Омилия XIX 71 .

On the Gospel of Christ about the Samaritan 72, and about the fact that one should despise the earthly blessings of life Throughout all the days that are now passing, extending right up to Pentecost, we celebrate the Resurrection from the dead of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, by the very duration of the celebration, making clear its superiority over other holidays. Because if the annual commemoration of the Lord’s Ascension into heaven rounds this number of days to 73, it also shows the superiority of the resurrected Lord over all ever resurrected slaves: because everyone who has ever risen from the dead was resurrected by others and then, having died, returned to the earth again. When Christ rose from the dead, death had already lost its hold over Him: for He alone, who raised Himself three days ago, no longer returned to the earth, but ascended to heaven, creating one throne, as one God with the Father, our mixture (nature); therefore He is one and was the Beginning of the future of all resurrections, and the One Firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep and the Firstborn from the dead, and the Father of the future age. Just as in Adam everyone dies: both sinners and righteous; so in Christ everyone will come to life: both sinners and righteous, but each in his own order: Christ the Firstborn, then Christ’s at His coming; and then the end, when He will abolish all rule and all authority and power, and put all His enemies under His feet. Death will be destroyed as the last enemy - in the general resurrection, at the last trumpet: for this corruptible must put on incorruptibility, and this mortal must put on immortality. The guarantor of such benefits for us is the Resurrection of Christ, and that is why we celebrate this holiday alone for so many days, as existing immortal and irreplaceable and eternal, thereby prefiguring the bliss of the Saints in the next century, where sickness, sadness and sighing will escape: because in this bliss there is rejoicing and happiness that is ever-divine and not subject to changes; because there is the abode of those who truly rejoice. Therefore, before the onset of these (Easter) days, the grace of the Spirit established as a law that we spend the holy Lent in fasting, vigil and prayer and every feat of virtues; Indeed, the Pentecostal Day reveals the way of life of those people who are saved in this age. This is nothing other than repentance and a godly passage of life. Through, following it, Pentecost, which we are now passing through, representing the peace and rest that those who labored for God will perceive there. Therefore, it is Lent and is associated with the memory of the Saving Passion of the Lord and after week 74 it ends the fast; and Pentecost includes both the repose from earth to heaven, and the descent and distribution of the Divine Spirit. Because this age is likened to a week and is composed on the basis of 4 75 hours and parts and elements, and for those who during it make themselves, through the creation of good deeds, participants in the Passion of Christ, it brings the festival of Pentecost, which begins with the octopus, and in the octopus 76 has its completion, and surpasses both the honest week and the quaternity, and through the Resurrection of the Lord and, following with it, the Ascension, represents the future resurrection of the human race and, following this, the rapture of those worthy to the clouds at the meeting of God, and, finally, forever being with God and rest. But it will come true in due time. The Lord, before His Passion and Resurrection, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and revealing to the Disciples that not only from the Jewish people there would be a selection worthy of the faith and the eternal inheritance promised to them, but also from all nations, as you heard from the Gospel reading today to your ears, “he came to the city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near the village, where Jacob gave his son Joseph to your own. And Jacob is the fountain” (John 4:5–6). A well is here called a spring, because it had water from a spring, as appears from the previous words; It was Jacob's, because he dug it up. Shechem was the region which Jacob gave to Joseph; for, dying in Egypt and bequeathing, he says to him: “Behold, I am dying: but God will bring you back from the land of sowing to the land of your fathers. But I give unto you Shekim, chosen above thy brethren, which he took out of the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow” (Gen. 48:21-22). Therefore Shechem was afterwards inhabited by the tribe of Ephraim, who was the firstborn of Joseph; Around this place lived ten tribes of Israel, over which the apostate Jeroboam ruled. Often offending God, they were often abandoned by Him, and then they were all taken into captivity, and it so happened that in their place, various nations gathered by the Assyrian king, who were called “Samaritans,” settled on Mount Somor. And just as Jacob once, passing by, approached Shechem, so now, passing by, Christ approached Samaria. But he, as he himself says, came up with “a sword and a bow,” i.e. for the extermination and destruction