Today, as we've just heard, is the Sunday of
the Samaritan woman. And there are several events
in the Gospels in which Samaritans figure prominently.
And you should notice that the Samaritans are
always the good guys. They're always the ones
that are doing what is unexpectedly good. Of
course, the one that should probably come to
our minds first is the good Samaritan. When that
fellow was wounded by travelers and a priest
and a Levite or a deacon went to the other side
and passed him by. But it was a Samaritan. This
is the irony. Jesus says it was the Samaritan
that came and helped him. And then another event,
of course, is the ten lepers that are cured by
Jesus. And one comes back to thank him. And Jesus
remarked, where are the other nine? And he said,
only this one, a foreigner, presumably a Samaritan,
came to give thanks. This is one of the reasons
why the apostles were amazed when they came back
and saw Jesus speaking to that Samaritan woman
at Jacob's well. First, also behind that is one
of the conventions of the cultural conventions
at the time was that men didn't strike up a conversation
with women that they didn't know. He just didn't
behave that way. But this Samaritan woman and
this beautiful dialogue that ensues about Jesus,
she comes to get water and he promises her living
water. The Samaritan woman, of course, particularly
in the Eastern Church, in Eastern tradition,
she's a saint, Saint Fotini. Well thought of
for, isn't one of your icons here? No, maybe
it's another church. Okay. There's an icon of,
isn't it back there? Okay, it's not my mind.
I haven't lost it yet. Okay, yeah, there's a
fresco back there. What is this living water
that Jesus promises her? The richer the symbol
is, the more it allows various interpretations.
To me it is, and many of the commentators believe,
that it is the whole life of communion with God.
That's the living water. And once we find that
life of communion with God, we'll never thirst
again. Never. And, of course, the life of communion
with God begins sacramentally at baptism, and
the life of communion with God is nourished by
the reception of the sacraments, by prayer, and
also by reading Holy Scriptures. We draw from
the waters of godliness and read. God's word.
We should do that daily. Once we are in communion
with God, we never thirst again. This reminds
me of a different event and a different story
that was very influential when I read this in
my first year of college. It is the life of St.
Augustine called his Confessions. And he begins
his autobiography, he wrote this himself, his
autobiography, with much the same thought. He
says, thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord,
and our heart is restless until it finds rest
in thee. St. Augustine, part of his conversion,
of course, he was just... Some say he might have
exaggerated the faults of his youth, but be that
as it may, his mother was Saint Monica, another
prominent saint, and she prayed every day for
her son's conversion to Christ. I think that's
an example especially to mothers and all parents.
to keep their children in their prayers. And
then occasionally children that are brought up
in the church wander away. And so that really
tugs at a parent's heart. So what you should
do is pray earnestly, of course, for that person
to return to an active Christian life. But also
St. Augustine tells us he joined different philosophical
groups. And then he came to here. He was visiting
in Ambrose. He was very well trained in rhetoric.
So he was attuned to how people spoke. And he
heard St. Ambrose preach. And St. Augustine tells
us it was the preaching of Ambrose the Lord.
These two prominent Western saints, Ambrose and
Augustine, I enjoy reading their sermons because
they are so pastor, they're informative and they
are also pastorally oriented. So he is the author
of a number of very important documents as well.
But What's important here is that he found rest
when he turned to the Lord Jesus Christ. To use
an expression we as Orthodox don't prominently
use, he made Jesus his Lord and Savior. And of
course, we don't talk that way normally, but
that's what we've done. That's what we did at
baptism. Jesus became our Lord and Savior. And
there we find rest with him. And he offers us
this living water that once we have drunk of
it, we will never thirst again. And then later
on in this dialogue, which is a fascinating dialogue
between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. He tells
her to go and get her husbands. And you know,
you just heard that. And she said, Lord, I perceive
that you are a prophet. And Jesus said, I who
speak to you am he. I am the promised Messiah.
And of course, the Samaritans, who were despised
by the Jews, as I said earlier, because they
adopted some of the non -Jewish cultural patterns
of life. And then what's probably the worst thing,
they set up a rival temple in Mount Gerizim.
That's what's behind that exchange. Jews tell
us that we're supposed to worship in Jerusalem.
And Jesus' reply is, time will come when all
who worship him will worship him in spirit and
in truth, not in a particular location necessarily.
So the Samaritan woman goes back and gets some
of the townsfolk, and they come and they hear
the gospel message that Jesus preaches to them
as this Messiah. And then the conclusion is,
this is the... pronouncement that many of the
gospel events take place with a pronouncement,
a word that's meant at the end of this event
speaks to us as well as to the people involved
in the original gospel story. The Samaritans
say, now we have come to believe, not because
of your words to the Samaritan woman. but because
we have heard and seen for ourselves and have
come to know that this is indeed the Christ,
the Savior of the world. So today I think our
prayer should be like St. Augustine's and the
Samaritan woman. O Lord, make our hearts restless
until they find rest in you. And give us this
living water so that once having drunk it, we
will never thirst again. Amen. Christ is risen.