In Samaritanam

On the Samaritan Woman, and on the saying, "Jesus comes to a city of Samaria called Sychar." 1. Today Christ has proclaimed to us the struggles of the Samaritan woman; and my poor discourse must sail into the sea of her achievements. For I see her faith, and I wish to utter her encomium, and to praise with you the poor and rich woman, the prostitute and apostle, the dissolute and faithful, the much-married and powerful, the one who defiled many and served the only-begotten Word of God, the defiled and purified, the one who thirsted and desired living waters, and who inherited the grace of the heavenly streams. For what does the evangelist John, who thundered the ineffable mysteries, say? Jesus comes to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the place which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. For there was the well of Jacob. So Jesus, wearied from the journey, sat down thus at the well. It was about the sixth hour.

A woman comes from Samaria to draw water. Jesus says to her, "Give me a drink." For his disciples had gone into the city to buy food. So Jesus was weary. What then does the prophet Isaiah say? "The great God will not hunger, nor will he thirst, nor will he be weary; nor is there any searching out of his wisdom." But also the evangelist Matthew writes about him in his Gospel: "And having fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward he was hungry." Likewise also the evangelist John, as you have just heard, says: "So Jesus, being weary from the journey, sat thus at the well. It was about the sixth hour." And one says that he was hungry; the other that he was also weary. But the prophet Isaiah declares, speaking by the Holy Spirit: "The great God will not hunger, nor will he thirst, nor will he be weary, nor is there any searching out of his wisdom." And how can the harmony of the Gospels and the prophecy be preserved among these? Yet neither did the prophet lie—far from it—nor did the apostles write things foreign to the Holy Spirit and the prophecy; but because the economy of our Savior, the great God, had a certain twofold and marvelous interweaving, I mean of divinity and humanity, according to his own good will and intention, for this reason the prophet proclaims the power and majesty of the divinity, while the apostles and evangelists truly declare the economy of the body. So Jesus, being weary from the journey, sat thus at the well. It was about the sixth hour.

A woman comes from Samaria to draw water. Jesus says to her, "Give me a drink." For his disciples had gone into the city to buy food. So the Samaritan woman says to him, "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink, I being a Samaritan woman?" It is necessary, therefore, beloved, to inquire why he indicated both the place and the hour and the absence of the disciples: the place, "He was sitting by the well"; the hour, "It was about the sixth hour"; the absence of the disciples, "For his disciples had gone into the city to buy food." For what reason, then, did he mention the place? I will tell you. He had a spiritual catch, for the sake of which he also went to the place from which he could draw the catch. Do you not see how fishermen act? That they do not run through every part of the sea, but to a place that is clear, where they know the fish are lurking? For there are many places in the sea that more than others nourish the fish. So too our Lord Jesus Christ, the great God according to the prophecy, knew as God that from there he could take the catch, that is, the Samaritan woman. Just as, then, I said, fishermen lie in wait in those places from which they hope to catch the fish, so also Christ came to the place from which he was to catch the Samaritan woman, and through her to accomplish a great capture of people. Behold, I have revealed the reason for the place. But why did he also mention the hour? For it says: "Jesus, being weary from the journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

Listen then, beloved, also concerning the hour. There was a certain poor Samaritan woman, who supported herself entirely by the work of her hands, poor both in body and in means, but not in piety of soul. Thus, rising early, she would go to her loom for her work, from which she also procured her sustenance. But at the sixth hour, when everyone else was occupied with rest, then she would take her water jar and fill it with water. The Lord, who knows all things, knew therefore that at the hour when all others were at rest, she was busying herself with fetching water. And for this reason the Lord went at the sixth hour, when he knew that she was going to fetch water, and he could hunt this spiritual prey. And why did the Lord send away his disciples? For his disciples, the Gospel says, had gone into the city to buy food. The woman was a certain poor and pitiable person, as we have already indicated, unable to withstand the escort of many. And if she had seen the dignity of a teacher, and the retinue of disciples, the teacher, the taught, the crowd, the order, the rank, the appearance, the distinction, she would have immediately fled, and the prey would have been lost; she would not have dared to approach, and the fish would have escaped from the nets, and would not have been caught, but would have darted away. For this reason he sent the disciples into the city. For he said, "Go and buy provisions; you go and buy, I have another meal.

