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

March 14, 2026 - Saturday of the Third Week of Lent

As we meditate upon this beautiful painting by James Tissot, it brings into our mind the Gospel of John in which Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the ancient well of Jacob. The woman came to the well midday in the heat to avoid the other women who came in the morning. She had her reasons for desiring isolation, as she was a woman scorned by multiple husbands; and she was a stranger in her own society.

On this day as she approached the well, something was out of the ordinary. There was a stranger there. Her daily routine was being interrupted, how inconvenient. She’s forced to make a decision; she feels vulnerable approaching this strange man, but if she avoids the whole situation by turning around, there could be harsh consequences for returning without the water needed for her domestic duties. Having experienced enough abuse already in her life, she decides to approach.  

As she begins to lower the bucket into the well, the situation gets even more tenuous as Jesus breaks a taboo and speaks to her. She immediately recognizes the accent of a Jew. Centuries of long-standing disagreements and prejudice between the Jews and the Samaritans had fostered resentment and disrespect between the two cultures. She knows that the Jews consider themselves superior to the Samaritans, who have bred with the local “heathens” and who don’t worship God the same way as they do. She resents Him now for even being there, and no less, for needing their water. And the nerve, He even asks her to draw the water for Him!

Yes, she’s taken aback, but rather than transferring her own-felt scorn towards this stranger, she recognizes the stranger in herself and chooses to engage Him. This invasion of grace takes the tension level down as she acknowledges His human dignity, and a conversation begins. This simple act of the will to embrace rather than show contempt will change her life eternally.  

In today’s Scripture, we contemplate how the Lord is inviting us to consider the stranger. In the first reading, the Lord is calling us to return to Him. Perhaps we’ve become strangers ourselves to the One who created us for eternal relationship in His love. Reading further, the Gospel reminds us that by engaging the stranger, not with superiority or disdain, but with a hospitality that every person created in God’s image deserves, we are gathered in to the Body of Christ.

This Lenten season, don’t hesitate to approach the well and draw water for the stranger as if it were Christ Himself. 

Rejoicing in this annual celebration of our Lenten observance, we pray, O Lord, that, with our hearts set on the paschal mysteries, we may be gladdened by their full effects. 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)

Thomas Kimble, Diaconal Candidate, Diocese of Paterson

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