My beloved spiritual children in Our Risen Lord and Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!
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FIFTH SUNDAY OF PASCHA - THE SUNDAY OF THE SAMARITAN WOMAN
"So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, 'Give Me a drink.' For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, 'How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?' For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water...' "
THE SAMARITAN WOMAN AT THE WELL: THE LIVING WATER
Saint John Chrysostom writes:
"He shows that she is worthy to hear and not to be overlooked, and it is then He reveals Himself. For she, as soon as she had learned who He was, would immediately listen and attend to Him. This none can say of the Jews, for they when they were aware, asked nothing of Him; nor did they desire to be informed on any profitable matter. Instead, they insulted and drove Him away...Not without reason does she here call him, 'Lord', and assign high honor to Him...Do not wonder if she failed to perceive everything at once, for neither did Nicodemus...Now if a woman of Samaria is so eager to learn something profitable; if she stays with Christ though not yet knowing Him, what pardon shall we obtain?...We know Him...yet are unable to endure anything that is said, but are jaded in our knowledge." (Homily XXXI on John III, 4, 5.)
MY FOOD IS TO DO THE WILL OF HIM WHO SENT ME
Saint Nikolai Velimirovic writes:
"Here is love! Here is teaching! Here is acquiescence! Here is a model!...Those who love, they also serve. If you want to find out how great your love is toward God, then measure your obedience to the will of God, and you will immediately learn. Lack of positive obedience is a sign of a lack of love. Those who love, delight in fulfilling the will of the beloved. The Son of God so loved His Father, that He thought it to be preferable to food to fulfill the will of the Father. What is the will of the Father? The salvation of man. The Lord, Son of God felt an unquenchable hunger to carry out the will of the Father. And when He has saved [a soul] He felt nourished with the sweetest food. See how exalted is the spirituality of Christ!...
O my brothers and sisters, if you only knew how much Christ our Lord also hungers for our salvation!...We begin our own salvation which He offers to us. That is for Him the most gladsome food...O Lord Jesus, insatiable lover of men, have mercy on us and save us. Glory to You and praise forever. Amen. [Prolog, 7 September, p. 706]
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"Like as the heart desireth the water-brooks, so longeth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul
is athirst for God; yea, even for the Living God" (Psalm 41/42:1-2).
This is not a cry by a poor and simple man, who had no way of refreshing his soul with human wisdom, worldly knowledge and skills, philosophy, and art: the knowledge of the fine threads from which the lives of men and nature are woven. It is not; but it is the sad and heartfelt cry of a king, rich with earthly riches, genial in mind, noble in the motions of his heart, and powerful in the strength and acts of his will. Refreshing his soul with all of these, for which the unfree and craves in this world. King David suddenly felt that his spiritual thirst was not only unquenched but had grown to such proportions that all this material universe was in no way able to quench it. He then felt himself to be, in this world, "in a barren and dry land, where no water is" (Psalm 62/63:2), and cried to God as the only Source of immortal drink, for which a rational, awakened soul yearns. "My soul is athirst for God; yea, even for the Living God!"
The body directly receives food that is in essentials identical to the body. The body is of the earth, and food for the body is of the earth. This is why the body feels at home, among its own, in the world. But the soul suffers; it is crucified and suffers; it is disgusted and protests at having to receive food indirectly, and this food is not identical to itself. The soul, therefore, feels itself, in this world, to be in a foreign country, among strangers.
That the soul is immortal, and that it, in its essence, belongs to the immortal world, is proved by the fact that, in this earthly world, it feels itself a discontented traveler in a foreign land, and that nothing in the world can feed and refresh it. And even were the soul to be able to pour the whole universe into itself like a glass of water, its thirst would not only not become less but would, of a certainty, become greater. For then there would not remain in it one single illusory hope that it would, beyond the next hill, light on an unsuspected source of water.
The human soul is alive; alive and ever athirst for life; and nothing can slake its thirst but life: basic, direct life. But such life is found in God, in the living God, alone. "My soul is athirst for God; yea, even for the living God!" This is not just a psalm, but is a plain fact, like the dry throat of a thirsty lion that roars in the desert, and whose roaring can seem to the birds at the oasis like a song, although to the lion it is not a song but a cry for help...
"...Give Me to drink." The Creator seeks this of His creature. These words resound through two thousand years; for He did not say these words only to the Samaritan woman, but to all generations of men to the end of time.
"Give Me to drink", He says today to each one of us - the Creator of water and the Disposer of seas and oceans, rivers and springs - does not say this because He is thirsty for water, but because He thirsts for our good will and love. Giving to Him, we give not of our own, but of His. Every glass of water on earth is His, for He created it; and every glass of well-water, which we give to one of His "least brethren", He has paid for with His Precious Blood. However, in His unexampled humility, He does not seek water from the woman as the Creator from a creature, but as one man would seek from another, showing His humility in this and witnessing in this way to His limited and needy human nature. Finally, He does this to teach us to serve with charity. A man has the right to seek from another; and a man has the duty of service of, and charity to, another. (Source: Homilies by St. Nikolai Velimirovic)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Divine Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George