The Necessity to Pray Towards Our Proper End

In the Woman at the Well discourse, the interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman can be viewed, I argue, as an enigma because historically Jews viewed Samaritans as unclean and impure; even worse, they were viewed as heretics. There was never a thought for a Jew to engage a Samaritan because of the ancestral history of embracing the pagan gods of foreign communities, specifically under the Assyrian conquests. This unfortunate view makes Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman even more intriguing, with his request for water from the Samaritan woman and more, with his offer of living water.[1]

When Jesus proposes to the Samaritan woman an opportunity to renounce her current spiritual state of life and embrace one that offers a proper end in Jesus the Messiah, she asks for the living water he offered her, but before Jesus confirms her newfound belief, she directs her to renounce her past and embrace the one true God. The request to renounce her sins leads the Samaritan woman to embrace the Messiah and engage the crowds with the question, “Can this be the Christ?”[2] In this Gospel account, St. John provides us with a stark example of how Jesus’ actions always direct someone toward a proper end, which is eternal life with God the Father in heaven. There is nothing abstract to Jesus’ intentions because he is the Son of God, the Word made flesh, who came to destroy sin and death and open the gates of heaven for all humanity. Jesus even tells the Samaritan woman in a very deliberate tone that He is the Messiah, the one the Samaritan woman references.[3]

The reference to living water provides us with the context that our proper end requires us to walk away from our current human state, denounce the actions that distance us from God, and reclaim our identity through the water of eternal life,[4] which serves as the gateway towards our proper end with God. The spiritual integrity of the entire Samaritan woman discourse is the woman’s free choice to embrace a new life; hence, her path has been set toward a proper end. As with the entire narrative of Scripture, there is an evidential beauty that the Word of God provides us that sets the course to freely embrace a proper end in our relationship with Jesus Christ. The reality of man’s salvation with God is that God made man out of love, man chose someone other than God, and God was not going to let man die alone without the Divine intervention of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

Because we are not abstract beings, but living, breathing realities of God’s love and existence, the exercise of our free will and intellect in union with our soul reveals a love that never ends.[5] When a person begins to turn away from the devil and reject his sinful works and promises, an awareness and assent to God begins to develop and strengthen. The Catechism explains this transformation as follows,  

God’s free initiative demands man’s free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. The soul only enters freely into the communion of love. God immediately touches and directly moves the heart of man. He has placed in man a longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy. The promises of “eternal life” respond, beyond all hope, to this desire:^[6]

When we begin to understand and prepare for our proper end, the entire process of conversion of heart, mind, and soul initiates a prayerful dialogue with God. This sequence involves a change in our behavior and way of living now, ordered toward Christ; the world is now viewed through a Catholic lens, and the moral life is embraced with reverence. Pray becomes the first and final sequence in our journey towards a proper end. As God gradually reveals himself and man to himself, prayer appears as a reciprocal call, a covenant drama. Through the words and actions, this drama engages the heart. It unfolds throughout the whole history of salvation.[7]

Prayer seeks active discourse with the Holy Trinity, which is strengthened through the sacramental life. Communication with God through Jesus Christ is no longer incumbent upon a human demand, but instead, is a docile and humble petition to strengthen one’s relationship with Jesus Christ. We are reminded in the Catechism about the necessity of prayer in preparation for our proper end,

Prayer and Christian life are inseparable, for they concern the same love and the same renunciation, proceeding from love; the same filial and loving conformity with the Father’s plan of love; the same transforming union in the Holy Spirit who conforms us more and more to Christ Jesus; the same love for all men, the love with which Jesus has loved us. “Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he [will] give it to you. This I command you, to love one another.^[8]