1 When Jesus therefore understood that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus maketh more disciples,and baptizeth more than John,

2 (Though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples,)

3 He left Judea, and went again into Galilee.

4 And he was of necessity to pass through Samaria.

(Between Judea from the north and Galilee from the south lies Samaria. The Jews considered Samaritans as outcasts. They even tried to avoid Samaria by going around it to get from the north of Isreal to the south or vice versa.)

5 He cometh therefore to a city of Samaria, which is called Sichar, near the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 There cometh a woman of Samaria, to draw water. Jesus saith to her: Give me to drink.

8 For his disciples were gone into the city to buy meats.

(Meat in the Gospel just means solid food or bodily nourishment.)

9 Then that Samaritan woman saith to him: How dost thou, being a Jew, ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans.

10 Jesus answered, and said to her: If thou didst know the gift of God, and who he is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou perhaps wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

11 The woman saith to him: Sir, thou hast nothing wherein to draw, and the well is deep; from whence then hast thou living water?

12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

(The Samaritans and the Jews came from the same ancestors. I believe that the descendents of the Samaritans today are Palestinians. Tragically, brothers often hate each other more than strangers.)

13 Jesus answered, and said to her: Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again; but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst for ever:

14 But the water that I will give him, shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting.

15 The woman saith to him: Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come hither to draw.

16 Jesus saith to her: Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 17 The woman answered, and said: I have no husband. Jesus said to her: Thou hast said well, I have no husband:

18 For thou hast had five husbands: and he whom thou now hast, is not thy husband. This thou hast said truly.

19 The woman saith to him: Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

20 Our fathers adored on this mountain, and you say, that at Jerusalem is the place where men must adore.

21 Jesus saith to her: Woman, believe me, that the hour cometh, when you shall neither on this mountain, not in Jerusalem, adore the Father.

(The hour had come for the universal Church of our Lord Jesus Christ to be born.)

22 You adore that which you know not: we adore that which we know; for salvation is of the Jews.

(Salvation once was meaured out particularly for the Chosen People of God or the Jews only.)

23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore him.

(The true adorer toward God the Father should adore Him with his spirit, his soul, and his heart, not  with his lips alone. He shall adore his Creator in truth as he should truly comprehend his adoration and Commandments of his God. Such adoration is worthy to the Heavenly Father.)

24 God is a spirit; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth.

(God is a Spirit. Man is made according to the image of God, therefore, he himself is half flesh and half spirit.)

25 The woman saith to him: I know that the Messias cometh (who is called Christ); therefore, when he is come, he will tell us all things.

(The Messaih or Christ means the Anointed One, the Saviour of Isrealites.)

26 Jesus saith to her: I am he, who am speaking with thee.

27 And immediately his disciples came; and they wondered that he talked with the woman. Yet no man said: What seekest thou? or, why talkest thou with her?

28 The woman therefore left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men there:

29 Come, and see a man who has told me all things whatsoever I have done. Is not he the Christ?

30 They went therefore out of the city, and came unto him.

31 In the mean time the disciples prayed him, saying: Rabbi, eat.

32 But he said to them: I have meat to eat, which you know not.

33 The disciples therefore said one to another: Hath any man brought him to eat?

34 Jesus saith to them: My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, that I may perfect his work.

(Men should not be nourished by food alone, but by doing the Will of God.)

35 Do you not say, There are yet four months, and then the harvest cometh? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and see the countries; for they are white already to harvest.

(Growing season was four-month long for the Jews and then the harvest came. The Lord said the harvest of souls was already here. He implied the evangelization to the Gentiles.)

36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life everlasting: that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth, may rejoice together.

(The Lord sowed souls and His believers reaped. We Christians who are the laborers of the Lord already received "wages" paid to gather souls for Him. Failing to do so we have done a great injustice to God.)

37 For in this is the saying true: That it is one man that soweth, and it is another that reapeth.

(Again the Lord sows, we reap the harvest of souls for Him.)

38 I have sent you to reap that in which you did not labour: others have laboured, and you have entered into their labours.

(We the reapers also benefit from the fact that others had labored in winning souls over to God  before us. The laborers can be Jesus Himself, Blessed Virgin, all the saints and martyrs, fathers of the Church, priests and religious who came before us.)

39 Now of that city many of the Samaritans believed in him, for the word of the woman giving testimony: He told me all things whatsoever I have done.

40 So when the Samaritans were come to him, they desired that he would tarry there. And he abode there two days.

41 And many more believed in him because of his own word.

(The Samaritans believed in a Jewish stranger who just passed by their village because of His teaching. Do we now truly believe in Christ after we study the Words of God?)

42 And they said to the woman: We now believe, not for thy saying: for we ourselves have heard him, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.

("The Saviour of the world", what a prophetic and solemn proclamation! The Divine wisdom often was granted to the lowly, the outcast, the simple.)

43 Now after two days, he departed thence, and went into Galilee.

44 For Jesus himself gave testimony that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.

45 And when he was come into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things he had done at Jerusalem on the festival day; for they also went to the festival day.

46 He came again therefore into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain ruler, whose son was sick at Capharnaum.

47 He having heard that Jesus was come from Judea into Galilee, went to him, and prayed him to come down, and heal his son; for he was at the point of death.

48 Jesus therefore said to him: Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not.

49 The ruler saith to him: Lord, come down before that my son die.

50 Jesus saith to him: Go thy way; thy son liveth. The man believed the word which Jesus said to him, and went his way.

(Again, "... believe in the word Jesus said ...")

51 And as he was going down, his servants met him; and they brought word, saying, that his son lived.

52 He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he grew better. And they said to him: Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.

53 The father therefore knew, that it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him, Thy son liveth; and himself believed, and his whole house.

54 This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judea into Galilee.