Jesus is walking alone, almost brushing against a hedge of cacti that, mocking all the other naked plants, gleam in the sun with their fleshy thorny pallets, on which there is still some fruit to which time has given a brick red color, or on which already laughs some precocious yellow flower with vermilion brushstrokes.
The apostles, behind, whisper. I don't think they are really praising the Master.
At one point, Jesus suddenly turns and says:
-Whoever is mindful of the wind does not sow, whoever is mindful of the clouds never reaps. It is an old saying,
but I follow it. As you can see, where you feared adverse winds and did not want to stop, I have found land and a way to sow. And, in spite of "your" clouds, which, it is good for you to hear, it is not good for you to show them where Mercy wants to show its sun, I am sure that I have already harvested.
-Yes, but no one has asked you for a miracle. It is a very strange faith in you!
-Thomas, do you think that asking for miracles is the only thing that proves that there is faith? You're wrong. It is quite the opposite. He who wants a miracle in order to believe proves that without the miracle, tangible proof, he would not believe. However, he who, on the word of another, says "I believe" shows the utmost faith.
-So then the Samaritans are better than we are!
-I am not saying that. But in their state of spiritual minority they have shown themselves to have a far greater capacity to comprehend
God far greater than that of the faithful in Palestine. You will encounter this many times in your life. I beg you also to remember this episode so that you may know how to conduct yourselves without prejudice with the souls who come to faith in Christ.
-Anyway - forgive me, Jesus, if I tell you - you are already persecuted by much hatred and to give rise to new accusations I think it is detrimental to you. If the members of the Sanhedrin were to come to know that you have had.....
-Say it, man: "love", because this is what I have had and have had, James. You, who are my cousin, will understand that in me there can be nothing but love. I have shown you how in me there is only love, even for those who were my enemies in my family and in my land. And, then, should I not love these, who have respected me even though they did not know me? The members of the Sanhedrin can do all the evil they want, but the consideration of this future evil will not close the locks of my omnipresent and omnioperative love. But then, even if it did, it would not prevent the hatred of the Sanhedrin from finding grounds for accusation.
-Yes, but, Master, you waste your time in an idolatrous city, when there are many places in Israel that await you. You say that it is necessary to consecrate every hour of the day to the Lord. Aren't these hours wasted?
-A day devoted to regrouping the stray sheep is not a wasted day, Philip. It is written: "He makes many oblations who observes the Law.... but he who practices mercy offers one sacrifice." It is written:
"Let your offering to the Most High be in proportion to what He has given you; offer with a cheerful look according to your faculties." I do so, friend, and the time spent in sacrifice is not time wasted. I practice mercy and use of the faculties received by offering my labor to God. Be at ease, therefore. Besides, the one of you who wanted to have asked for miracles to be convinced that those of Sychar believed in me will be satisfied. That man is following us, undoubtedly for some reason. Let us stop.
Indeed, the man is coming towards them. We can see him hunched under the burden of a bulky bundle that he is carrying poorly weighted on his shoulders. When he sees that Jesus' group has stopped, he stops too.
-He has stopped because he sees that we have noticed their evil intentions. They are Samaritans! -Are you sure, Peter?
-No doubt about it!
-Then stay here. I come closer.
-No, Lord, not that. If you go, so will I.
-All right, come.
Jesus walks towards the man. Peter trots along beside him, both curious and hostile. They come within a few feet of each other,
Jesus says:
-Man, what do you want? Who are you looking for?
-You.
-And why didn't you come to me when I was in the city?
-I did not dare.... If you had refused me in the presence of everyone, I would have suffered too much pain and shame. -You could have called me when I was left alone with my people.
-My desire was to approach you when you were alone, like Fotinai. I, too, like her, have an important reason to be alone with you....
to be alone with you...
-What do you want? What do you carry with so much effort on your shoulders?
-It is my wife. A spirit has taken possession of her and transformed her into a dead body and a dull intelligence.
I must even put food in her mouth, dress her, carry her like a little girl. It happened suddenly, without any previous illness.... They call her "the demoniac". All this means pain, worry and expense for me. Look.
The man puts on the ground his bundle of inert flesh wrapped in a sackcloth (like a sack), and discovers a woman's face, still young, that if she were not breathing, one could say she was dead: eyes closed, mouth half-open: it is the face of a person who has expired.
