"The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth" John 4:23.

Jesus says these words to a Samaritan woman while he is waiting by a well for his Disciples to bring him food from town. This is a culturally surprising dialogue, because the Jews believed Samaritans were ritually impure. The Samaritan woman goes to Jacob’s well at noon, all alone to fetch water. She is not the most popular girl in town due to her colorful history. In John 4:18 we find out that this woman has “had five husbands and the one [she] has now is not her husband.” And yet, defying all social and cultural norms, Jesus engages this woman in a deep spiritual discussion. He even goes so far as to reveal to her that he is the Messiah in verse 26. She comes to believe that he is the Messiah, and goes into town to tell the rest of the people about Jesus. He ends up  staying in Samaria two days, and “many more came to believe in him because of his word,” according to verse 41. Thus, through the most unlikely, imperfect woman, an entire village comes to know that Jesus “is truly the Savior of the world” (v. 42).

Why?

Our verse today says that “the Father seeks such people to worship him.”

These are people who worship with the Holy Spirit in the Truth of God. The Apostle Paul was another unlikely candidate for Christianity, yet Jesus sought him. He experienced a miraculous conversion when the voice of Jesus spoke to him. Jesus had already been crucified and resurrected. Yet Christ came directly to Saul, as he was named at birth, and spoke to him. That experience profoundly transformed him, to the point that he changed his name to Paul.  According to Fr. Richard Rohr, Paul lived the rest of his life “in Christ”.  Christ’s very spirit came to dwell within Paul so that everything he saw and said was filled with that spirit. 

Fr. Rohr writes in The Universal Christ (2019, p. 43) :

“Succinctly put, this identity means that humanity has never been separate from God-- unless and except by its own negative choice. All of us without exception, are living inside of a cosmic identity, already in place, that is driving and guiding us forward. We are all en Cristo, willingly or unwillingly, happily or unhappily consciously or unconsciously.”

I take great comfort in knowing that God seeks after worshipers who worship him in Spirit and truth. I take comfort in knowing that God seeks flawed people to be leaders in the world, as we see in the stories of the Samaritan woman and the Apostle Paul. I take great comfort knowing that I am “living inside of a cosmic identity” that is guiding me forward. I know that if I call on the Holy Spirit, in any situation, I am heard, and there is an answer. This is because I can trust that God has already sought after me. I can trust that as part of humanity, I have “never been separate from God”, and I can’t be, unless I choose it with my free will.  The Spirit of Christ is everywhere and in everything, and I am full of grace because of him.