom we refuse to identify.  She helps us to be honest with the outcast within ourselves, as well as with those in the world around us whom we think are even less worthy of God's love than we are.  The story of the woman at the well invites us to embrace rather than reject the truth of who we are and the paths of our lives that have brought us to this place; and she invites us to encounter Jesus at our broken, growing edges, where we're afraid to go alone.

In the season of self-examination and repentance we call Lent, the honesty and possibility of encountering Jesus in the noonday heat of our own brokenness may require us to acknowledge the histories of old grief or rage, and then to let ourselves be freed of the power it has over not just our past but our future.  It may mean finishing unfinished business, changing our beliefs about the nature of reality.  Seeking fullness of life, or finding expressions of life in acts of self-giving, may carry a price tag that costs giving up illusions, giving up helplessness, or giving up ambivalence.

The Samaritan woman heard and accepted the whole truth of who she is, and it did not destroy her.  Her fear and evasion had done that for long enough.  Jesus instead offers the Samaritan women her life back to be lived in its fullness.  The observance of a Holy Lent means waiting for Jesus at the well of our own life, where he waits to embrace the whole of who we are, so we can go and tell others to come and see the goodness of the Lord.