For my food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work. You are concerned with the fleshly, I with the spiritual. You buy, for I have bought. Christ bought us out from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, says the chosen vessel, Paul. Through waters I wish to hunt this spiritual catch. You have learned why both the place and the hour and the departure of the disciples. Therefore it is necessary now to begin the following. A woman comes from Samaria to draw water. The Samaritan woman comes to draw water at the sixth hour, having ceased from her loom, to fetch water at the hour of rest, and, as has often been said, at the sixth hour. For also Eve, when in paradise she transgressed the commandment, it was about the sixth hour. And for this reason the Samaritan woman was saved at the spring at that same sixth hour. Then the Samaritan woman came to draw water, and she sees Jesus as some stranger, and alone, as a traveler wishing to rest, and sitting by the spring. She saw a man of no account, and took no notice of him. But God, who knows all things before their generation, seeing the treasure of faith, says to her: Give me to drink. The spring of life, sitting by the spring, asks to drink, not wishing to drink, but to give. Give me to drink, so that I may give you water of immortality to drink. For I thirst for the salvation of men, not that I may drink, but that I may give drink. I imitated my own Father. For God says to Abraham: Give me your son.

Bring me Isaac, your beloved, your only son, as a whole burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will show you." But he did not say this because he wished to take the son, but because he wanted to bestow his own Son upon the world. 2. For the divine John, the son of thunder, says: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Give me the only begotten, so that I may bestow the Only Begotten upon the world; sacrifice your son, not that you may sacrifice, but that I may sacrifice my only begotten Son for the salvation of the world, a living, acceptable, holy sacrifice. So also here: "Give me to drink," not that I may drink, but that I may give drink. The woman says to him: "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink, a Samaritan woman? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans." The woman is precise; in these things the harlot shows her ambition; in these things the harlot displays her observance of the law. Such is the nature of the Samaritan race; they are defiled by fornications, and they think they are purified by baptisms. "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink, I being a Samaritan woman? For Jews do not associate with Samaritans." They fill the soul with stain, and they think they are wiping the body clean. So also the Samaritan woman: having her soul befouled with fornications, she judges concerning the drinking of waters. What then does Jesus do? He did not repel her; he did not say to her: "I am God from God; I have fixed the heaven and laid the foundation of the earth; and you judge me concerning waters and drinking, and that too a woman defiled by sins?" But what?

If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, "Give me to drink," you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. Do you see how little by little he aroused her longing into desire, saying, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, 'Give me to drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water"? What then does the woman say to him again? "Lord, you have no bucket, and the well is deep; whence then do you have the living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his flocks?" The woman had a great notion concerning the patriarch Jacob (pay attention, I beg you, with all accuracy); the Samaritan woman had a high opinion concerning Jacob, and she had a great glory concerning him, as concerning a patriarch, as concerning a righteous man, since he became the father of the twelve patriarchs; for the twelve tribes of Israel came from Jacob. Not only this, but also that he wrestled with God, and was found strong, so that God said to him, "Let me go, because the dawn has risen." And God, wrestling with a man, said, "Let me go, because you are my friend, and the dawn has risen." But he said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." What does this signify, and what is the wrestling of God with a man, except that he was about to put on flesh for our sake? What then does God say to him? "You will no longer be called Jacob, but your name will be Israel, because you prevailed with God, and with men you will be strong.

