Homily One on the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman
By St. Justin Popovich
(Delivered in 1965 in the Ćelije Monastery, transcribed from a recording.)
By St. Justin Popovich
(Delivered in 1965 in the Ćelije Monastery, transcribed from a recording.)
Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!
Behold what unusual witnesses (the Lord) brings forth before us, before the face of the human race, concerning His Resurrection. Whom? Harlots! … Behold the Samaritan woman, who had changed six husbands, and the Lord made even her an Apostle and a witness of His Divine power, of His Resurrection.
Today you heard the Holy Gospel. The Savior, weary from the journey, comes to the well, and the Samaritan woman comes to draw water. Between them there unfolds a divine and wondrous conversation. The Savior reveals to the Samaritan woman the mystery of His coming into the world, the mystery of the Living Water. Around us, everything among men is dead. The Samaritan woman was astonished:
“What kind of water is this? Give me this water, Lord, so that I may no longer thirst, so that I may no longer come to this well.”
“I speak to you about the water of Eternal Life, living water… which flows into Eternal Life.”
And rightly did He say:
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink, and from within him rivers of living water shall flow,” and carry him into Eternal Life.
By the living water the Lord meant the Holy Spirit. And when He gave the world to drink of Him, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Holy Apostles, then men truly began to drink living water, water which heals from death, water which drives away every death, water which gives Immortality and Eternal Life.
The Samaritan woman sensed that before her she had a Prophet, and stirred up and bewildered she answered His words:
“I know that what You are saying will be revealed to us by the Messiah, the Savior, Who is to come into this world.”
And then the Savior answered:
“I am He Who speaks with you.”
Take heed, brethren: to a harlot the Lord reveals the mystery of His Person. To no one until then had He so revealed and declared Himself:
“I am He Who speaks with you.”
What a declaration — both extraordinary and fearful! The Samaritan woman felt that something great was happening with her and within her. She ran into the city to announce the news to the people:
“Come, see a man Who told me everything I have done.”
Could this not be the Christ? Could this not be the Savior? Has He not come into this world?
And when they came and arrived, they themselves felt Whom they had before them. And they begged Him to remain with them for two days. And He remained two days in conversation and discourse with them. And when He finished speaking with them, they said to the Samaritan woman:
“It is no longer because of your words that we believe in Him, that He truly is the Savior of the world, but because we ourselves have heard and known that He indeed is the Savior of the world.”
Thus began the Gospel of the Samaritan woman.
What happened with her? A harlot woman… She, she remembered these wondrous words of the Savior, began to follow Him, believed in Him, left everything and became an Apostle, began traveling throughout the world and preaching Christ as the only God and Savior of the world.
Not only she, but she also converted her five sisters to Christ. All became confessors, all became Apostles. And her two sons, Victor and Joses — behold, new Apostles, new Martyrs for Christ. And she, the former harlot, at the head of them all!
What is the Lord doing, what is He doing with men by having come into this world? He turns tax collectors, He turns the greatest sinners into Apostles. What sort of power is this, what is this? Who is this? Who is Jesus of Nazareth?
Behold, Galilean fishermen became wiser than all the philosophers and sages of all worlds. Who gives them this power? What is happening with the human race? Who is this that has entered among us? Who is this that thus drives out in torrents all demons and devils from the human world, from the human soul, from the human heart? What is happening with you, and with me, and with every human being?
Behold, Christ is here among us. God became man and, behold, gives us Divine powers. Having risen from the dead, having conquered death, He sent the Holy Spirit, that heavenly Divine power which regenerates men, transforms them from the greatest sinners into the greatest righteous ones, makes Apostles out of harlots, makes the greatest Philosophers out of simple fishermen. From every sinner who repents He makes a righteous man; from children He creates Martyrs; from weak women He creates Confessors.
Truly something new is happening with our earthly world. Truly no one has carried out such a terrible revolution in the human race as the Lord Christ. Men speak of revolutions, boast of massacres, boast of Genghis Khans, Tamerlanes, Hitlers, murderers of the human race!
Behold, the wondrous Gentle Lord Christ brought all Divine powers, brought to man as a gift Eternal Life, brought Eternal Truth, Eternal Righteousness, Eternal Love, Eternal Goodness, brought down to earth everything Divine, brought it among us men, and gives all this to us freely.
