Today you may read the story of the Samaritan :

‘‘Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was  about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink'...'' (Jn4,6-26)

That woman had an immense desire, a deep expectation, there in her Woman's heart, to share Love with a man. She had lived with 6 successive men  before Jesus passed through Samaria. So it is in our lives, at one point, Jesus has to pass through our personal Samarias, that land of exclusions, of disappointments, of frustrations of unquenched expectations. Like her, we have hoped that others respond to this expectation, it could be a man, a career, friends, an ideal… Like her, maybe, we regularly begin to write again in our lives the same scenario with the same results ! You will notice that Jesus does not condemn her, no moral lesson ! He joins her where she is, in the reality of her history, He makes himself close ; in a word, he looks for her.

God is interested in my history ! She had a reason to feel excluded, as a samaritan first, unloved people of Israel ; then as a woman of several men ! The solutions that she had opted for did not satisfy her and at the end she was becoming dependent on man or at least made her happiness dependent on it ! When we go through the gospels, it seems Jesus has a preference, an attraction for that crucified part in our hearts, the poors, the excluded…When she will go down to her village, this woman will shout to those who may want to hear it : ‘Come, see, a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ ?' The circumstances of my life pushed me to stifle, to repress, to hide my real expectations, but they still remain there, in that place that I sometimes keep secret but that I cannot hide to Him who knows all what I wear ! What a rest ! Is this not that divine rest to which Jesus calls us when He tells us to seek Him to find rest ?

That's the good news of Christmas, baby God makes himself dependent on man for the man to go back to dependence on God that is surrender and total confidence and no more to dependence on external circumstances : the secret to be satisfied ! And thus, filled with His life, share with those who are part my life way.

‘Confident souls are thieves of my graces' (Jesus to Sister Benigne-Consolata, Lyon, J.-B. Roudil, 1920)

I suggest you reflect on this small equation :

-Human problem, human solutions= human results

-Human problem, divine solutions= divine results !

All of us, at a level or another, can find ourselves in those larges examples, but the Good News is that the Spouse has come and is henceforth permanently accessible and free at the wedding hall. Left to us, to open our heart to this encounter ; God kneels down in front of our liberty, His Love does not compels us, He is patient and always waits for us, we are God's expectation, the object of His desires !

The tendency is the well-being at all costs, and yet the consumption of anti-depressants is at its best ! I loved telling my young children : ‘ If you are not happy with what you have, you won't be happier with what you don't have'. Beautiful adage ! That is to tell us that happiness is certainly not in an ideal of life. The snake which knew the woman well, made her sparkle something that she may have : ‘‘You will be like God'' (Gen3, 5). Ha ! This ‘like' sometimes continues to pollute our life, preventing us from enjoying life in the moment which will never come again.

Laura's testimony :

Maried since several years, I spend my time in disappointment with my husband. It took me some years to accept him as he was and mourn a change on his part. After all, who was I to demand such a thing from somebody?  

Then the Lord showed me the weight I put on his shoulders, the expectation he could never fill ! I heartily decided to ask him for forgiveness about that ! What an experience ! What a liberation ! I made a giant leap in the territory of Love, which by nature is free and I understood that I could apply it to many areas of my life ; I started to understand that where there is the Spirit there is freedom (2 Cor 3-17) ! And that Only the Holy Spirit could feed me endlessly.

Reflections tracks

-Note if you wish what you think you are dependent on and which conditions your happiness or just your good mood.

-What are the recurrent scenarios of unsatisfaction ?

-Do I lead my life by myself and then, consult the Lord when things do no suit me ? Or, do I consult Him for my choices so that He guides my whole life ? 

Notebook – Take time to note : secretly sometimes, right deep in me, from whom do I expect happiness ? Then present those people, those situations to the Holy Spirit.

Prayer :

Lord, you know my thirst and my expectations ! I so much desire that you be the first in my life ! Today I come with my hands open, I hand in all my desires and all my expectations, take them, clean them, arrange them, towards the Good that does not pass. Only you can satisfy and water me with that water with which I will never be thirsty again.