of its former inhabitants; Christ is with word and teaching, and therefore for salvation. “Jesus, weary from the journey,” says the Evangelist, “sat thus at the fountain: and it was as if it were the sixth hour” (John 4:6). And time and fatigue prompted the graying of the One who wore a body the same as ours; to certify this and foreseeing future benefits, he sat, as the Gospel says, at the source, i.e. just on earth, like a lonely wanderer, because His Disciples went into the city to buy food. And while He was thus sitting alone at the fountain, a woman came from Samaria to draw water. The Lord, enduring thirst as a Man, and seeing her coming, according to humanity, to quench her thirst, and as God, seeing her heart thirsting for saving water, but not knowing the One who can give it to her, hastens to reveal Himself to the thirsty soul. Because He Himself thirsts for those who thirst for Him, as it is written. Beginning His speech in such a way as to be easily understood, He says to her: “Give Me water to drink” (John 4:7). But she, being reasonable, and seeing from the very clothes and appearance and obvious external decoration that He is a Jew and Keeper of the Law, I am surprised, - she says, - how do you ask to drink from a Samaritan woman, when Jews and Samaritans, as if with pagans, have no communication? - The Lord, taking advantage of the appropriate opportunity, begins to reveal Himself, saying to her: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is, say to you: Give me something to drink; you would have asked Him, and would have given you living water” (John 4:10). You see what was testified to her: that if she had known, she would have immediately asked and would have become a partaker of truly living water, as, indeed, having learned, she did and received later. While the Jewish Sanhedrin, having asked and fully received the answer, then crucified the Lord of Glory. But what is the “gift of God”? - “If only you knew,” he says, “the gift of God”; Leaving aside other things, let us cite the fact that God incarnate did not disdain those whom the Jews considered vile to such an extent that they would not even accept a drink from them; what a great gift this is and what a great grace. And that gift that makes them so loved that you not only accept what they give, but also make them participants in His Divine gifts?! What do I say: talents? – When He gives Himself and makes the faithful vessels that can contain His Divinity, since it is impossible for them to have another source leaping into eternal life, besides the one that He previously promised! What mind can handle this? What word will express the excellence of this gift? But the Samaritan woman, not yet realizing the greatness of living water, at first is perplexed: how would the One speaking to her find the water that he promises, when He does not have a vessel - the well is deep; then he tries to compare Him with Jacob, whom he calls “Father,” honoring the race based on the place, and praises the water of this well, as there is no better; but when she heard that the Lord said that “the water that I will give will be (for the one who receives it) a source of water flowing into an eternal belly,” she let out the voice of a thirsty soul brought to faith, although not yet strong enough to look at the light. “Lord,” he says, “give me this water, so that I neither thirst nor come to draw it.” The Lord, wanting to open himself a little more, commands her to invite her husband. She, hiding her position, and at the same time trying to receive the gift, said: “Not the imam of her husband”; to this she hears in response how many husbands she had from her youth and that the one she now has is not her husband; and without complaining about the reproach, immediately realizing that the Prophet is speaking to her, she proceeds to big questions. Do you see what humility and love for the Truth are like in this woman? - For she says: “Our fathers bowed down in this mountain: and you say that in Jerusalem there is a place where it is proper to bow down.” Do you see what was the concern of her thoughts and what knowledge of Scripture she had? – Are there many who are now faithful by birth and raised by the Church, who know the Scripture as the Samaritan woman knew, namely: that our Fathers, i.e. Did Jacob and the Patriarchs descended from him worship God on this mountain? Such knowledge and diligence in the study of God-inspired Scripture, accepting which as the fragrance of an aroma, Christ happily continues to talk with the Samaritan woman; because just as if you put something fragrant on the coals, you will attract and hold back those who come, and if you put something fetid and unsightly, you will repel them and turn them away, so with regard to thoughts: if you take sacred care and diligence for them, you will make yourself worthy of the Divine visit (Episkopis Fias): because this is the aroma of the aroma that the Lord smells; if you nourish bad and dirty and earthly thoughts, then you will be far from Divine bliss, making yourself, alas, worthy of God turning away from you! “For the wicked shall not abide before Thy eyes” (Ps. 5:6), the Psalmist says to God. Because when the Law prescribes: to