The woman therefore had a high opinion of the patriarch; for this reason she said to the Lord, "Are you not greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons and his flocks?" What then does Christ do? See the wisdom of the Master; see the gentleness of the Teacher. He did not say to her, "Yes, I am greater than your father Jacob." Nor did he say to her, as he said to the Jews, that "Before Abraham was, I am," or again as he said, "Truly I say to you, many kings and righteous men along with the prophets desired to see what you see, and did not see it." He said none of these things to the woman, but he suppresses the struggle concerning the patriarch, and from the open makes the contest stronger. For if he had said to her, "Yes, I am greater than Jacob; for he received the blessing from me, and I granted it to him," she, being unable to look upon such a height of revelations, would have quickly fled. He said none of these things.

to her, but from the visible things he makes the matter clear and irrefutable. For what does he say to her? Everyone who drinks from this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never thirst for eternity; rather, the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water leaping into eternal life. There was a contest between Jacob and Christ over persons; but he left the struggle over persons and comes to the struggle over visible waters and invisible gifts. For if he had said, "Yes, I am greater than Jacob," she would have immediately fled, taken refuge in the city, and recoiled before the answer, and before the word she would have reached the city, saying, "This man is raving, he is possessed, he is frenzied, he is stricken with madness; a stranger and contemptible, he claims to be greater than our father, or rather than the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, who received the blessings from God, who departed poor and returned rich because of the dispensation from God toward him." But Christ condescended to the woman and yielded to her weakness, so that little by little she might be raised to the height of better things.

Just as fishermen (for what do they do? Listen attentively) cast a hook into the sea, and when they perceive that a fish has been caught, they do not immediately pull it up, but give line little by little, so that it may completely and carelessly swallow the bait, and when they perceive that it has received the hook into the depth of its heart and entrails, then those who previously descended with it pull the fish up with greater force; so also Christ has done with the woman. He did not from the beginning reveal to her the beauty of the divinity, nor did he give her promises of great goods, nor did he proclaim Jacob as having made him; but he stirs up the appetite of her soul into desire, saying to her: "Everyone who drinks from this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water gushing forth into eternal life." He left off the struggle of persons, and then came to the abundance of gifts, or rather he shows the superiority of those gifts from the matter itself. What then does the woman say? "Lord, give me this water, so that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." Do you see how quickly she believed that the water given by Christ no longer produces thirst? "Lord, give me this water, so that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." Christ gradually stirred her up to desire his spiritual waters. She believed that there is water which, when drunk, does not produce thirst.

taking hold of it, and erasing the bond of sins. "Lord, give me the water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw again." Jesus says to her: "Go, call your husband, and come here." "If you have a partner in intercourse," he says, "let him also be a partner in faith; do not take the gift of these spiritual graces alone. Go, call your husband, and come here." "For this reason I have come," he says, "not only to save Eve through the ever-virgin Mary and Theotokos, but also to recall the man through me back to paradise. Go, call your husband, and come here." "Well," beloved, "does the teacher of the world, Paul, writing to the Corinthians with the same rule, say: 'For what do you know, woman, whether you will save your husband?' But for now, let us take up the matters at hand. Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman says to him, "I have no husband." And then the woman began to reveal her own sins; she began to confess and say, "I have no husband." "For I have been plunged into the depth of fornication and debauchery, and I have no husband." Jesus says to her: "You have spoken well, that you have no husband; for you have had five husbands.

And now, the one you have is not your husband; this you have spoken truly. What is this, "For you have had five husbands, and now the one you have is not your husband"? It is necessary to explain. The woman had five husbands, and they died; after them she committed fornication. Hence no one thereafter wished to approach her as a lawful wife. But she, unable to curb the waves of pleasure, thereafter kept secretly the one who fornicated with her; and she was neither an open prostitute nor a lawful wife; she had a man in secret. She thought she could deceive Christ as a man, and said to him, "I have no husband." Then Christ, knowing the secrets of the heart and knowing all things before their occurrence, says to her: "You have spoken well, that 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and now the one you have is not your husband; this you have spoken truly." The woman says to him: "Lord, I see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem." "What prophet do you mean, woman? The one whom Moses wrote, that 'The Lord your God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers like me,' or some other? Do you mean this one, woman, who reveals the secrets of the heart?" For having received the revelation of her sins from the Master, she says: "Lord, I see that you are a prophet." It was the same as if she had said that of David: "Cleanse me from my secrets.

