The Sunday of the Samaritan Woman: The Human Being is Made to Be a Deep Well and a Life-Giving Spring

In today’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ tells His disciples: “My food is to do the Will of Him Who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.” In this place, Our Lord uses a Greek word “vroma,” which means food that is either permitted or forbidden by the Law, along with another similar word “vrosis,” which He uses to describe the Eucharist in another context.  “Vroma” and “Vrosis” are the translation of the Hebrew word “ma’akal,” which is a very ancient word, only found in the Books of Moses. 

     We have been baptized into Christ, and therefore we have hidden resources of strength and virtue, which transform us into “other Christs.” The Christian is a person who has been clothed in Christ, and thus becomes another Christ by the grace of God.

     In Christ, we have hidden resources of strength and virtue.  We have well in us, which becomes a fountain springing up to everlasting life.  The Greek Gospel uses two words to describe this well: “piyi” and “phrear.” “Piyi” is a spring, which flows of its own accord, but “phrear” is a deep well.  To draw water from such a well, one needs a rope and a bucket.

     Our hidden strengths are a fountain of living water, and a special, spiritual food. In the first place, we have the fountain of living water: the Mystery of Baptism.  When we consider this Mystery, we remember two images, given to us by the Holy Scriptures, which help us to understand the great gift of this Sacrament.  The first images is water, as in the Prophecy of Isaiah: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

     Nevertheless, there is a great contrast between the rain and the snow, and the Lord’s Word, for the rain and the snow leave heaven and do not return there, but the Lord’s Word not only returns to Heaven, but also lives there continuously, even though it works on earth.  The imagery of the Mystery of Baptism is a water, which life to the earth, for Baptism becomes in us a fountain of the kind of water, which springs up to life everlasting, and not only for us, but for the whole world.  We see an illustration of this fact in the behaviour of the Samaritan woman. She brought all of the villagers to the Lord Jesus.  In the same way, we should bring all of our neighbours to Christ through our life of virtue.  Therefore, the water of Baptism becomes in us a rain or a snow, which comes forth from us as from heaven in order to give life to our world.

     The second element in the imagery of Baptism is light.  Often we call this Mystery Illumination when it is celebrated together with the Sacraments of Chrismation and the Eucharist.  The Mystery of Illumination—Baptism, Chrismation and the Eucharist—make us share in the identity of Christ.  St. Simeon prophesied that Christ would become “light of revelation to the Gentiles.” But, in Christ we also become a light of revelation to the nations.

     We also have a hidden strength, which come to us from our spiritual food—the Eucharist.  The Eucharist—the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ—strengthens the identity of Christ in us.  It gives us the virtues of Christ to accept the Will of God and to lead others to freedom from sin.  In the Eucharist, we have the strengthen to imitate Christ, that is, to imitate the Eucharist, and become offerings together with Christ for the salvation of the world, just as it says in the psalm: “Have they no knowledge, those evildoers, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon God?”

     In Christ, we have hidden resources of strength and virtue.  It is necessary for us to use these resources for our salvation and the salvation of all people.  It is necessary to water our world with the life-giving water, which, on account of our baptism, springs up in us unto life everlasting.  It is necessary to become a light of revelation for the nations, and to follow the example of the Samaritan Woman, bringing all people to our Holy Catholic Church.  It is necessary to receive strength from the Eucharist, in order to imitate the Eucharist, and become offerings for the salvation of the world and the glory of God.