Homily on the Samaritan Woman

relieve me from the weight of my debts, and say to me, as to the harlot: "Thy many sins are forgiven thee" (Luke 7:47). For thou alone art without sin, good and kind, and the forgiver of sins; and to thee belongs all glory, honor, and adoration, with thy Father who is without beginning, and the all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now and always, and for ages of ages. Amen.

MONITUM

ON THE SAMARITAN WOMAN, AND ON THE PASSAGE, "JESUS COMETH TO A CITY OF SAMARIA, WHICH IS CALLED SYCHAR" (John 4:5)

^A Today Christ has proclaimed the struggles of the Samaritan woman, and it behooves our poor discourse to navigate the sea of her accomplishments. For I behold her faith, and I have decided to bring her praises into the midst, and to celebrate with you that mendicant and wealthy woman, that harlot and apostle, that wanton and faithful one, that woman married many times and endowed with many powers, she who corrupted many and she who by her services merited the only-begotten Word of God, she who was defiled and she who was purified, she who thirsted and desired living waters, and she who attained the grace of heavenly streams. For what says John the Evangelist, who thundered ineffable mysteries? "Jesus cometh to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near 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. It was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat" (John 4:5-8). ^B "Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey." Why then does the prophet Isaiah say: "The great God shall not hunger, neither shall he thirst, nor shall he be fatigued, and there is no searching of his understanding" (Isa. 40:28)? But Matthew the Evangelist also writes about him in the Gospel according to him: "And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterwards an hungered" (Matt. 4:2). And again, as you were hearing a little before, it says: "Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour." And one writer says the Lord hungered, while here it says he was even fatigued. But the prophet Isaiah declares, speaking by the Holy Spirit: "The great God shall not hunger, neither shall he thirst, nor shall he be fatigued, and there is no searching of his understanding." How can the consensus of the Gospels and the prophecy be maintained in these matters? However, neither was the prophet lying—far from it—nor did the apostles write things alien to the Holy Spirit and to prophecy; but because the dispensation of our Savior, the great God, had a certain double and unusual connection, namely from his divinity and his humanity, according to his good pleasure and will, therefore the prophet proclaims the power and magnitude of the divinity, ^C while the apostles and evangelists set forth the true dispensation of the body. "Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. The woman of Samaria saith therefore unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?" It is worthwhile, therefore, most beloved, that we investigate for what cause he indicated the place, and the hour, and the absence of the disciples: the place, "he sat by the well"; the hour, "it was about the sixth hour"; the absence of the disciples, "for his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat." Why then did he state the place? I shall explain. He was engaged in a spiritual hunt, for the sake of which he had betaken himself to that place, whence he could bring back his prey. Do you not see what fishermen do? For they do not run through all parts of the sea, but go to a certain place in which they know fish hide. For there are many places in the sea that nourish fish more than others. ^D Just so, our Lord Jesus Christ, the great God according to prophecy, knew as God that he could bring back his prey from there, namely the Samaritan woman. Therefore, as I was saying, fishermen sit in those places whence they hope to be able to catch fish: so also Christ came to that place whence he could catch the Samaritan woman, and through her prepare a great catch of men. Behold, I have indicated the reason for the place. But why did he state the hour as well? For he says, "Jesus, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour." Hear then, most beloved, regarding the hour as well. This Samaritan woman was a certain needy person, who was always seeking victuals to sustain her life, needy, I say, both in body and in money, though not so in religion and the piety of her soul. Thus, she would wake and run to the loom for the sake of the work, from which she also earned her living. But at the sixth hour, at the time when everyone was free from labor for rest, she would take up her pitcher and fetch water. The Lord, therefore, who knew all things, knew at what hour others were taking their rest, and she was accustomed to being free for the fetching of water; for that reason the Lord went at the sixth hour, seeing as he knew she had set out to fetch water, and that he could catch this spiritual prey for himself. Why indeed did the Lord send away his disciples? "For his disciples," says the Gospel, "had gone away unto the city to buy meat." That woman was a certain poor, miserable wretch, as we have already declared, and she could not have beheld a large retinue of attendants. But if she had seen the dignity of the Master, and the company of the disciples—the Master, the disciples, the crowd, the order, the dignity, the appearance, the splendor—perhaps she would have fled suddenly, and the prey would have been lost: she would not have dared to approach, the fish would have escaped the nets, and would not have been caught by the seine, but would have leaped away; for that reason he sent his disciples into the city. "Go away," he says, "buy meat": do you go and buy, I have another meal. "For my meat is that I should do the will of him who sent me, and perform his work" (John 4:34): you have things of the flesh, and I have...