The Risen Christ destroyed death and granted Eternal Life to the human race! This is the refrain, this is the chorus of all the divine services, of all the prayers of these great Holy Days, because Pascha lasts forty days.
And today that power is not a fairy tale, not an invention, not a poem, not a dream. Here are the witnesses. Here is the Samaritan woman, the former harlot whom the power of Christ transformed into an Apostle, into a Saint, into a Martyr.
Who was it that transformed the greatest persecutor of the Church of Christ, the glorious and educated young Saul, into Paul? Who? That Divine power of the Lord Christ, the Risen Lord, Who rules both heaven and earth, Who rules the human soul and cleanses the human soul from every sin, from every evil and from every death and from every devil.
Who can do this in the human world, who can give this to man, to the human race? Oh, let the so-called scientists, philosophers, military commanders, emperors, kings, rulers, strongmen, tyrants of this world fall silent! What do they give us — what? what?! On a golden platter the poison of death; instead of Paradise — hell.
Behold, the Gentle Lord walks meekly among sinful men, walks through this earthly hospital; this whole world is for Him a hospital. All men are sick before Him, because everyone who commits sin suffers from sin, is sick with sin. Alas, not only sick with sin, but mortally sick, sick unto death! Every man dies.
But He, the Lord, gives Immortality and Eternal Life.
Behold, brethren, this is the power which sustains Christianity even today, and sustains it until the Dread Judgment. This is the power which conquers all persecutors and enemies of Christ in this world. This is the power which carried a weak female being, such as the Samaritan woman was — a sinner and a harlot — into this world through faith in the Lord Christ; and she, feeling herself immortal and eternal by the gift of Christ, was fearless before the emperors of this world, before the persecutors of this world.
She looked upon death as upon a dream, as upon a spider’s web, because Eternal Life was hers.
She felt the truth of Christ’s words:
“He who believes in Me has Eternal Life.”
She felt the truth of Christ’s words:
“He who believes in Me shall never die.”
You have faith — behold, you are stronger than death, because you are stronger than sin. And when you are stronger than death and than sin, you are stronger than every devil, who alone is the creator of sin and death.
Such is the Lord Christ: He resurrects from sin, and sin is spiritual death. You feel yourself immortal, you feel that you are an eternal being, and you look upon men as immortal brethren in this world. You look upon them as your brethren with whom you live in this world. How then can you do evil to them? Your eternal brethren — every man your eternal fellow-brother.
All of us go into that world in order there to inherit Eternal Life. And in this world we live as immortals, we live by the Lord Christ, Who conquered death and poured into our hearts the resurrected Divine power which raises from every spiritual death, from every sin.
Thus has He drawn generation after generation of the human race to Himself by that Divine power, by His Resurrection, by the fact that He is eternally alive. Through every Saint He reveals Himself in the world, through every Christian. Every Saint is a witness of Christ.
Behold, today the Holy Church, one month after Pascha, celebrates Saint Photini — that is the Samaritan woman. Photini was her name. The Church celebrates the former repentant and transformed harlot, the harlot transformed into an Apostle and into a Martyr. Her Life is wondrous and marvelous, the Gospel of Christ repeated for us, for each one of us.
In the time of Emperor Nero, in the sixty-sixth year, a great persecution arose against the Christians. Since under Emperor Nero the Supreme Apostles Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom, the persecutors began with great zeal to search for the disciples of these Holy Apostles and to kill them.
At that time this Holy Photini, the Samaritan woman, together with her son Joses, was in the city of Carthage in Africa, and with great boldness she preached the gospel of the Lord Christ.
And her elder son Victor was then at war against the Arabs, who had made war against the Romans. And he showed great courage and won victory over the Arabs, because of which Emperor Nero appointed him supreme military commander.
But not knowing that Victor was a Christian, the emperor sent him to Attalia in Asia Minor, with the command that he persecute the Christians.
When Prince Sebastian heard this, he said to Victor:
“Commander, I know with certainty that you are a Christian, and that your mother and your brother Joses are also Christians, since they were companions of the slain Apostles Peter and Paul.”
Victor answered:
“I shall do the will of the Heavenly and Immortal King Christ, but as for the command of the earthly emperor Nero that I persecute Christians — I do not even wish to hear of it.”
The prince then said:
“My brother, as a true friend I advise you concerning what is beneficial for you. If you are willing to judge Christians and torture them, know that you will please the emperor and will receive the property of the Christians. Write to your mother and to your brother that they not teach the Greek pagans so freely to renounce their ancestral faith, lest danger threaten you because of them. And secretly be Christians as much as you like.”