remember the Lord God in everything, sitting and walking, and lying down and getting up (Deut. 6:7), and the Gospel says: try the Scriptures, and in them you will find eternal life (John 5:39), and the Apostle exhorts, saying: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17), then he who keeps his mind in earthly thoughts, of course, is a criminal, and not much less the one who wallows in the bad and dirty? But when did our Fathers worship God on this mountain? - Then, when Patriarch Jacob, fleeing from his brother Esau, who hated him out of envy, and obeying the advice of his Father, went to Mesopotamia, and when he returned here with his wives and children; because when he returned, he pitched tents near the place where the Lord spoke with the Samaritan woman; after the incident with Dinah and the extermination of the Shechemites, God, as written in the book of Genesis, said to Jacob: “Go up to Bethel and build there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of your brother Esau” (Gen. 35:1). And after this word, having moved, Jacob went up to the mountain lying nearby and built, they say, an altar there, and called this place “Bethel,” because God appeared to him here; That’s why the Samaritan woman says that “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain,” relying on these ancient people, because the laws regarding the Jerusalem Temple were made later. And since this place was called by Jacob the “House of God,” because it is “Bethel” that is meant in the translation, she asks, eagerly wanting to know: why is it not here anymore, but in Jerusalem, they say, that the “House of God” is located, and in it it is established to make sacrifices and worship God. The Lord, already realizing the purpose of His words, and predicting about the woman herself that she would be one of those whom God seeks and accepts, and responding to her words, says: “I believe in them, woman. For the hour is coming, when you will worship the Father, neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem” (John 4:21); and then, a little further: “For the Father seeks such as them that worship Him” (John 4:23). Do you see that it also extends to her that she will be one of those whom God is looking for, and that she will worship the Highest Father not in connection with the concept of place (topikos 77), but in the Gospel? Because the words that “neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father” apply to her, and at the same time He clearly foretells a change in the law: because when a change is made in worship, a change in the law necessarily follows. (But while this has not yet come), in the interval it is stated: “You worship him without knowing: we worship him, because there is salvation from the Jews” (John 4:22); this is both a response to her words and at the same time a continuation of His own thoughts; He says: “We are Jews,” for the reason that He counted Himself among them, as being from them in the flesh. So, “We,” he says, “not seizing what is not ours, but realizing that it is ours, in this we differ with you, Samaritans, on the issue of the place of worship, because we know that for the reason that legalized worship must be performed in Jerusalem, that from the Jews is the Salvation of the whole world, that is, Christ will come. But since he was no longer like the one who was to come - because it was Himself - he did not say: “Salvation will be from the Jews,” but (said) “there is” - because he saw that she was not far from faith and from worshiping in spirit and truth. So, He says: “The hour is coming, even now, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). Because the Highest and Worshiped Father, the Father of Truth Itself, that is, the Only Begotten Son, and the Spirit of Truth has the Holy Spirit, and those who worship Him in Him are precisely those who thus believe and are moved by Them (energetic - active). For - “There is a Spirit,” says the Apostle, “through whom we bow and through whom we pray”; and “No one will come to the Father except by Me,” says the Only Begotten Son of God. So, those are the true worshipers who bow down to the Supreme Father in spirit. Since He removed both Jerusalem and Samaria, so that no one would consider that another place should be built, 78 He, with subsequent words, again diverts speech from any material understanding of place and worship, saying: “The Spirit is God, and whoever worships Him is worthy to worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24), that is, for those who understand, of course, the Incorporeal as Existing, beyond matter; for in this way they will truly see Him everywhere in His spirit and truth; for the Spirit, like God, is incorporeal; and the incorporeal are not confined by place and are not limited by local boundaries; so that he who says that only within the boundaries of Jerusalem or on the Samaria Mountain, or in any other place on earth or in heaven should God be worshiped, does not speak correctly and does not truly worship. But as incorporeal, God is nowhere, but because He is God, He is everywhere; for if there were a mountain, or a place, or a creature where God was not, then one would have to look for a place where He would definitely