[alt-version omitted]

^A spiritual things; for I have redeemed. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, says the vessel of election, Paul; I wish to hunt this spiritual catch with [the] waters. You have learned why both the place, and the time, and the departure of the disciples. It is therefore necessary hereafter to begin the following. "There comes a woman of Samaria to draw water." The Samaritan woman comes to draw water at the sixth hour, having ceased from the loom, to draw water at the hour of rest, and, as has been frequently said, at the sixth hour; since also for Eve, when she transgressed the commandment in paradise, the hour was about the sixth; and for this reason the Samaritan woman was saved at the same source at the sixth hour. Then the Samaritan woman came to draw water, and sees Jesus as some stranger, and as one only wishing to cool himself like a traveler, and sitting by the spring. She saw a man looked down upon, and she made no account of him. But God himself, who knows all things before their birth, having beheld the treasure of faith, says to her: "Give me to drink." The fountain of life, sitting by the fountain, asks for a drink, wishing not to drink, but to give. "Give me to drink, that I may give you the water of immortality to drink." For I thirst for the salvation of men; not that I may drink, but that I may give to drink. I imitated my own Father; for God says to Abraham: "Give me your son; offer me Isaac your son, your beloved, the only-begotten, for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will show you." But not wishing to take the son did he say this, but wishing to bestow his own Son upon the world. 2. For the son of thunder, the inspired John, says: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Give me the only-begotten, that I may bestow upon the world the Only-begotten; sacrifice your son, not that you should sacrifice, but that I might sacrifice my own only-begotten Son for the salvation of the world, a living sacrifice, well-pleasing, holy (Rom. 12:1). So also here: "Give me to drink," not that I might drink, but that I might give to drink. The woman says to him: "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask drink from me, being a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." The woman is accurate in these things, the harlot contends; in these things the harlot shows the keeping of the law. Such is the race of the Samaritans; it is defiled in fornications, yet they think they are cleansed in baptisms. "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask drink from me, being a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." They fill their soul with stain, and think to wash away the body. So also the Samaritan woman: having her soul imbued with fornications, she judges concerning the drinking of waters. What then does Jesus do? He did not shake her off; he did not say to her: "I am God from God; I made firm the heaven, and founded the earth; and do you judge against 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." You see how, little by little, he stirred up her desire into longing, 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 again the woman to him? "Lord, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where then have you that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and he himself drank of it, and his sons, and his cattle?" The woman had a great imagination concerning the patriarch Jacob (attend, I pray, with all accuracy); the Samaritan woman had a great estimation concerning Jacob, ^B and had 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. And not only this, but because he also wrestled with God, and was found strong, so that even God said to him: "Let me go, for the dawn has risen." And God, wrestling with a man, was saying: "Let me go, for you are my friend; and the dawn has risen." And he: "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." What does this declare, and what is the wrestling of God with a man, but that he was about to put on the flesh which is among us for our sake? What then does God say to him? "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but your name shall be Israel, because you have been strong with God, and shall be powerful with men." The woman therefore had great estimation concerning the patriarch; for this reason she said to the Lord, "Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and he himself drank of it, and his sons, and his cattle?" What then Christ? Behold the wisdom of the Master; behold the gentleness of the Teacher. He did not say to her: "Yes, I am greater than our father Jacob." Nor did he say to her, as he said to the Jews, that "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58); or again as he was saying, "Amen I say to you, that many kings and righteous men with the prophets desired to see what you see, and did not see" (Matt. 13:17). He said none of these things to the woman, but he suppresses the wrestling regarding the patriarch, and makes the contest stronger from the manifest. For if he had said to her, that "Yes, I am greater than Jacob; for he received the blessing from me, whereas I bestowed it upon him"; she might quickly have had to flee, not being able to look against such a height of revelations. Therefore he said none of these things to her, but makes the matter clear and irresistible from the things that are apparent. For what [says he] to her? "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water which I shall give him will never thirst; but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water leaping up into eternal life" (John 4:13, 14). There was a person in the midst of Jacob and Christ; but he left the wrestling ^C concerning the persons, and comes to the wrestling of the manifest waters, and of the non-manifest gifts. For if he had said, "Yes, I am greater than Jacob," she would have immediately fled, she would have been banished to the city, and would have leaped away before the answer, and before the word she would have taken the city, saying: "This man is wandering, some demoniac is he, rave-minded, he is struck with frenzy; being some stranger, and contemptible, he calls himself greater than our father, nay rather than the father who became of the twelve tribes of Israel, who received the blessings from God, who departed as a poor man, but returned rich because of the stewardship which came to him from God." But Christ was descending with the woman, and was yielding to the weakness of the woman, so that little by little he might raise her to the height of the better things. For just as those who hunt fish (for hear what they do, intelligently) cast a hook into the sea, and when they perceive that a fish has been captured, they do not immediately pull it up, but yield little by little, so that he may completely and carelessly swallow the bait, and when they perceive that it has received the hook into the depth of the heart and into the bowels, then they pull up the fish with more tension, those who previously had descended with it; so also has Christ 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 craving of her soul into desire, saying to her: "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water which I shall give him will never thirst; but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water leaping up into eternal life." He left the struggle of the persons, and henceforth he came to the abundance of the gifts, or rather he shows the superiority from the thing itself, above those things. What then the woman? "Lord, give me this water, that I might not thirst, nor come hither to draw." You see how she believed quickly, that the water given by Christ does not yet beget thirst? "Lord, give me this water, that I might not thirst, nor come hither to draw." Christ stirred her up little by little into the desire of his spiritual waters. She believed ^D that there is water which is drunk, and which does not beget thirst; which being partaken of, obliterates sins.