Then Victor answered thus:
“No, God forbid that I should do what you advise me: to persecute Christians so that I might seize their property, or to advise my mother and brother not to preach the gospel of Christ and not to proclaim that He is God. No, never! On the contrary, I myself shall be a preacher of the Divinity of Christ, just as they are.”
To this the prince said:
“I advise you concerning what is useful for you, but you consider what you will do.”
Having said this, the prince at that very moment became blind, and from terrible pains in his eyes he fell to the ground unable to utter a sound.
Then those present took him and carried him to bed. And he remained in bed for three days without speaking a word.
Only on the fourth day he began loudly crying out that the Christian God is the Only God.
Victor came to him and asked him:
“How has such a sudden change come over you?”
He answered:
“Christ is calling me, sweetest Victor.”
Then Victor instructed him in the truths of the Christian faith.
And the prince was baptized, and when he came out of the Holy Font, from the baptistery, his eyes were opened and he glorified God.
And the crowd of Greeks, who saw this miracle, became afraid lest something similar happen to them also, and they went to Victor and they too were baptized.
After this, news reached Nero’s ears that the supreme commander of Attalia, Victor, and the prince of Attalia, Sebastian, were preaching the teaching of the Apostles Peter and Paul and were bringing many Greeks to faith in Christ, and that the commander’s mother, Photini, together with her son Joses, was doing the same thing in Carthage.
This greatly enraged Nero, and he immediately sent soldiers throughout Attalia to seize all the Christians, both men and women, and bring them before him.
And to these the Lord Christ appeared, saying:
“Come unto Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Fear not, I am with you, and Nero shall be defeated together with his companions.”
And the Lord also appeared to Victor and said to him:
“From today your name shall be Photinus. (Photinus means one who radiates heavenly light, one who radiates the Light of Christ. Approximately in Serbian, Photinus means Svetozar.) For you have enlightened many and brought them to Me through faith. You moved Sebastian to martyrdom, and blessed was he who remained faithful unto the end.”
Having said this, the Lord ascended into Heaven.
And it was also revealed by God to Saint Photini what was about to happen.
She departed from Carthage with many Christians, arrived in Rome, and began to preach Christ.
And the whole city was stirred up, saying:
“Who is this that has come here with so many people? Who is this that so boldly preaches Christ?”
Meanwhile the soldiers brought to Rome the Saint’s son Photinus, that is Victor, and Prince Sebastian. And Saint Photini, before this, came before Emperor Nero together with her son Joses and the Christians.
Looking at them, Emperor Nero asked:
“For what reason have you come to us?”
The Saint answered:
“To teach you faith in Christ.”
Then the nobles present informed the emperor that Prince Sebastian and Commander Victor had been brought, and that they had renounced the gods.
The emperor ordered them to be brought in.
And when they stood before the emperor, he asked them:
“What is this that I hear about you?”
The Saints answered:
“What you have heard about us, O emperor, is true.”
And the emperor, looking at them fiercely, said to them:
“Renounce Christ, or you shall be killed by a cruel death.”
And the Saints, lifting up their eyes to Heaven, answered:
“Do not permit us, O Christ our King, to be separated from Your faith and Your love.”
Then the emperor asked the Saints:
“What are your names?”
Saint Photini answered:
“I, the first sister, am called Photini. Thus was I named by Jesus Christ my God. My second sister is called Anatolia, the third Photo, the fourth Photis, the fifth Paraskevi, and the sixth Kyriaki. And my sons: the first is called Victor, to whom my Lord Jesus Christ changed the name and called him Photinus, and the second who is with me is called Joses.”
Then Emperor Nero asked:
“And are all of you agreed to die for the Nazarene?”
The Saint answered:
“All of us shall die for love of Him, rejoicing and being glad.”
Then the emperor ordered that the joints of their fingers be crushed with hammers. And immediately an anvil was brought. The Saints placed their hands upon it, and the servants began striking them with hammers, and they struck them continually from the ninth hour until the twelfth hour. And three times the servants were changed while hammering upon the hands of the Saints, but the Saints felt absolutely no pain, nor were their hands crushed.
The emperor became confused and ordered that the Saints’ hands be cut off. The servants immediately bound their hands, placed them upon the anvil, and seven times struck the hands with swords, but they could not cut them off; instead, the servants themselves grew weak and fell as though dead.
