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

March 12, 2026 - Thursday of the Third Week of Lent

In today’s readings, we are confronted with the tragedy of the hardening of the heart. Jeremiah laments a people who "did not listen to the voice of the Lord," while in the Gospel, the crowd mistrusts Jesus, accusing Him of acting by the power of evil. In both cases, the "stranger"—in this instance, God Himself manifested in His word and His Son—is rejected. However, James Tissot’s artwork, The Woman of Samaria at the Well, offers us a visual and spiritual antidote to this closed-mindedness: a radical encounter that transforms a stranger into a messenger of grace. 

In Tissot’s artwork, we observe a composition charged with realism and sacred tension. Jesus, the Jew, and the woman, the Samaritan, meet in a space of "otherness." For that era, they were mutual "strangers," separated by centuries of religious and social prejudice.

Tissot masterfully captures the woman’s rapt attention; she is not only listening but appears to be "read" by Christ’s gaze. This is the first step in embracing the stranger: the willingness to engage in dialogue where there was previously only silence or suspicion. While in today’s Gospel Jesus’ critics raise walls of slander, at Jacob’s well, Jesus tears down walls of exclusion through the hospitality of listening. 

Embracing the stranger this Lent means imitating Christ’s posture at the well. Often, as Jeremiah warns, we walk "according to the stubbornness of our evil hearts," viewing the "other" with distrust. But Christian hospitality requires us to see beyond the labels of "Samaritan" or "stranger." Tissot shows us that true welcome occurs when we are willing to share our thirst and our vulnerability. Much like the mute man who regains his speech in the Gospel, the Samaritan woman regains her voice and her place in the community after being embraced by the truth of Jesus. 

This Lenten Thursday, as we contemplate Tissot’s artwork, let us ask ourselves: Whom have we left "outside the walls" of our empathy? Hospitality is not just about giving; it is about allowing ourselves to be transformed by the presence of others. By embracing the stranger, we cease to be a "nation that does not listen" and become a community that, like the Samaritan woman, runs to announce that the Kingdom of God has reached us—not to divide, but to satisfy our thirst for unity. 

We implore your majesty most humbly, O Lord, that, as the feast of our salvation draws ever closer, so that we may press forward all the more eagerly towards the worthy celebration of the Paschal Mystery. 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 Jender Medina, Diocese of Paterson

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