By nun Matrona (Lukashova)
I could truly learn a lot from you, the Samaritan woman. Although you have sinned, you have opened your heart to repentance, piety, and being sure that a Holy Man stands before you. You spoke to Him about the things that worried you in terms of spiritual life. My pride is revealed when at times of spiritual failure and sin, I cannot always turn to God even with the shortest prayer. I give up and stop to search, I do not want to ask or to listen to God’s answer.
When you heard from Christ that he is the
Messiah, the One who was expected to come and the One you have been waiting
for, you left the vessels for the water and ran to tell others of what is most
important.
It is often difficult for me to leave
work for the sake of helping my neighbor, to do something together with otheres, or to go to
the church service. You on the other hand did not rely on yourself but asked
other instead “is He not Christ?” I heard about a golden rule, which states not
to trust yourself but have a hard time fulfilling this in life. You made it possible
for yourself and others to be saved with your tender and open approach towards
the Word of God amidst your daily tasks and work, while I on the other hand
because of my carelessness and negligence do not do even those things for which
I need to answer for. It is interesting that you were even as wise as the apostles
were since Christ sent them to harvest so that “both he that sows and he that
reaps may rejoice together”. Therefore, for God everyone has their own place
and their own task in the mutual path to Salvation, as we need each other. May
the Lord help us to understand this and to realize in in our life!
“When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus
made and baptized more disciples than John, (Though Jesus himself baptized not,
but his disciples,) He left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. And he must
needs go through Samaria. Then came he to a city of Samaria, which is called
Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now
Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat
thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of
Samaria to draw water: Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink. (For his
disciples were gone away unto the city to buy food.) Then said the woman of
Samaria unto him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask drink of me, who am a
woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus
answered and said unto her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that
said to you, Give me to drink; you would have asked of him, and he would have
given you living water. The woman said unto him, Sir, you have nothing to draw
with, and the well is deep: from where then have you that living water? Are you
greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself,
and his sons, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever
drinks of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinks of the water that
I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall
be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said
unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come here to
draw. Jesus said unto her, Go, call your husband, and come here. The woman
answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, You have well said,
I have no husband: For you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is
not your husband: that said you truly. The woman said unto him, Sir, I perceive
that you are a prophet.Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; and you say,
that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said unto her,
Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor
yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship you know not what: we know
what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is,
when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for
the Father seeks such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him
must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman said unto him, I know that
Messiah comes, who is called Christ: when he comes, he will tell us all things.
Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto you am he. The Returning Disciples
Marvel And upon this came his disciples, and marveled that he talked with the
woman: yet no man said, What seek you? or, Why talk you with her? The woman
then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and said to the men, Come,
see a man, who told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then
they went out of the city, and came unto him. In the meanwhile his disciples
besought him, saying, Teacher, eat. But he said unto them, I have food to eat
that you know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, has any man
brought him anything to eat? Jesus said unto them, My food is to do the will of
him that sent me, and to finish his work. The Harvest is White Say not, There
are yet four months, and then comes harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up
your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. And
he that reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit unto life eternal: that both he
that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together. And in this is that saying
true, One sows, and another reaps. I sent you to reap that on which you
bestowed no labor: other men labored, and you are entered into their labors. Christ
Is Savior of the World And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him
for the saying of the woman, who testified, He told me all that ever I did. So
when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry
with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his
own word; And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of your saying:
for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the
Savior of the world. (John 4: 1-42) The Reading on the Sunday of the Samaritan
Woman
CONVERSATION