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

March 9, 2026 - Monday of the Third Week of Lent

Water is critical for life, but the psalmist in today’s Scripture reading reminds us that as the hind (deer) longs for running waters, our souls are also thirsting and longing for God. This is an intense, desperate thirst for God’s presence, a desire so overwhelming that can often arise during deep emotional distress, isolation, and spiritual dryness. But the psalmist redirects us back to God in gladness and joy, bringing us hope and “then will I give you thanks upon my harp.” 

In our art piece by James Tissot, Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman, a stranger, at the well. In this well-known story, she comes to draw water at the hottest time of the day because she was excluded by others for her immoral life.

Jesus knows her life story, and yet willingly engages her despite being an outcast. What makes this narrative so remarkable is that Samaritan women were considered ritually impure, and Jews were forbidden to drink from any containers they handled. But Jesus not only asks for a drink, He also tells her He is the “living water.”  When she comes to realize He is the Messiah, she leaves her jar and goes into town to tell everyone about Him. 

Jesus is our model for a welcoming and hospitable Church. Especially for the stranger and for those in need of His mercy, like the Samaritan woman, or those on the margins who simply need a cool cup of water to satisfy their physical needs. Cardinal Robert Prevost, in a talk to deacons shortly before becoming Pope, noted that to be a welcoming and hospitable church, we must be like sentinels, looking beyond ourselves, looking outward, watching for those who are suffering and in need both physically and spiritually. This image applies to the entire Church, not just deacons.  

Jesus did not encounter the Samaritan woman in the temple, but at a well outside of a Samaritan town. We become the face of a welcoming and hospitable Church on the sporting field, in the grocery store, at work, in our families and communities, by looking outward and being in the streets and nooks and crannies of our society, offering a cool cup of mercy and compassion, extending the living water of the Gospel to the stranger and to those thirsting and longing for God. 

May your unfailing compassion, O Lord, cleanse and protect your Church, and, since without you she cannot stand secure, may she be always governed by your grace. 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 Andrew Saunders, Co-Director, 4:12 Pathway for Pastoral Leadership Grant

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