Worship in Spirit and in Truth

Extract

In her commentary on St John’s gospel in the New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Pheme Perkins writes:

The Johannine Community at the end of the First Century could not look upon or hear the historical Jesus. They were living at another stage. The stage of the Holy Spirit, living water that would be received in Jesus after he was glorified.

It seems to me that an exegesis of Chapter 4 of St John’s gospel might throw further light on this judgement as well as illustrating the psychodynamics of ‘conversion’ and interpersonal encounter with Christ. Chapter 4 stands on its own in the gospel and is a brilliant theological construction. It is an intricately woven pattern of wordplay, humour, symbolism, obfuscation, at least on the part of the woman. An examination of the dynamic of interpersonal relating might begin with a reflection on how anyone of us feels when meeting someone for the first time. How do we decide whether or not we want the relationship to go any further than our simply remaining on polite or distant terms? The decision we take in such circumstances is very complex, acted out nearly always at the unconscious level and made in an instant. We decide that the person is interesting enough to reward further acquaintance or we just move away uttering a phrase of polite disengagement.