In our Lord’s encounter with the woman at the well as related in the Gospel of St. John, He tells her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10).

At the outset of her conversation with Christ, she has no idea whatsoever with whom she is speaking, and so her attitude is at first almost flippant and defiant. But as the conversation continues, the Samaritan woman begins to understand that she is dealing with someone the likes of which she has never met before, most especially when she learns that this stranger at the well knows the most intimate details of her life.

When at last He declares to her that He is the Messiah, the Christ whose coming was foretold, she is ready.