The Fifth Sunday of Pascha: The Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Icon of Christ meeting the Samaritan Woman, later St. Photini (Icon courtesy of www.eikonografos.com used with permission)
   

"Reading:
One of the most ancient cities of the Promised Land was Shechem, also called Sikima, located at the foot of Mount Gerazim. There the Israelites had heard the blessings in the days of Moses and Jesus of Navi. Near to this town, Jacob, who had come from Mesopotamia in the nineteenth century before Christ, bought a piece of land where there was a well. This well, preserved even until the time of Christ, was known as Jacob's Well. Later, before he died in Egypt, he left that piece of land as a special inheritance to his son Joseph (Gen. 49:22). This town, before it was taken into possession by Samaria, was also the leading city of the kingdom of the ten tribes. In the time of the Romans it was called Neapolis, and at present Nablus. It was the first city in Canaan visited by the Patriarch Abraham. Here also, Jesus of Navi (Joshua) addressed the tribes of Israel for the last time. Almost three hundred years later, all Israel assembled there to make Roboam (Rehoboam) king.

When our Lord Jesus Christ, then, came at midday to this city, which is also called Sychar (John 4:5), He was wearied from the journey and the heat, and He sat down at this well. After a little while the Samaritan woman mentioned in today's Gospel passage came to draw water. As she conversed at some length with the Lord and heard from Him secret things concerning herself, she believed in Him; through her many other Samaritans also believed.

Concerning the Samaritans we know the following: In the year 721 before Christ, Salmanasar (Shalmaneser), King of the Assyrians, took the ten tribes of the kingdom of Israel into captivity, and relocated all these people to Babylon and the land of the Medes. From there he gathered various nations and sent them to Samaria. These nations had been idolaters from before. Although they were later instructed in the Jewish faith and believed in the one God, they worshipped the idols also. Furthermore, they accepted only the Pentateuch of Moses, and rejected the other books of Holy Scripture. Nonetheless, they thought themselves to be descendants of Abraham and Jacob. Therefore, the pious Jews named these Judaizing and idolatrous peoples Samaritans, since they lived in Samaria, the former leading city of the Israelites, as well as in the other towns thereabout. The Jews rejected them as heathen and foreigners, and had no communion with them at all, as the Samaritan woman observed, "the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans" (John 4:9). Therefore, the name Samaritan is used derisively many times in the Gospel narrations. After the Ascension of the Lord, and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the woman of Samaria was baptized by the holy Apostles and became a great preacher and Martyr of Christ; she was called Photine, and her feast is kept on February 26." (taken from: http://goarch.org/chapel/saints_view?contentid=884&PCode=4PS&D=S&date=5/17/2009)

See the following link for St. John Chrysostom's divine interpretation of this Gospel passage: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf114.iv.xxxiv.html.

And see a previous post for more info about St. Photini the Great Martyr and those with her: http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2009/02/st-photini-great-martyr-and-those-with.html.

Fresco of Christ meeting with the Samaritan Woman, from Decani Monastery (taken from: http://www.srpskoblago.org/Archives/Decani/exhibits/Collections/PublicMinistry/CX4K2851_l.html)
   

Doxastikon of the Stichera - Tone 6.
Finding the woman of Samaria by the well of Jacob, Jesus, who covers the earth with clouds, asked water of her. O the wonder! He who rides on the Cherubim converses with a woman who is a harlot. He who hung the earth upon the waters, asks for water. He who pours out springs and pools of water, seeks water, as he wishes truly to draw her who is hunted by the warlike foe, and to quench with the water of life the thirst of her who is aflame with foul desires, as he alone is compassionate and loves mankind.
  

Doxastikon of the Aposticha - Tone 8.
When through your inexpressible dispensation, Christ God, you appeared on earth, the woman of Samaria, having heard your word, full of love for mankind, left her bucket at the well and ran saying to those in the city: Come, see the one who knows the heart: is not this the expected Christ, who has great mercy?

Doxastikon of the Praises - Tone 6.
The spring of life’s source, Jesus our Saviour, came to the spring of the Patriarch Jacob and sought water to drink from a woman of Samaria. But when she objected that there was no sharing vessels by the Jews, the wise creator diverts her with sweet words rather to ask for the eternal water; which she accepted and proclaimed to all, saying: Come, see the one who knows hidden things, and is God come in the flesh to save mankind.

(hymns from the Great Vespers and Orthros of the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman taken from Fr. Ephraim Lash at: http://www.anastasis.org.uk/SamarSun.htm)

Christ is risen from the dead, by death, trampling down upon death, and to those in the tombs, bestowing life!

Truly the Lord is risen!