3. And God sat, conversing with the woman. Oh, such great philanthropy: the one seated upon the Cherubim dialogues with a harlot woman. "I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem." The harlot introduces a discussion about doctrines, and having supposed the Master to be a prophet, she asked for nothing of a worldly nature; she acknowledged a Lord, and did not seek an abundance of wealth. "Lord, I perceive that you are a prophet." She acknowledged a Lord, and asked for nothing more than the ancestral doctrines. "Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem." For on that mountain, Somor, Abraham brought his own son Isaac as a sacrifice to God, while in Jerusalem, Jacob, descending to Laban the Syrian in Mesopotamia, saw in his sleep a ladder stretched from earth to heaven, and wrestled the wrestling with God; hence he said, "God appeared to me at Luz." For this reason the woman touches upon doctrines and says, "Lord, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem." What then does the Lord do? Again he answers with the wisdom befitting him. For since he was thought by her to be a Jew, and she was a Samaritan, he did not wish to answer the inquiry, so that he might neither speak falsely nor render the woman more obstinate.

For he had no other purpose than to hunt for the woman, seeking to lead her to the path of salvation; and for this reason he says nothing too harsh to her, lest he either fail or shame the Samaritan woman. For if he had said to her, "The place where one must worship is in Jerusalem, as Moses commanded the sons of Israel," he would have made her more obstinate; since, as we have said, she held an ancient belief about the mountain at Shechem, that Abraham had been commanded by God to sacrifice Isaac upon it. And again, if he had chosen to condescend to her and say, "This is the mountain, and you worship rightly," he would again have put forward a false statement. Therefore, leaving both aside, he leads the woman by the hand to a more spiritual worship, and says: "Woman, believe me when I say that the hour is coming, and is now, when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will they worship the Father; but the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." Do you see the excellent teaching, do you see the wisdom of the resourceful Teacher? "Woman, believe me when I say." See how he builds up the woman's faith; see how he gradually lifts her soul to the heavens, not ashamed of the harlot's veil, but ministering to the salvation of her soul. Why? Because he did not come to summon the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Since it was for the lost sheep that he, without emptying the paternal bosom, descended to us, bending the heavens and becoming a perfect man while remaining what he was. Woman, believe me, that the hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The worship of God is not confined to a place, but the knowledge of divine grace is spread everywhere; no longer do Jews and Samaritans snatch the symbols of the law to themselves. For those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth. No longer with alien holocausts, calves, and rams; no longer circumcision and observance of the sabbath; no longer temple, altar, scapegoat, and holy of holies; no longer shadow, service, and false sabbaths. For your new moons and your sabbaths, says God through the prophet, and your great day I cannot endure; your fasting and idleness and your feasts my soul hates. For those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. All those things have passed away like a shadow; the ancient things have passed; behold, everything has become new. The grace of things has now been transformed; no longer do I permit those who worship God to be gathered together in one place according to the law; for I wish to spread the gifts of salvation throughout the whole world.

For their voice went out into every land, and their words to the ends of the inhabited world. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman says to him: I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called Christ; when he comes, he will declare everything to us. Oh, the spiritual philosophy of a harlot! Oh, the harlot who carries the divine Scriptures on her lips! For even if her body is baptized in the filth of prostitution, her soul is purified by the promise and reading of the divine Scriptures. I know that the Messiah is coming. Messiah is interpreted as Anointed One. Therefore the woman says, I await the Anointed One, whose flesh will be anointed with divinity. When he comes, he will declare everything to us. Oh, spiritual progress! Oh, a woman who is a harlot and knows everything! See how she has taken wing from the underworld to the heavens. She calls the Messiah the one sent, the expected Christ, the one coming for the salvation of the whole world, and again a prophet, and again Lord; she no longer calls him a Jew, she no longer disputes about the giving of water, she no longer says to him: How is it that you, being a Jew, ask to drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Samaritans do not associate with Jews. But what does she say? Lord, I see that you are a prophet; and again, touching on doctrines: Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem. See how she seizes the gift of spiritual graces; see how she says everything with scriptural proof.

