The Ministry of Jesus Christ: True and False Worship

Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly." The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things." - John 4:16-25 (RSVCE)

Our Lord reveals to the Samaritan woman His knowledge of her past life, and in answer to her inquiries about the true God, tells her that it is in the Temple at Jerusalem that He dwells, but that the time was coming when He would be adored all over the world, by those who adore Him in spirit and in truth.

See how Jesus, with Divine tact, leads the woman to a confession of her sinful life. He does not blame her, but merely sets before her the sad facts; and grace does the rest. She is not repelled by the implied rebuke, but rather drawn to Him. So, when we tell others of their faults, we shall not repel, but rather attract them, if we speak with something of the charity of Jesus. It is because we are harsh and bitter that they will not listen.

The woman then asks Jesus whether it is on Mount Gerizim (as the Samaritans asserted) or in the Temple on Mount Sion, that God was to be worshipped. Jesus gently tells her that it is at Jerusalem that He is to be adored, and that the Samaritans worship an unknown deity. "You adore you know not what." So it is with modern heretics. They bow before their altars, but all is vague and uncertain; they adore they know not what.

At the same time, our Lord tells the woman that the time is coming when the worship of the true God will be spread over all the earth. He was thinking of the Catholic Church and its universal sway, and how He would be present, God as well as Man, on every altar, where true adorers would adore Him in spirit and in truth. Thank God that you are one of that happy company.

- taken from The Ministry of Jesus Christ: Short Meditations on the Public Life of Our Lord, by Father Richard Frederick Clarke, SJ