Volume 2

188 Life of Jesus Christ
thought to themselves: "Did that Samaritan woman give
Him to eat?" Jesus would not stop to eat, but began descending
the hill to Sichar. The disciples followed, eating.
Jesus said to them as He went on before: "My meat is to
do the will of Him that sent Me, that I may perfect His
work." By that He meant, to convert the people of
Sichar, after whose salvation His soul hungered. He
spoke much more to the same purport.
When near the city, Dina the Samaritan again appeared
hurrying back to meet Jesus. She joined Him
respectfully, but full of joy and frankness, and Jesus addressed
many words to her,sometimes standing still and
sometimes moving slowly forward. He unfolded to her all
her past life with all the dispositons of her soul. She was
deeply moved and promised that both she and her husband
would abandon all and follow Him. He pointed out
to her many ways by which she could do penance for her
sins and repair her scandals.
Dina was an intelligent woman of some standing in the
world, the offspring of a mixed marriage, a Jewish
mother and a pagan father, born upon a country seat
near Damascus. She had lost her parents at an early age,
and had been cared for by a dissolute nurse by whom her
evil passions had been fostered. She had had five husbands
one after another. Some had died of grief, others
had been put out of the way by her new lovers. She had
three daughters and two half-grown sons, all of whom
had remained with the relatives of their respective fathers
when their nl0ther was obliged to leave Damascus.
Dina's sons at a later period joined the seventy-two
disciples. The man with whom she was now living was a
relative of one of her former husbands. He was a rich
merchant. As Dina followed the Samaritan religion, she
had induced the man to remove to Sichar, where she
superintended his household and lived with him, though
without being espoused to him. They were looked upon