The title just about says it all, but a little extra general information:
My father is a Russian Orthodox priest, and these are the sermons he gives during Sunday Divine Liturgy.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Christ is Risen!
Some thoughts on this Fifth Sunday of Pascha, the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman:
Our Lord was tired and thirsty from his journey and asked a drink from the woman who had come to Jacob's well to draw water. She obliged him, not knowing who it was who had asked drink of her, and was rewarded beyond all expectation with a personal revelation of the Messiah and the gift of everlasting life which he freely bestows on all who ask.
The story of our Lord's encounter with the Samaritan woman brings to my mind what Jesus said in another place:
"And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward." (Matt. 10:42)
And, "I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink" (Matt. 25:35)
Which, In turn, reminds me of this story told by St. Nikolai Velimirovich:
"A priest is walking down a lonely road on a hot day when suddenly out of the bushes jumps a wild-looking man with a gun. The man says to the priest, 'I have killed 99 men, and you will be the 100th.' The priest says to him, 'I am ready to die; but please before you shoot me, give me a little water to drink? I am so thirsty.' The murderer is confused for a moment and then directs the priest at gunpoint to his hut in the bushes where he gives the priest a cup of water to drink. As the priest is drinking the water, the murderer dies of a heart attack. The angels from heaven come to escort the soul of this murderer to heaven, but the demons contest with them. 'This man murdered 99 men and committed many other smaller sins. His soul belongs to us.' But the angels answer the demons, 'But he also did two great deeds for the Gospel of Christ which outweigh all his sins. First, he confessed his 99 murders to a priest and second he gave water to the thirsty. No sin, no matter how many times repeated, is greater than the mercy of God.'"
The woman at the well was certainly a repeat offender. An apostate Samaritan, she had gone through five husbands. Finally, she had given up on marriage altogether and had shacked up with a man. Her story sounds like it could have been set in America today. Recently I was at a local family-run garage and overheard one of the mechanics say how he is living with a woman because his divorce was too costly to risk getting married again. His father chimed in that he would do the same if he were in his son's shoes. Perhaps that is how the Samaritan woman looked at her life. We all come up with ways to justify our sinful actions, but Christ calls us to repentance.
In Genesis we read how the Philistines threw earth in the wells dug by Abraham, but Isaac, the son of Promise, dug them out and restored them again. The Samaritan woman's soul was like a well that had been stopped up by sin and erroneous theology. But Jesus, the Promised Seed, knew exactly how to unclog this well and draw out the living water. First, he revealed her sin--he told her all things that ever she did--not condemning her, but gently convicting her. He also corrected her false theology--the Samaritan religion was heretical, but salvation was of the Jews. He also spoke of the new dispensation of the Spirit soon to be revealed which would surpass both. Having cleared away the debris, Jesus then drew out the living water by getting her to do a good turn for him. Who could have imagined that merely fetching Jesus a cup of cold water would open the wells of salvation in this deluded, sinful woman. She became a living, breathing, moving well herself, bearing the living waters to all her acquaintances. According to tradition, her five sisters (Sts. Anatole, Photo, Photis, Paraskeve, and Kyriake) and her two sons (Victor and Joses) were among those converted. They too became evangelists for Christ.
The story of the Samaritan woman recalls some of the "chance" meetings in the Old Testament where the patriarchs of old encountered their brides-to-be at wells. Abraham's servant encountered Rebekah at a well. Jacob encountered Rachel at a well. And Moses encountered Zipporah at a well (as well!). So it would seem that the Holy Spirit is hinting that the Samaritan woman is a figure of Jesus' Bride--the fallen, sinful, lost humanity whom he came to seek and to save by washing them with the water of baptism and putting his Spirit within them to dwell. And like the Samaritan woman, Jesus knows everything each and every one us has ever done. His all-seeing light reveals our sin, and his sound doctrine corrects our wrong thinking and instructs us in righteousness He exhorts us to works of charity and so draws out our bowels of compassion, making us living wells of living water unto our salvation and those around us.
The woman came to draw water from Jacob's well, which symbolizes the Old Testament types and shadows which were being fulfilled by Christ and passing away. The old law of commandments and ordinances could not quench the thirst of the soul but only burden it. It is Christ alone-- who gives the water of the Spirit and of truth (sound doctrine)-who can satisfy our deepest longings for truth. All others are as poisoned wells, teaching at best half-truths twisted and perverted by their merely human understanding.. The woman, a symbol of the Church, left her water pot--she forsook her sinful ways and false doctrines and was joined to her heavenly Bridegroom in the waters of Baptism. That is why the Church drinks only from the fountain of apostolic tradition, whether delivered orally or in writing, for both are divinely inspired. The Church speaks the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, for she is the "pillar and ground of the truth." We should stop our ears to all voices that contradict the teaching of the Church, even if they are trusted friends. As St. Irenaeus admonishes:
"...it is not necessary to seek the truth among others which it is easy to obtain from the Church; since the apostles, like a rich man depositing his money in a bank, lodged in her hands most copiously all things pertaining to the truth: so that every man, whosoever will, can draw from her the water of life. For she is the entrance to life; all others are thieves and robbers. On this account are we bound to avoid them, but to make choice of the things pertaining to the Church with the utmost diligence, and to lay hold of the tradition of the truth." --Against Heresies III, 4.1
According to tradition, the Samaritan woman's name in baptism was Photini, or in Slavonic, Svetlana, which means "enlightened". As we noted last week, the Gospel of John, and particularly the portions read on the last three Sundays of Pascha, are for the instruction in the mysteries of the faith of the newly illumined by baptism. At the close of the liturgy, we sing, from Psalm 33, "Come unto him, and be enlightened [Photini-ed], and your faces shall not be ashamed". The Spirit and the Bride say, Come! Come, and be enlightened in the waters of Holy Baptism--become a Photini! And let us who have become enlightened Photinis forsake our broken cisterns that can hold no water, and with joy draw waters from the wells of salvation and proclaim to the world,
Christ is risen!
Glory to Jesus Christ!
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