be; but God is everywhere and in everything. How is it that He is everywhere and in everything, and not in one particular part, but entirely in this or that? - Yes, because this would be the case with bodily ones. So, as both uniting and embracing everything, He Himself is in Himself, everywhere and above everything, worshiped by true worshipers in His spirit and truth. So, God, throughout not only the earth, but also above the earth, accepts worship from such believers truly and in the way that answers God: the Father is incorporeal and unlimited neither by time nor by place, in the Holy and ever-present Spirit and the Son and the Word without origin, Who is also the hypostatic Truth of the Father. But both the soul and the Angels, being incorporeal, are not limited by place, but they are not omnipresent, for they do not contain everything within themselves, but they themselves also need the Container. Consequently, they are also in the Container and Encompasser of everything, and in the order corresponding to them are established within their limits, although the soul contains the body with which it was created, and is in the whole body, and is not enclosed in any place, and not as possessed, but appears as enveloping and containing the body, having this quality in the image of God. The Samaritan woman, as soon as she heard from Christ these wonderful words befitting God, that it is truly worthy to worship God only in His spirit and truth, she became like the soul that was ignorant of God in the book of Song of Songs, which, inspired by the voice of the Imperishable Bridegroom, expected and desired and hiding, although close by, says: “We know that the Messiah will come, the spoken Christ: when He comes, He will tell us everything.” You see: how she was prepared for faith (in the Messiah), as close and already expected, and how great her hope! Couldn’t she also say with David: “My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready: I ​​will sing and sing in my glory” (Ps. 61:8). Where could she know this (that the Messiah will come) so firmly and confidently and have a heartfelt disposition towards it, if not for the reason that she studied the prophetic books with extreme attention? Hence her mind was so sublime, filled with divine inspiration; so for me, now looking enthusiastically at the spiritual and very strong love of the Samaritan woman for Christ, it is again advisable to speak about her in the words from the Song of Songs: “Who is she who penetrates like the morning, who is good like the moon, chosen like the sun” (Song. 6:10). Because by announcing that the spiritual Sun of Truth, Christ, will soon appear, and by showing in her face the beginning Church of the pagans, as from the sacred source of the rising Font, at which it was established, as taught by the Savior, I see it shining like a beautiful dawn. She is also as beautiful as the moon, since she shines at a time when the night of wickedness still lingers; she was chosen, like the sun, just as she was named by the Savior Photinia (Svetlana), and she herself was numbered among those who will shine in the future like the sun, as the Gospel says: because she subsequently sealed her bright life with a most blessed and martyr’s death; and now, behold, I saw the true God Christ, and theologized Him in a perfect way; and as He later told the Disciples regarding the Spirit who was co-natural and one of His honor, that when He comes, He will teach all truth, so she, anticipating the future, says about Him: “When He comes, He will tell us all things” (John 4:25). But since the Heavenly Bridegroom saw her in such a state, He openly tells her: “I am, I speak with you” (John 4:26). She immediately, as if a truly chosen evangelist, stood up, and leaving the waterpot, ran into the city, with the following words she converts everyone and leads everyone to faith in the One she saw: “Come and see the Man who said all the things that I created: Is this food Christ?” (John 4:29). She said this, not because she had any hesitation, but because she believed that others would be more convinced when they saw and, as a result of the conversation with the Lord, would be more easily convinced themselves. This is how it actually came true. Seeing that the time has already come for bodily needs, and everyday affairs are calling you, I outlined the above in its most important terms, and now I leave other gospel words aside. But think about this Samaritan woman: so, when she heard the words of the Gospel, which we proclaimed to your love, she immediately despised the necessary bodily needs: because she immediately forgot about the waterpot and the house, and running into the city, and drawing the Samaritans with her, again came with them to Christ; for this “come see” contains this: follow me, and I will lead you and show you the Savior who has now come from heaven into the world. Thus, therefore, prompting them then, presented them to Christ; But by leaving both the waterpot and the house, she teaches us to prefer to the necessary needs the benefit that comes from the teaching, which the Lord called “the good part,” speaking in the Gospel to Martha regarding Mary listening to the word. If it is necessary