And Saint Photini, seeing that the grace of God preserved them unharmed, rejoicing said:
“The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”
The emperor was perplexed and began considering by what means and by what methods he could conquer these Saints. And he ordered that the men be thrown into the darkest prison, and that Saint Photini and her sisters be taken into the golden chamber of his palace, and that seven golden beds and seven golden chairs and a table be set there, and that before them be arranged many precious objects, and gold-woven garments and golden ornaments and belts. Then the emperor ordered that his wife Domnina together with her maidservants go to these sisters and converse with them.
And Saint Photini, seeing Domnina, said to her:
“Rejoice, bride of Christ.”
And Domnina said to her:
“Rejoice also, my lady Photini, torch of Christ.”
Hearing the name of Christ from Domnina’s lips, Saint Photini rejoiced in the Lord, and embracing Domnina she kissed her. Then she instructed her and her hundred maidservants in the truths of the faith, and baptized them all. And she changed Domnina’s name and called her Anthusa, and her chief maidservant she named Stephanida. Then Saint Anthusa immediately ordered that all the precious objects and gold-woven garments and golden ornaments and gold-embroidered belts be distributed to the poor.
When Emperor Nero learned this, he became violently enraged and ordered that an enormous furnace be heated for seven days, and that Saint Photini and all those with her, both men and women, be thrown into it. And this was done, and the Saints remained in the blazing furnace for three days. Then the torturer, thinking they had been burned up, ordered that the furnace be opened and the remains of the bones of the burned Saints be thrown into the river. But when they opened the furnace they found — O wonder! — all the Saints healthy and unharmed, and they saw that the fire had not touched them. When the inhabitants of Rome saw and heard this extraordinary miracle, they marveled, and many glorified God.
And Emperor Nero, being completely irrational, ordered that the Holy Martyrs be given deadly poison. And the magician Lampadios was summoned to prepare the poison. Saint Photini took the poison first and said to the magician:
“It would not at all be proper for us to take poison from your hands and drink it, since you are unclean; but so that you, O emperor, and the magician who prepared this poison, may know the power of Christ my God, I shall drink the poison first in the name of my Jesus, and after me all those who are with me shall drink it also.”
And they all drank the poison, but it harmed not one of them. Seeing this, the magician was astonished. Then, gazing at Saint Photini, he said to her:
“I have another poison much stronger than this which you have drunk, and if you drink it and it does not harm you, then I too shall believe in your Christ.”
When they all drank that poison also, and no harm whatsoever came to any of them, then the magician seized his books of magic and threw them into the fire, and he believed in Christ and was baptized, and received the name Theokletos. The emperor ordered that Theokletos immediately be separated from the other Martyrs, led outside the city, and beheaded with the sword. And thus before the other Martyrs the unforgettable Theokletos suffered martyrdom and received from the Lord the immortal crown.
And the emperor ordered that the veins of the other Holy Martyrs and of the Holy Great-Martyr Photini be cut.
When this was done, the Saints mocked the emperor and his gods.
Then the wretch ordered that Saint Photini and those with her drink molten lead, boiling lead and sulfur, and that it also be poured into their ears.
But even this could not harm the Saints.
And they said:
“We thank You, O Lord our God, that by means of the lead You have refreshed our hearts with dew, for they were hungry and thirsty.”
Then Emperor Nero, astonished and confounded, ordered that the Saints be hanged up, and that they be tortured and their whole bodies scraped and burned with torches. But the Saints prayed, and by the grace of God showed themselves stronger than those torments.
In fury Nero ordered that the strongest vinegar be mixed and given to the Martyrs to drink. After drinking it, the Saints said:
“This vinegar of yours, O emperor, is sweeter to us than honey.”
Furious because of this, the tyrant ordered that the eyes of the Saints be gouged out and that they then be cast into a dark prison full of serpents and scorpions. And behold the wonder! All the serpents and scorpions died, and that terrible stench was turned into fragrance, and the darkness of the prison into the brightest light. Then Christ appeared to the Saints and said to them:
“Peace be unto you!”
And taking Saint Photini by the hand, He said to her:
“I am always with you. Fear not, but rejoice continually.”
And while the Lord spoke, something like scales fell from their eyes, and they all regained their sight, and seeing the Lord they worshipped Him. And the Lord, blessing them, said to them:
“Be courageous and strong.”
