[In John’s Gospel,] Jesus says that the Father promises eternal life for everyone who believes in the Son. Every human being is a subject of inestimable value, because he or she has been created by God and destined by God for eternal life.
When Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well and promises her water welling up to eternal life, it is evocative of what Aquinas means by creation: the presence of God always at work at the very roots of our being. Creation is not a once and for all act of the essentially transcendent God but rather the ever-present and ever-new gift of being poured out from the divine source. What Aquinas implies is that the creature is a relationship to the energy of God, which is continually drawing it from nonbeing to being, making it new.
Once the soul has been transfigured, the only path that seems appealing is the one walked by Christ—that is to say, the path of radical self-offering, self-surrender. Fired by the God-consciousness, in touch with the divine source within us, drinking from the well of eternal life, we are inspired simply to pour ourselves out in love.
Image source: Bryn Gillette, The Woman at the Well. For an in-depth analysis of this remarkable painting, go to: https://www.bryngillette.com/blog/2019/11/9/the-woman-at-the-well-john-4 (Be sure to scroll through the whole article!)
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