^C If thou hast a partner in the sexual embrace, let him be a partner in faith: do not receive the gift of these spiritual graces alone. “Go, call thy husband, and come hither.” For this reason I have come, not that I might save Eve only through the ever-virgin Mother of God, Mary, but that I might also call back the husband with me into paradise once more. “Go, call thy husband, and come hither.” Rightly, too, did the teacher of the whole world, Paul, most beloved, writing from that same rule to the Corinthians, say: “For how knowest thou, O woman, if thou shalt save thy husband?” (1 Cor. 7:16). But now let us reach the subject proposed. “Go, call thy husband, and come hither.” The woman says to him, “I have no husband” (John 4:17). And the woman began thereafter to uncover her sins; she began thereafter to confess, and to say: “I have no husband.” For I am now submerged in the depth of fornication and debauchery, and I have no husband. Jesus says to her: “Thou hast said well, that I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: this thou hast said truly” (Ibid. v. 18). But what is this, “For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband”? It is worth noting. The woman had five husbands, and they died: after them, she practiced fornication; wherefore no one would thereafter be joined with her as a legitimate wife. But since she could not restrain the fervor of her lust, she thereafter had him with whom she fornicated in secret; so that she was neither openly a harlot nor lawfully united, but had a husband in secret. She thought, however, that she would deceive Christ as if He were a man, and said to Him, “I have no husband.” Then Christ, who knows the secrets of the heart, and who knows all things before they come to pass (Dan. 13:42), said: “Thou hast said well, that I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: this thou hast said truly.” The woman says to him: “Lord, I see that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where it behooves to worship” (John 4:19-20). What prophet dost thou speak of, woman? Of him whom Moses wrote of, “The Lord thy God will raise up a Prophet unto you from thy brethren like unto me” (Deut. 18:15), or of some other? Is this whom thou callest, woman, He who reveals the secrets of the heart? For when she saw that her sins were revealed, she said: “Lord, I see that thou art a prophet”: which was the same as if she said with David: “Cleanse me from my secret sins” (Ps. 18:13). O remarkable humanity! He who sits above the Cherubim holds discourse with a harlot woman. “I see that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that Jerusalem is the place where it behooves to worship.” The harlot introduces a discourse on dogmas, and thinking the Lord is a prophet, she asked for nothing secular: she confessed Him as Lord, and did not request a supply of money. “Lord, I see that thou art a prophet.” She confessed Him as Lord, and asked for nothing beyond paternal dogmas. “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that Jerusalem is the place where it behooves to worship.” For on that mount Somor, Abraham rendered his son Isaac to God as a sacrifice; in Jerusalem, however, when Jacob was going down from Mesopotamia to Laban the Syrian, he saw in his sleep the ladder which extended from earth to heaven, and he wrestled with God; wherefore he said, “God appeared to me in Luza” (Gen. 48:3). Therefore, the woman touches on dogmas, and says: “Lord, I see that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that Jerusalem is the place where it behooves to worship.” And so the Lord answers her with the wisdom ^D that became Him. For because she thought He was a Jew, while she herself was a Samaritan, He did not wish to answer the interrogation, so that He might neither lie nor make the woman more harsh. For surely nothing else was proposed to Him, except that He might hunt the woman, and bring her over to the way of salvation: therefore He spoke nothing harsher to her, so that He might neither lie nor strike shame into the Samaritan. For if He had said to her that Jerusalem is the place where it behooves to worship, as Moses commanded the sons of Israel, He would have exasperated her; since, as we have said, the opinion had already prejudiced her concerning that mountain in Sichem; that it was there that Abraham was commanded by God to sacrifice Isaac. Again, if He had wished to gratify her, and say that this mountain was that one, and, "Ye worship rightly," He would have again uttered an untruthful word. Therefore, casting both to the ground, He leads the little woman as if by the hand toward that worship which was a little more spiritual, and says: “Woman, believe me, that