The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
You will ask, Why then is it said in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, “They that drink me shall yet be thirsty? ” For this would seem to be contrary to what Christ here says of His grace, He shall not thirst for ever. I answer that the meaning of “they that drink me shall yet be thirsty,” is, they shall desire to be still more filled with that wisdom of God which they already possess. They will wish for an increase of the wisdom and grace of God. Thus S. Ignatius the martyr, when, being condemned to the lions, he came into the amphitheatre of Rome, said, looking round at the spectators , “ I am come hither to die for my Jesus, for whom I thirst unquenchably, that I may be united to Him in heaven.”
Observe, that the Holy Spirit by His grace begins to fulfil in this life all the thirst and desire of the soul, but in heaven He does this perfectly. Also He extinguishes the thirst of pride and concupiscence . Lastly, in heaven He altogether takes away all the hunger and thirst of the soul, every defect and trouble, through the glory and endowment of impassibility, according to the words, “I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall appear” (Ps. xvii. 15): also, “They shall not hunger nor thirst any more; neither shall the heat, nor the sun smite them ” (Isa. xlix. 10). As the Gloss says, “ He promises the fulness of the Spirit, which shall be in the resurrection, because with Him is the fountain of life with which they shall be inebriated. Heavenly glory therefore makes up all defects both of soul and body, all desires, and all thirst. “For beatitude is a perfect state through the aggregation of all goods,” says Boethius, according as it is said, “ Thou shalt give them drink out of the torrent of Thy pleasure ” (Ps. xxxv. 9).
Ver. 14. — But the water, &c. . . . waters leaping up (Syriac). The allusion is to those fountains which flow with such an impetus, the water behind pressing on that which is before, that although they flow down into the valleys, yet by means of pipes they ascend to the level of the original spring. Thus the grace of the Holy Spirit draws the soul to its source, which is God and heaven. For grace is the seed of glory. The Arabic translates, The water which I will give, shall he in him water which shall bring a flood of eternal life. Grace then propels, as it were, a man to heaven, and never rests until it carries him where there is no thirst, nor defect, nor misery, but where all is abundance, and all is happiness. For this is the meaning of everlasting life . For this fountain of grace which is in the soul is derived from its original Spring, which is the Holy Ghost in heaven, even like a fountain which, being artificially conducted, bursts forth in a square, or garden, but is derived from its original spring in some mountain.
2. It shall be in him a fount, because, as Theophylact says, the water of grace which Christ instils into the faithful soul is being ever multiplied in it For the saints receive the seeds and beginning of good through grace, but they themselves “ trade ” with it, and work for its increase, that, as it were a fountain, it may abound in them, and afford abundant drink, not only to themselves , but to many others. As S. Chrysostom says, “He that hath a fountain in himself is not troubled with thirst” And Origen, “Every one of the angels hath in him a fount of water welling up unto life eternal from the Word Himself.”
3. A fountain , the more it flows downward, the more water there flows into it from above. So too the more any one pours his own grace upon others, the more God causes to flow into him.
Lastly, this is a paradox spoken by Christ, that whereas earthly water flows downwards, this His fountain flows upwards, according to the saying, The founts of the holy rivers are borne upwards . Here is a great and marvellous leap, the mighty and infinite power of the Holy Ghost, which makes the earthy and laden hearts of men to leap from earth to highest heaven, from grace to glory, from the flesh to the spirit, from death to life eternal, from Satan to God. To believers therefore it is said, Sursum corda . And this is a sure sign of the indwelling of grace and the Holy Ghost, if our minds are occupied in heaven, if we speak and do heavenly things, if we say, with S. Paul, “ Our conversation is in heaven.” For this cause Christ came down from heaven, that He might make us to rise from earth to heaven, according to the words, “ Behold he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills ” (Cant ii. 8).
The woman saith, &c. “She was delighted,” says S. Austin, “not to thirst, and thought that this promise was made unto her by the Lord in a fleshly sense. Her poverty drove her to the labour of coming and drawing water from a well at a distance from the town; and her weakness shrank from this toil. The woman, who was carnal and ignorant, did not yet understand that Christ was speaking of the spiritual water of grace. Then He smote her with another dart, that she might have loftier thoughts concerning Him.”
Therefore Jesus saith unto her, Go call thy husband. Observe from S. Chrysostom and others that Christ bade the woman call her husband with this pretext, that it would not be proper to give this so great a gift of living water to a married woman without the knowledge of her husband. But Christ really intended to open out to her the hidden things of her life, and her secret fornication, that so He might draw her confession from her, and arouse her to repentance. At the same time He would show her that He was more than a mere man, that He was the Christ, from whom she might ask and expect remission of her sins and everlasting salvation.
For this was the living water which Christ set forth.
Ver. 17. — The woman answered, &c. From hence it is plain that this woman was thus a widow, and therefore not an adulteress, but a harlot, unless indeed her lover were married, in which case both were guilty of adultery.
Ver. 18. — For thou hast had, &c. Nonnus says, For thou hast had five husbands , one after another ; and he whom thou now hast is not thy lawful husband. So S. Austin, Bede, Euthymius, and others passim. But S. Chrysostom and Maldonatus think they were unlawful , adulterous connections, and that they are here spoken of by Christ in this sense, that she was now living with a sixth adulterer. But the former sense is the more probable, because Christ makes an antithesis between the five former, which were lawful connections , and this sixth, which was unlawful.
Observe here the gentle and courteous method of Christ's reproof He does not say directly to the woman, “ Thou art an adulteress, or a fornicatrix : do penance for thy fornications.” But He praises her for speaking the truth in saying, she had no husband. Then He adds, He whom thou now hast is not thy husband, tacitly implying that she was living in sin with him, and that He knew of this secret sin by the revelation of God, and therefore that He was a prophet, from whom she ought to ask pardon and grace.
S. Basil (Epist. 2, ad Amphiloch.) says that a third marriage is an abomination to the Church, but better than fornication. And in his first epistle to the same he says, “The thrice married are often excommunicated for three or four years, not longer: and such unions are called polygamy, or qualified fornication. Therefore the Lord said to the Samaritan woman, who had had five husbands, He whom thou now hast is not thy husband , surely because those who had gone beyond a second union were not worthy the name of husband, or wife.” But the Church is now of a different mind. For it is certain that fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or more marriages, are licit, although they are indecent, and marks of incontinence. And this is what S. Basil appears to have meant.
Ver. 19 . — The woman, &c. Because Thou revealest the hidden things of my life, whether good or bad, which Thou couldest not know except by the revelation of God, especially since thou art a Jew and a foreigner, I humbly accept Thy gentle reproof, and confess my sin. “By one and the same confession,” says Rupertus, “she confessed, as to herself, what she was, and as to Him, what she was able to perceive He was.”
Ver. 20. — Our fathers , &c. The woman, acknowledging Jesus to be a prophet, now proposes a question concerning religion, which was at that time a great source of controversy between the Jews and the Samaritans. This she did that she might know which side she ought to take, so that she might provide for her salvation . For she was more agitated by this question than by thirst for the living water which Christ promised her, which she did not understand.