And He ascended into Heaven.
The godless Nero left the Holy Martyrs in prison for three years, hoping that in such severe torments they would end their lives by a bitter death.
After three years the emperor sent for one of his courtiers whom he had imprisoned there to be brought out of the prison. When the soldiers who had been sent arrived at the prison, they saw the Holy Martyrs healthy and strong and joyful, and that the blinded Galileans saw again and were healthy, and that the prison shone with light and smelled wonderfully fragrant, and had become a house of God into which Greeks gathered, listening to the preaching of the Martyrs concerning Christ and believing in Him. When the emperor heard this he was astonished, and sent servants to bring the Martyrs before him. When they were brought, he said to them:
“Did we not issue to you the imperial command not to preach Christ in this city? How then, while remaining in prison, do you preach Christ? Know that because of this I shall subject you to many and great torments.”
And the Saints answered him:
“Do what you wish, for we shall not cease preaching Christ, Who is the True God and Creator of all.”
The enraged Emperor Nero ordered that they be crucified upside down and that for three days their bodies be beaten with rods until their bones came apart.
After this had been done, the emperor ordered that they remain on the crosses another four days.
And when on the fifth day the torturers came to see whether the Martyrs were alive, they saw them upon the crosses, and at that very moment they all became blind.
Then an Angel of the Lord descended from Heaven and took the Saints down from the crosses, and greeting them left them healthy.
Saint Photini prayed to God for the blind torturers, and from that moment they regained their sight. Because of this they believed in Christ. When Emperor Nero heard this, he was seized with rage and ordered that Saint Photini be flayed alive. While this was being done, the Saint chanted psalms, saying:
“O Lord, You have tried me and known me.”
After they had flayed her alive, they threw her into a well.
And Saint Sebastian and Joses and Photinus had their entire bodies cut apart, and then they were shut up in an old bathhouse.
Then Nero brought before him all five sisters of Saint Photini and ordered that first their breasts be cut off, and then that their veins be severed.
When the executioners wished to bind Saint Photis, the fourth sister, before beginning to flay her skin, she did not permit it, but herself stood courageously while they stripped off her skin. The emperor marveled at her courage and bravery, but this only enraged him all the more, and the beast-like tyrant devised for Saint Photis even more terrible and horrifying torments. He ordered that in his garden the tops of two tall trees be bent down and that Saint Photis be tied to them, and then that the tops be released so they would spring back to their original positions. When this was done, Saint Photis was torn into two halves and gave up her soul into the hands of God.
Then the emperor ordered that all the Holy Martyrs be beheaded.
And he ordered Saint Photini to be taken out of the dry well and cast into prison. She grieved deeply because she remained alone and was not crowned together with the other Saints. And because of this she prayed to God for it. Because of this God appeared to her and, overshadowing her three times with the sign of the honorable Cross, filling her with joy, made her completely healthy. After for many days glorifying and blessing God, she surrendered her soul into His hands.
Behold, and in the calendar it is written only:
“Holy Martyr Photini.”
But behind those few words, behind that name — behold what suffering for the Lord Christ, what glory, what power, what might! Death has been conquered — this you feel from Saint Photini and from every Martyr of Christ. We possess Eternal Life, we possess Immortality.
O Christian man — you are immortal! You are already in the other world even though bodily you live in this world. Death has been put to death for you. We celebrate the destruction of death, believing in the Resurrection of the Lord Christ and glorifying Him, the Risen One. The Risen Lord, through every Saint, proclaims to us His wondrous Gospel of Immortality. Through every true Christian He assures us that man is eternal, that man was created for eternity, for immortality. That man was created to pass from this world into the other world with his soul at the moment of bodily death, and that on the Day of Judgment he will bodily rise and be united with his soul and inherit the eternal Kingdom of Heaven.
We Christians today, when Christianity is persecuted as once in Nero’s time, have countless examples before us, countless conquerors of death, countless true heroes, genuine heroes who are immortal. For only the immortal man is a true hero. Every so-called hero whom death destroys, my brethren, is not a hero. We Christians know of only one true victory on this ash-covered earth where men drown in the mire of pleasures and in the ashes of passions. We know only one victory, the true victory — the victory over death won by the Lord Christ when He rose from the dead and granted us Eternal Life. He, the Only Victor — and we after Him likewise unconquerable victors, victors over sin, death, and the devil.
Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