the hour cometh, and now is, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father: but true adorers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore him. God is a spirit; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21-24). Hast thou seen the excellent doctrine? Hast thou seen the wisdom of the industrious doctor? “Woman, believe me.” See how He conciliates the faith of the woman; see how He gradually lifts her soul into heaven: He is not ashamed of the harlot's garb, but promotes the salvation of her soul. Why so? Because He “came not to call the just, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32): because, for the sake of the sheep that had perished, He did not desert the bosom of the Father, but with heavens inclined He descended to us, and became perfect man, and at the same time remained what He was. “Woman, believe me, that the hour cometh, and now is, when true adorers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore him. God is a spirit, and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth.” The worship of God is not circumscribed by place, but the divine knowledge of grace is diffused everywhere: the Jews and Samaritans no longer snatch the signs of the Law to themselves. For those who adore God must adore Him in spirit and in truth. No longer in alien holocausts, and calves, and rams; no longer circumcision and the observance of the Sabbath; no longer the temple, and the altar, and the scapegoat, and the holy of holies; no longer shadow, and cult, and feigned Sabbaths. “For your new moons and Sabbaths,” says God by the prophet, “and the great day I do not bear: my soul hateth your fasting and idleness and your solemnities. For those who adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth” (Isa. 1:13-14). All those things passed away like a shadow; the old things have passed away; behold, all things have been made new. The grace of things has been changed thereafter; I no longer permit those who adore God to be gathered into one place according to the law; seeing that I wish to diffuse the gifts of salvation into the whole world. “For into all the earth their sound hath gone forth, and unto the ends of the world their words” (Rom. 10:18). “God is a spirit, and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth.” The woman says to him: “I know that the Messias cometh, who is called Christ: when therefore he is come, he will tell us all things” (John 4:25). O harlot philosophizing about spiritual matters! O harlot having the sacred Scriptures in her mouth! For even if in body she is covered with the filth of fornication, in mind nevertheless she is purged by the proclamation and reading of the sacred letters. “I know that the Messias cometh.” But Messias, if you wish to interpret it, is Anointed. Therefore the woman says, I await the Anointed, whose flesh will be anointed by divinity. “When therefore he is come, he will tell us all things.” O spiritual progress! O woman who is a harlot, and yet knows all things! See how she flew from earthly things to the heavens. She calls Him Messias who was being sent, Christ who was being awaited, who was coming to procure salvation for the whole world; and again a prophet, and again Lord, she no longer calls Him a Jew, she no longer disputes about the gift of water, she no longer says to Him: How dost thou, being a Jew, ask to drink of me, who am a woman of Samaria? For the Samaritans do not communicate with the Jews: what then? “Lord, I see that thou art a prophet”: and again touching on dogmas, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that Jerusalem is the place where it behooves to worship.” See how she snatches the grace of spiritual gifts: see how she [alt-version omitted]

ADMONITION TO THE HOMILY ON THE MAN BORN BLIND

^A This homily has been relegated among the spuria by Fronto Ducæus, Savile, and all others who have expressed an opinion on it; and with good reason. For its style differs as widely as possible from Chrysostom’s manner of speaking. However, we do not agree with a certain recent writer who falsely attributes this homily—as well as many others—to our John [Chrysostom], assigning it instead to Severian, bishop of Gabala, without any authority; for in my judgment, it differs no less in style from Severian than it does from Chrysostom. For Severian’s style is meager and perplexed, and in the judgment of Savile, entirely "iron-like" [inflexible]. This author, however, employs a way of speaking that is clearer and simpler, albeit uncultivated. Toward the end, indeed, he argues against the Arians, and he appears to be an ancient writer; perhaps he did not write long after Chrysostom. The Latin translation is by Fronto Ducæus.