Jesus bends down to the wretched woman lying on the ground, looks at her, then looks at the man and says to him: "Do you think I can do it?
-Because you are the Christ.
-But you haven't seen anything to prove it.
-I've heard you speak. That's enough for me.
-Have you heard, Peter? -What do you think I should do in the face of such genuine faith?
-Well... Master... You... I... Well, you decide.
Pedro is unconcerned.
-Yes, I've decided. Man, look.
Jesus takes the woman's hand and commands:
-Get away from her, I want it!
The woman, who up to that moment had remained inert, contracted in a horrendous convulsion, at first mute,
then accompanied by moans and screams that end with a louder one during which, like someone waking up from a nightmare, she opens her eyes, which until now she had kept closed, like plates. Then he calms down and, with a certain stupor, looks around him; he first fixes his eyes on Jesus - the Stranger who smiles at him.... -Then she looks at the earth of the road on which she lies, and at a bush growing on the edge, on which the red-white head of the daisies of the meadows is setting pearls already about to open in the form of a radiant nimbus; she looks at the hedge of cacti, at the sky - very blue -; then she turns her eyes and sees her husband... this husband of hers who, anxious, looks at her in his turn, scrutinizing her every movement. She smiles and, having completely recovered her freedom, she stands up as if impelled by a spring to take refuge on her husband's chest. The latter, crying, caresses her and embraces her.
-Why am I here? Why? Who is this man?
-It is Jesus, the Messiah. You were sick and he cured you. Tell him you love him.
-Oh... yes! Thank you... But what was wrong with him? My children... Simon... I don't remember things from yesterday, but I remember that I have children...
Jesus says:
-You don't need to remember yesterday. Always remember today. Be good. Goodbye. Be good and God will be
God will be with you.
And Jesus, followed by the blessing of the two, quickly withdrew.
When he reached the others, who had remained at the foot of the hedge, he did not speak to them. But to Peter:
-And now, you, who were sure that the man came with bad intentions, what do you say? Simon, Simon!
How much you still lack to be perfect! How much you lack! You have, except a patent idolatry, all the sins of these, and also pride in judgment. Let us take our food. We cannot get to where I wanted to go before nightfall. We will sleep in some hayloft, if we can find nothing better.
The twelve, with the taste in their hearts of the correction received, sit down without speaking and begin to eat their food. The sun of this serene day illuminates the fields, which descend, forming gentle undulations, towards a plain.
After eating, they remain there for some time, until Jesus stands up and says, "Come, you, Andrew, come to me:
-Come, you, Andrew, and you, Simon; I want to see if that house is a friend or an enemy.
And he starts on his way. The others remain in place and keep silent, until James of Alphaeus says to Judas Iscariot:
-"But isn't this woman who is coming, the woman who was in Sychar?
-Yes, she is. I recognize her by her dress. What does she want?
-To go on her way," Peter answered with a grumpy face.
-No. She is looking at us too much, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand.
They watch her until she gets close to them and says submissively, "Where is your Master?
-Where is your Master?
-He is gone. Why do you ask for him?
-I needed him...
-He doesn't spoil himself with women," answered Peter curtly.
-I know. Not with women, but I am a woman's soul that needs Him.
-Judas of Alphaeus advises Peter to let her stay, and answers the woman, "Wait. In a little while he returns.
The woman withdraws to a bend in the road and remains there, silent. The apostles become disinterested in her. Jesus soon returns. Peter says to the woman:
-There is the Master. Tell him whatever you want. Hurry up.
The woman does not even answer him; she goes to the feet of Jesus and prostrates herself to the ground, and keeps silent.
-Photinai, what do you want from me?
-Your help, Lord. I am very weak. I do not want to sin anymore. I have already told this to the man. But now that I have stopped sinning, I know nothing more. I do not know what is good. What should I do? You tell me. I am mud, but your foot also treads the path to go to souls; tread my mud, but come to my soul with your counsel.
She cries.
-To follow me as the only woman is not possible. If you truly want not to sin and to know the science of not sinning, return home in a spirit of penance, and wait. The day will come when you, woman, among many others, equally redeemed, will be able to be at the side of your Redeemer and learn the science of Good. Go. Do not be afraid. Be faithful to the will you have now not to sin. Farewell.
The woman kisses the earth, rises and walks backwards for a few meters; then she turns to Sychar....