Welcoming & Embracing the Stranger: Lenten Reflections with the Artwork of James Tissot

March 10, 2026 - Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent

Today’s first reading comes from a tense moment in Scripture: Azariah and his companions are about to be burned in a furnace by the Babylonians for their refusal to worship false gods. Thankfully, Azariah and his companions beg God for mercy and miraculously survive the furnace’s flames. Azariah’s people, the Jews, those who were from the Southern Kingdom of Judah, would eventually be able to leave Babylon and return to their homeland. 

The former members of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, however, had a more complicated fate. Foreigners now inhabited the former Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The Jews avoided them to ensure they remained faithful to God’s covenant law. Still, those in the north intermarried with foreigners, creating the Samaritans, despised by the Jews because they worshipped God on Mount Gerizim, a particular mountain in Samaria, instead of at the Temple in Jerusalem.

In His ministry, Jesus encounters one of these Samaritan women, as depicted in the painting we see this week by James Tissot. God forgave the Jewish people of their sins and settled them back into their homeland after the Babylonian exile; now, Jesus comes to this Samaritan town, outcasts from the Jewish people, and especially to this woman, who is an outcast of her own people, and shows her mercy. He doesn’t pretend she hasn’t sinned, yet He still comes to her anyway. And the mercy and hospitality she receives from Jesus compels her to proclaim the Gospel to her whole town, leading to the conversion of the people there.   

Our Lord saw all the sins of the Jews and Israelites, the sins of the Samaritans, the sins of this woman, yet He still showed them mercy. Meanwhile, we can often hold grudges and unforgiveness towards people—even ourselves—over the smallest grievances. This attitude ends up keeping strangers as just that—strangers. True hospitality doesn’t deny that all people are sinners and make mistakes, but it sees the goodness inside of others, welcomes them, and seeks to bring that goodness out for the glory of God. 

May your grace not forsake us, O Lord, we pray, but make us dedicated to your holy service and at all times obtain for us your help. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. (Roman Missal)

Deacon James Prumos, Diocese of Metuchen

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