testimony from heaven before you all, saying: *This is my beloved Son* (Matt. 3:17). Regarding me John cried out: *Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world* (John 1:29). For Christ is truly the Lamb, who today ascended into the temple; and John uttered the voice of truth concerning him. For since he was a voice, he praised the Word as was right; since he was a lamp, he displayed the sun’s rays; as a forerunner he indicated the coming one, as brightness he preached the dawn, as a soldier he proclaimed the King’s name. *Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.* The Lamb whom a lamb, the Virgin, conceived without seed and bore without any corruption; the manger took Him as green pasture, received Him as a child, washed Him, John baptized Him; Judas sold Him to the Jews, Pilate slaughtered Him, the tomb produced Him, and we have received you at the feast, and He received you all, those who have come from the transgression of Adam, clothing you in a cloak. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
ON THE SAMARITAN WOMAN. ON THE DAY OF MID-PENTECOST.
A Come then today, beloved, as divine grace grants, let us approach the evangelical treasures; for the desire to learn such things adorns the soul and extends earthly affection even unto heaven. For the desire to learn made that marvelous Samaritan woman a bearer of God from a water-carrier; for having found the treasure of teachings, she ran to it; or rather, she did not find it, but was found. For Christ did not ascend B so that He might be sought out by the cares of the needy, but He Himself was as if in labor to offer help to each one; with intent soul He was healing the paralyzed, sympathizing with those feverish, considering the calamity of the blind His own, bearing the care of the lepers, running to the aid of the demon-possessed, washing the filthy souls of all, a teacher of water-carriers. For then, tired from the journey, He was sitting by the well: *Jesus, it says, being tired from the journey, was sitting thus above the well.* C *And the hour was about the sixth* (John 4:6). An immense insatiability of kindness is shown; first, because being tired He was solicitously caring for the salvation of the Samaritan; second, because He was sitting, awaiting the salvation of the one approaching; third, because, intent on this matter, He was passing over the time for luncheon. *The hour was, it says, about the sixth.* For although He was God, that which appeared was surely involved in human affections: for He was growing weary, He was subject to sleep, He was vexed by hunger, because He had every affinity with us except sin. Yet in Him the eagerness D to confer salvation to men was overcoming the weariness of the body. But the one who needed the help of that weary One was delayed; nor was the latter, who had need of nothing, awaiting any the less willingly. He was burning with the midday heat; and observing the arrival of her who was to be saved. For He was sitting, it says, above the well; and He was not sitting reclined, awaiting prey, but desiring to confer salvation, He was ready to receive the Samaritan. But she was coming out of her house, with a slow, feminine, and relaxed step, carrying a water-jar, so that she might observe the fruits of the land, often halting her step. The tireless scout, whom she was not seeing before, that learned hunter, hiding His own benefit, appears as if needy: for, *Jesus says, it says, Woman, give me to drink.* He sows the voice, like a dove turning the grain: *Give me to drink.* He feigns thirst, He who had come to mix the cup of salvation for her; or rather, if someone might examine the voice more subtly, the thirst of the Lord was true: for He was thirsting for her salvation, and rightly was He crying out to her: *Give me to drink.* You have, He says, an occult fountain of probity within you; from the river let loose from there, give me a drink. But the woman was not grasping the riddles, and was attending only to the voice: *How do you, being a Jew, ask to drink from me, who am a Samaritan woman?* Because of the weariness of the journey, a doctrinal correction had already come to Christ; but since He had once decided to take up our things, what was happening had to be endured. Therefore He brings a rebuke to the Samaritan. For willingly He had lowered Himself according to dignity, so that He might raise the soul of the sinner from base sense. A certain common vileness of the sinner was detaining the Samaritan; she was stained by a meretricious life, she had admitted one lover after another, her nuptials were times of love, she was joined to paramours: always a widow and a new bride; or rather, neither purely a widow, nor purely a bride: for she had not been separated by death from the first, nor had she been joined to the following by legitimate nuptials. The Lord confirms this fact to her: *You have said well, That I have no husband: for you have had five husbands; and now whom you have, is not your husband* (John 4:17-18). This you have said truly. But there was a pearl submerged in mud; which such a merchant was not ignorant of: for He was displaying the rays of the soul in His words. *How do you, He says, being a Jew, ask to drink from me, who am a Samaritan woman?* How do you? In that, *You*, she is angry. How do you ask to drink from me? If indeed you feel the same as I do, I would assent to your petition, but if you desire Judaic things, do not seek a benefit from outsiders, do not demand a gift which you avoid. The Samaritan thinks that she is going to lead the Lord to the cult of the Samaritans on account of the necessity of thirst; but she did not know that she was tied by His words as if by chains; but she was being tied by her own response made to the Lord, or rather by the voices of the Lord addressing her: *If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, Give me to drink; you perhaps would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.* Who, it says, do you reproach my thirst, and call me a Jew not worthy of you; learn that you are far wide of the mark in your knowledge of me. You do not know my true generation, you do not know how great is the desire in me to bring forth goods, you do not know from how great a fountain the rivers flow from me: for if you knew, perhaps you would have asked; now indeed I do not rebuke the ignorant, I give to the one asking. He excites the non-thirsty to thirst; He leads the one giving drink to the necessity of drinking. Therefore the woman was wounded by the words, and taken by the desire for the water. For falling down before the Lord, she was saying, *Lord, give me this water, so that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.* She who before was being asked to give drink, now asks that drink be given to her: for well-born souls are easily instructed: such was the soul of this blessed Samaritan; such are the customs cleansed from the thorns of incredulity, and not detained by Judaic jealousy. For she who was awaiting the Messiah, having obtained His divine doctrine, believed sincerely: and not only did she obtain the gift, but she also persuaded her fellow citizens that they should run to Him, preaching in an apostolic manner: *Come, see a man, who told me all things whatsoever I have done: is not he the Christ?* (Ibid. v. 29). O wise woman! She knew that a woman’s testimony would not be admissible: therefore she draws forth the men of her city as witnesses, so that she might be the cause of salvation for many. Therefore the evangelist says: *Then from that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman testifying: That he told me all things whatsoever I have done. When therefore the Samaritans had come to him, they asked him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his speech: and they were saying to the woman, That now we do not believe because of your speech: for we ourselves have heard and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world, Christ* (Ibid. v. 39-42). You see, beloved, the thirst of Christ, and how He had as food and drink the salvation of those believing in Him. For, *My food is, He says, to do the will of Him who sent me, the Father, and to complete His work* (Ibid. v. 34). Therefore, being thirsty Himself, He gives the drink of water to the Samaritan: she indeed, drawing it abundantly, poured out the Lord's gift to her fellow citizens. By this, the nation of Abraham is shown to be more inept at learning than the Samaritan; for not even those things which were being taught in the temple were helping the Jews: to this one, however, to the well
745 SPURIA.
ON THE WOMAN WHO WAS A SINNER, WHO ANOINTED THE LORD WITH OINTMENT, AND ON THE PHARISEE. ON HOLY AND GREAT WEDNESDAY.
A Christ recently refreshed us sufficiently while being entertained at Zacchaeus's house. For where Christ is entertained and reclines with men, and enjoys both our place and our table, everything is brought to the consideration of joy. For what tax-collector, or harlot, or one of those who have committed unspeakable evils, seeing the Creator of heaven and earth condescend to a toll-house, and taking into His hands the bread that is the gift of the stalks of grain, and blessing the wine-presses in the companionship of drinking for the Giver of the clusters of grapes, would not deem the event a feast and a public celebration? Truly this is a feast, this is truly the joy of an angelic banquet, for the Master to be seen enjoying a common table with servants, God with men, the Judge with those who are accountable. B For this reason He came upon the earth, not abandoning heaven as an empty place, and became man, not divesting Himself of being God, so that even while traversing the sea, He might pull up from the depths of sin those who were being tossed about in the ocean of life; and by going around villages and cities, and running through narrow alleys, and trackless places, and roads, He might lead back to His own flock those wandering at the crossroads like sheep without a shepherd. For He Himself is the one seeking the lost sheep, who left the ninety-nine, and arrived for the search of the one. For He was seeking the one, neither despising the many nor preferring the one to the multitude; but He left the ninety-nine; for He saw them safely housed in the fold; but He went around seeking the one, so that it might not become a meal for the devil. For a sheep without a shepherd is a meal ready for wild beasts; and a soul without a seal is easily vulnerable to demons. C Whence, recently, He snatched Zacchaeus, as a sheep from the mouth of a wolf, and joined him to the fold, and deemed him worthy of a seal. For just as a shepherd desiring to catch a sheep that has wandered off, being a tame animal, so that it might move around freely, drags the one that has jumped away gently; so too did the Word of God drop the flesh, which He took from the Virgin, like a sheep in a pasture, at the table of Zacchaeus, so that by the common law of the banquet, having drawn him toward communion, He might secretly join him to His own flock. But not understanding this, the Pharisees murmured, seeing Him eating with tax-collectors. But let those men, like an old wineskin, be rent; for they are not able to receive the new wine D of the teaching; but let us follow in the footsteps of the lover-of-mankind shepherd. For the same who joined Zacchaeus the tax-collector to the flock of the apostles, also snatched the harlot and sinner, the worker of myriad evils, as a ewe-lamb from the throat of the devil, and restored her to the undisturbed fold. In order that you may know both the philanthropy of Christ, and the irrationality of the Pharisees, and the recantation of the sinner, I will set before you the Gospel inquiries themselves; for if you attend to the flow of the reading, you will easily grasp the meaning of the interpretation. And it says: "And one of the Pharisees asked Jesus that He might eat with him. And having entered into the house of the Pharisee, He reclined" (Luke 7. 36). O unspeakable grace! O unspeakable philanthropy! He is entertained with a Pharisee, and He does not shake off tax-collectors, and He receives harlots, and He speaks with Samaritans, and He deems the Canaanite worthy of speech, and He grants the hem of His garment to the woman with the flow of blood. 801 Yes, for He is a physician, touching all the passions, so that He might benefit all, bad and good, the ungrateful and the grateful. Whence even now, being called by the Pharisee, He enters into a house until then full of evils. For where there is a Pharisee, there is a base of operations for wickedness, a lodging for sin, a reception for arrogance. But even with the house being disposed in this way, the Lord does not disdain to arrive; and reasonably so. For just as the sun is not harmed by casting its own rays upon the mire; but on the contrary, it even wipes away the foulness that is in it, while appropriating nothing of it to itself; so too Christ, as the Sun of righteousness, occupies every place, even the profane, and consumes the foul sin with His rays of goodness, enduring no insult, no diminution, no defilement, according to the principle of His divinity. Whence He easily consented to the Pharisee who was calling Him, remaining calm, silent, leaving his life unrebuked; first, to sanctify those who had been invited, and the one who had invited Him, the arrangement of the house, the foods of the luxury; then, showing that the incarnation was not a phantom, from the reclining, the eating, the drinking, the consumption of the dishes. But otherwise, because the harlot was about to approach, and to show that warm and burning manner of repentance, for this reason He consented quickly to the Pharisee who was calling; so that, having lamented her own evils before the scribes and Pharisees, she might teach them how it is necessary for sinners who are dejected over their sins to appease God. "For behold," he says, "a woman in the city, who was a sinner." A woman, the sinner, the first net of the devil, the introduction of error, the teacher of transgression, who had become a helper, but was revealed as an enemy, who was by nature beautiful, but by choice was revealed as evil, the agent of death, who showed the beauty of the tree, and destroyed the whole paradise. "And behold a woman," he says, "in the city, who was a sinner," bearing the burdens of Eve, and weighed down by many evils. I will tell of the abundance of her former evils, so that you may know her luxury. God, having taken a bone from the side of Adam, and having made this flesh, fashioned Eve, and having called her woman, gave her as a helper to Adam. But after the sin and the transgression of the law, and the being cast out of paradise, and the receiving of death as the penalty, so that the race might not perish, being consumed by death, marriage is sent out against death, so that the one might sow, and the other reap, the one might cut, and the other sprout. And that after being subjected to death, the grace of marriage was given, is clear from Adam being joined to Eve after the exit from paradise. For it is written: "After the going out from paradise, then Adam knew his woman." Before the sin, therefore, there was virginity, keeping immaculate the robe of nature; but after the transgression, after the sentence of death, marriage was introduced, so that, drawing water, it might overcome death by sprouting, and might defeat it by blossoming. Since then the law of marriage was given for the succession of the race and the increase of nature, for man it sowed pleasure, and it made the petulant [appetite]; not so that they might be incited for harlot-like unions, but so that they might be lawfully joined for marriage. Whence the lawful union of marriage is honorable before God, but that which is performed for the sake of the pleasures is subjected to death. "For marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge." Therefore those who, for the sake of bearing children, lawfully mingle with their husbands are blameless, like Sarah and Rebecca and Rachel, and if any other from her; but those who, by reason of lust, excite the young to intemperance, as defiling the temple of God, are handed over to destruction. "For if anyone," he says, "defiles the temple of God, him will God destroy." And this sinner who was in their hands was one of these. For, having peddled her nature, and reddening her cheeks with dyes from above, and by artifice forcing herself to appear beautiful, she enticed the young to intemperance, shutting them up in the pit of fornication. I say these things not mocking her for what she did before, but praising her for what she has suddenly become. I say, therefore, what she was, so that I may show what she has now become; I blame her sins, so that I may show the achievements of her repentance. But this woman, who used her body blamelessly before, catching some with her braids, bewitching others with her tears, and enchanting others with perfume, but all of them from everywhere towards the—