I know that the Messiah comes, the one called Christ; when he comes, he will announce everything to us. I seek him, I await him, I expect him. Jesus says to her: I am he, the one speaking to you. O great and extraordinary marvels; what he did not reveal to many of the apostles, he openly reveals to the prostitute. 4. In the case of Cleopas he did not reveal himself to the apostles; but when he opened their eyes, then he became invisible from them, so that the disciples said, Was not our heart burning within us, as he spoke to us on the road, as he opened the Scriptures to us? To them he did not reveal himself, and to the woman he says: I am he, the one speaking to you. What he did for Paul alone, who ascended to the third heaven, who was snatched away into paradise and heard unspeakable words, who netted the whole world, this he has done beforehand also for the Samaritan woman. To Paul he clearly revealed from heaven, saying: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads. And Saul answered, saying: Who are you, Lord? And he answered: I am Jesus Christ, whom you persecute. This he now says to the Samaritan woman: I am he, the one speaking to you. At this the disciples come and find him conversing with the woman; and they marveled that he spoke with a woman. He who is worshipped by angels conversed with a prostitute; he who co-reigns with the Father in the unending kingdom spoke alone with the woman alone. But she, leaving her water jar, entered the city.

She left her water jar, since she was filled with the living waters, and entering to the citizens, she cried out: “Come, see a man who told me everything I did. Is this not the Christ? Come, see a man.” She did not say, “Come, see God among men,” lest she seem to men to be raving, lest men say, “She is mad.” For when did anyone see God walking? When did anyone see God associating with men? “Come, see a man who told me everything I did.” She rouses them to desire to go out and be caught; as she was netted, she nets; from a Jewess she advanced to the Lord, from a human being she leads to God. O apostolic harlot! The harlot has become more powerful than the apostles. For the apostles began their apostolic proclamations only after the whole economy was fulfilled; but the harlot evangelizes Christ even before the Passion, the economy, and the Resurrection. “Come, see a man who told me everything I did. I expose my sins to lead you; so that you may see God come among men, I parade my evils; and let Christ be worshipped, who does not abhor sinners. Come, see a man who told me everything I did. Is this not the Christ?” See the wisdom of a woman, see the gratitude of a harlot. Christ told her only one sin, that of fornication, and she, leaving her jar, ran into the city, saying: “Come, see a man who told me everything I did.

She proclaims the one who knows all things, she proclaims things stronger than the apostles. She did not see him rising from the dead, she did not see four-day Lazarus being called back from the tomb, she did not see death being shut up, she did not see the sea being bridled by a word, she did not see the one who formed Adam supplying the deficiency of creation with clay for the blind man, and she was proclaiming the potter in paradise through the word. “Come, see a man who told me everything I did.” From that city of the Samaritans many believed in him because of the testimony of the woman, that “He told me everything I did.” Let us also imitate this Samaritan woman, and not be ashamed of our own sins, but fear God. But now I see the opposite happening: we do not fear the one who will judge us, but we tremble at those who harm us not at all, and we fear shame from them; therefore, in matters where we fear, we assign punishment to these. For the one who is ashamed to reveal sins to a man, but is not ashamed to commit them while God sees, and does not wish to confess and repent, on that day is made a public example before not one or two, but the whole world looking on. Let us therefore converse with Christ; for even now he stands in our midst, and speaks to us through the prophets and the apostles. Let us then listen and be persuaded by him. How long do we live in vain and to no purpose?

For when we waste the time given to us on nothing, we will depart to pay the final penalty for untimely expenditure. For this reason God brought us into the present life and breathed a rational soul into us, not that we might use the present life alone, but that we might all work toward the future life. For irrational animals are useful only for the present life; we have an immortal soul for this reason, that we might do everything for that life there, that we might shine there, that we might dance with angels, that we might stand before the King continually in the undefiled ages. For this reason the soul has become immortal, and the body will be again. But if you are nailed to the earth, with heavenly things set before you, consider how great an insult is done to the giver, when he offers you the things above, and you, making little account of them, exchange them for the earth. For these reasons he also threatened Gehenna, when he was despised, that you might learn from this how many good things you deprive yourself of. But may it never be that we experience that punishment; rather, may we, having pleased him, attain the eternal goods, by the grace and philanthropy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory and the power, together with the Father and the all-holy and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.