Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

Christ is Risen! 

Today is the fifth Sunday of Pascha, the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, and the Gospel extract contains the unique and unparalleled dialogue between Christ and the Samaritan Woman.

The Lord was going to Galilee and passed through Samaria to find this great soul, who lived in darkness but was searching for the light. Man is a mystery and an abyss. Who judges whom and what can be said? So, the Lord sat at Jacob’s well near the city of Sihar – while the disciples went ahead into the city to buy bread and food – and He waited for the great lady from Samaria. She arrived at noon and the Lord began talking to her. He asked her for some water. She wondered though: how a Jew could ask for water from her. But the Lord wanted to get her to ask also for His Water, the Everlasting Water, His divine Grace, and His Divine salvation because He is the Source of Life and He gives the living water. He managed to get her to ask for the Everlasting Water. He brought her slowly to the knowledge of God and to His light. God is never in a hurry – the devil hurries.

5th Sunday of Pascha (The Samaritan Woman)

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The Samaritan Woman
The Conversation of Christ with the Soul.
John 4:5-42
2001
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The Samaritan Woman
She left her waterpot.
John 4:5-42
2008
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The Samaritan Woman
A textbook lesson in how to acquire the Holy Spirit
John 4:5-42
2009
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The Samaritan Woman
John 4:5-42
2010
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The Samaritan Woman
A textbook example of how to listen to God.
John 4:5-42
2011 

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SUNDAY OF THE PARALYTIC

Christ is Risen! Today is the fourth Sunday since Pascha and is called the Sunday of the Paralytic. As the Gospel extract tells us, Christ cured a man who had been paralyzed for thirty – eight years.

In Jerusalem, at the sheep’s pool, there was a lake that had five sheltered areas. And from time to time, an Angel of the Lord would come down to the lake and stir up the waters. Whoever managed to get into the lake first was cured. There were very many sick people there, as is always the case with those who are ill, and they bear their cross, as do their family members if they exist.

So, some people took the paralytic to the lake and left him there, alone and helpless. The Merciful Lord, who had gone up to Jerusalem – He would go up quite often – went directly there, because His eye had seen this man, and He admired his patience and his goodness, as his disease had made him both patient and calm. Many times, disease can become a great cure for our souls and our lives. Because the Lord sees everything, the present and the future of our lives, He went up to the man and asked him if he wanted to be healed. And the man answered politely: “Yes, Lord, I do, but I have no-one to put me in the water when the Angel stirs the water and before I can get there another goes in”.

The Lord liked the reply as the man had spoken in pain, yet politely and calmly. He did not condemn anyone else, he simply described what was happening. Then the Lord said to him: “Arise, take up your bed and walk”. The man obeyed and showed great trust in the Lord. His soul was open due to the pain and difficulty he endured because pain makes us open to all and he was ready to receive the Grace of God. And with the help of divine power, he got up – he was not cured by the waters, but by the Lord’s power – and he took his bed and walked, so that the reality of the miracle could be revealed and so that no-one would think it was his imagination.

The evil Jews began to condemn him. Most of them knew him, but none had done anything in the thirty-eight years to help him, and now that he was well, they condemned him. Because he was carrying his bed. Instead of admiring the miracle and giving thanks for it, and to seek Him who had accomplished it, they began the eternal moan, which many of us also have and make people suffer.

What did the man say when they condemned him? “The man who made me well, told me to pick up my bed. You neither made me well, nor did you show me any love. So rather say nothing, and leave me alone”. He then went to Solomon’s temple to thank God and continued going often.

On one of these days, Jesus Christ met him there and said to him: “If you wish it, do not sin again, because through your sins you remained paralyzed for thirty-eight years. If you continue to sin you may even lose your life and be condemned to eternal condemnation”.

He was so excited at meeting his benefactor that he ran directly to the Jews and said to them: “Jesus made me well”. He was so grateful and so overjoyed; more overjoyed because his soul had been resurrected and he had met the Miracle Maker, than because he had been healed. That is how it is. When we find Christ, who is Risen from the dead, that is when we celebrate, that is when we are happy and find ourselves in Paradise from now.

Christ is Risen!

The Paralytic

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The Paralytic: "Today Is A Feast Day For All Of Us Paralytics"
Archimandrite Tikhon (shevkunov) Sretensky Monastery, Moscow
John 5:1-15
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Sunday of the Paralytic. 4th Sunday of Pascha.
Wilt thou be made whole? A question we must answer at EVERY moment.
1999
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The Paralytic
2000

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The Paralytic
2001

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The Paralytic
Baptism explained
John 5:1-15
2008

A note about the life after death

The Sacred Scriptures do not tell us how the particular judgment is carried out after the death of a man. We may only get a partial understanding of it from certain phrases which are found in the word of God. It is natural to think that at the particular judgment the good and evil angels play a large role in deciding the fate of man after death. The good angels are the instruments of God's grace, while the evil angels, or demons, are allowed by God to be the instruments of His justice. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, it is said that Lazarus "was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom" (Luke 16:22). In the parable of the rich fool, the rich man is told: "This night thy soul shall be required of thee" (Luke 12:20). According to Saint John Chrysostom, the evil powers will drag it to judgment. In the words of our Lord, the angels of "these little ones ... do always behold the face of [the] Father Which is in heaven" (Matt.18:10). At the end of the world the Lord will send forth His angels, who will separate the wicked from the just and will cast them into the furnace of fire (cf. Matt. 13: 49-50). At the same time, our adversary, the devil "as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1Peter 5:8); the very air is as if filled with the spirits of wickedness in high places, and their ruler is called "the prince of the power of the air" (Eph. 6:12; 2:2). Based on these indications of Sacred Scripture, the holy Fathers of the Church from ancient times have depicted the path of the soul separated from the body as a path through spiritual spaces where the powers of darkness seek to swallow up those who are spiritually weak; therefore, the soul needs for its defense the heavenly angels and the support of the prayers of the living members of the Church. Among the ancient Fathers Saints Ephrem the Syrian, Athanasius the Great, Macarius the Great, Basil the Great, John Chrysostom and others all mention these things.