to despise even necessary needs, then how much more so - everything else? What suppresses you and takes you away from listening to what benefits your soul? Is it taking care of the house and children and wife? or personal or someone close to you grief or joy? or buying or selling property? or how to use all your property, or better yet, abuse it? But listen with understanding to the apostolic instructions: “The time, brethren, has ceased (shortly) and so on, and those who have wives, as if they had not; and those who mourn, as if they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as if they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as if they did not contain; and those who demand this world, as if they did not demanding: for the image of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:29–31). What does it mean: “Time is short”? – Life is short, death is close, this world is perishable, only the other (world) is eternal. What melts us for this world is the unshakable contempt of this world, readiness for this future century, a life, if possible, far from the ways of life here and guided by the way of life of this century, and fleeing, as much as we can, from the harm of this life, but as with frequent attacks of enemies on the outskirts of the city, we possess property, as if not possessing it, and most of the time we flee from it, and in We remain safe inside (the city walls), and if the enemy retreats for a while, then for a short time we take advantage of the opportunity to leave the city, but do not abuse time, knowing that time is precious for use; So to use this world, but not to abuse it - the Apostle admonishes perfectly: because he sees that the enemies are cruelly attacking and the end is expected: for, he says, the image of this world is passing away; and since this world is not durable, but as the Apostle said, the present is nothing more than an image: in reality it happens and at the same time there is nothing, it appears for a short time and immediately passes away; then even if someone wanted to hold on, he cannot do this; it is like a light cloud driven by the wind in the summer, which casts a quickly passing shadow. From there comes the very advice that each of us should show clear spiritual will and set an example in the awareness of the instructions given by God: because even if someone wanted to hold on, as I said, everything that belongs to the present age cannot be held back, and for two reasons: for not only does this age pass by, but each of us who uses this world is only there for a while and before he has mastered something in the world, he leaves it. (And as if walking along some path, every person passes), and along this path there is a variety of movements that pass by him; and, of necessity, one of two things happens: either what is fleeting along the way eludes him, and what he possessed, he is no longer able to hold on to, or he himself, passing through, ultimately leaves this path of life, and cannot hold on to what life gives; because man, being mortal, is tied to everyday affairs, and they are also subject to change. So, a person, connected with those things that are changeable, himself changes in various ways and loses what he held: both wealth and splendor and joy, or, when he dies, he inflicts an irreparable change on himself and leaves naked from here, leaving behind what he had here and on which he had pinned his hopes. But maybe it will go as an inheritance (to his children)? - But what joy does this give him? He will no longer take part in life here, and the children will also die in one way or another. Therefore, death is always a disaster for those who are committed to this world, who are ultimately taken from here naked and leave everything that they loved. For those who despise the things of this world and seek to gain knowledge of the future world and try to do what is beneficial in the face of this future age, the coming death does not bring harm, but it is better to say - it transfers them from vain and impermanent things - to a non-evening day, to immortal life, to unfathomable wealth, to pure joy, to eternal glory, to that which truly is and unchangeably abides, which may we all benefit by the grace and love of mankind who bowed the heavens and came down for us, and - not only to us, but also to the souls imprisoned in the underworld, and from there He ascended by the power of the Resurrection and rebirth, and through Himself He gave us enlightenment and knowledge and hope for heavenly and eternal blessings, in which He is glorified forever and ever. Amen. PG.151:248–264. Homilia XIX. In Evangelium de Samaritide, et quia oportet praesentia contemnare. Those. after 7 weeks of Great Lent. Lat. translation: “40”, which is apparently not correct, because it means the division of the day into 4 parts (morning, day, evening and night), four seasons and 4 elements (air, fire, earth and water); in essence, in “40” the main number is the same “4”. “Osmitsa”, “eight” is a sign of the future century. See about this in detail in omilia 17th Lat. translation here mistakenly translates "topikos" as "tipikos". Those. the only specific place where God would be worshiped. You might be interested in: