By Amy W. Echeverria, Columban Central JPIC Coordinator
The story of Jesus meeting the woman at the well is a deep source of hope and comfort for Christians. By encountering the Samaritan woman alone at the well and asking her for a drink, Jesus demonstrated that his love was not constrained by social norms and cultural expectations. The woman quickly realized that the water Jesus offered her was the living water of eternal life.
Does this mean that the Samaritan woman’s well is reduced to being a symbolic backdrop for the greater well that is Jesus? I don’t think so. Jesus showed us that the spiritual and material intermingle―at the well, at the table, by the sea, and on the land. What would have happened if the Samaritan woman could not have gone to the well?
For many Indigenous Peoples around the world, this is a very real question because their sacred waters are under threat. For the Subanen People in Mindanao, Philippines, their sacred lake, Duminagat, is under such threat. Tucked within the protected park of Mt. Malindang, the lake will soon be overtaken by eco-tourism. Although visitors still need to hike in to reach the lake, the provincial governor has greenlighted the project that is right now stripping the sacred mountain to make roads so that tourists can consume the lake’s beauty.
Recently, I met with Subanen women who spoke of the deep sadness, anger, and vulnerability they feel as they lose access to their sacred living waters despite their best efforts to protect the lake. Their ancient rituals, beliefs, and identity still practiced today are intimately tied to Lake Duminagat. I imagine them much like the Samaritan woman, who expressed a deep sense of connection to land and the well by noting that the mountain where she and Jesus met was sacred for her ancestors.
This Lent, let us remember that the sacred waters of the well― for both the Samaritan woman and the Subanen people―have been and and continue to be real places of encounter with the Creator. May we find ways to protect the sacred waters wherever we are.
