Jesus teach us how to worship God in his encounter with the samaritan woman. God is the wisdom itself explain Thomas Aquinas. Worship god is worship his word, his wisdom, in spirit and truth.
The first commandment is: "You shall have no other gods before me", Exodus 20. The true worship is the worship of the wisdom, this is the true spiritual message of the kingdom of god,, explain Jesus to the samaritan woman in John 4:4-21:
"Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jocob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink?
The Samaritan women said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water".
"Sir", the woman said. "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?"
Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life".
The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water".
He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back".
"I have no husband", she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true".
"Sir", the woman said, "I can see you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is Jerusalem."
"Woman", Jesus replied, "believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do now, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth".
Jesus is explaining to us that the true search for God is in the acquisition of wisdom, in knowing how to treasure it and put it into practice every day. The religious rituals in this context have little value and practical effects. The truth and wisdom lived with constancy (spiritual gift of piety) are the path to the vision of God, that is, the eternal life.
For more information look my profile, follow the link and download for free my e book.
