John Chrysostom, On the Samaritan Woman on Mid-Pentecost

In Samaritanam, in die mediae pentecostes

On the Samaritan Woman. On the Day of Mid-Pentecost.

61.743 Come then today, beloved, as divine grace may grant, let us take in hand the treasures of the Gospel. For a love of learning about these things adorns souls, and extends the earthly disposition towards heaven. For a love of learning made that wondrous Samaritan woman, from a water-carrier, into one inspired by God; for having found a treasure of teachings, she ran past; or rather, she did not find, but was found. For Christ did not wait to be sought out by the diligence of those in need, but He Himself travailed for every assistance; He was constrained by His care for the paralyzed, suffering with those who had fevers, making the plight of the blind His own, bearing about the concern for lepers, running to the aid of the demon-possessed, washing clean the defiled souls of all, a teacher to water-carriers.

For then, wearied from the journey, He sat beside the well; For Jesus, it says, being wearied from the journey, sat thus by the spring. It was about the sixth hour. A successive insatiability of philanthropy: first, that He was weary, hastening to prepare the salvation of the Samaritan woman; second, that He sat, waiting for the one to be saved to appear; third, that He spent the time for lunch in waiting for her. It was, it says, about the sixth hour. For although He was God, yet in His appearance He was for a time clothed with the passions of nature, feeling weariness, subject to sleep, troubled by hunger, having every kinship with us except sin. Nevertheless, the desire for those being saved conquered the weariness of the body in Him. The one in need was more delayed than He who was weary, and He who was not in need remained. He was burning with the midday heat, and He waited for the opportune moment of the arrival of her who was to be saved. For He sat, it says, by the spring, not even reclining as He awaited His quarry, but travailing to provide salvation, He prepared Himself in readiness for the Samaritan woman. But she, perhaps, was coming out of her house, proceeding little by little, using a woman's gait, relaxed, carrying her water jar, often stopping in the middle of her walk to gaze upon the fruit as in a field. The tireless and unseen scout, the skillful hunter, hiding the benefactor, appears as one in need: For Jesus, it says, says: Woman, give me to drink. He sows His voice, like a seed cast by a wandering dove: Give me to drink. He who came to mix for her a cup of salvation feigns thirst; or rather, if one were to analyze His voice more subtly, the Master's thirst is real; for He thirsted for her salvation, and rightly He cried out to her: Give me to drink. You have, He says, a hidden spring of gratitude within yourself; having filled a stream from that, give me to drink.

But the woman did not perceive the riddles, attending only to the plain voice: How is it that you, being a Jew, ask to drink from me, who am a Samaritan woman? After the weariness of the journey, a trial of doctrines met Christ; but for one who had once chosen to undertake things on our behalf, the events were bearable. For this reason He also bears the rebuke from the Samaritan woman. For He delighted in descending from His dignity, in order to raise up the soul from its sinful lowliness. A certain sinful lowliness possessed the Samaritan woman, she was defiled by a life of fornication, she took one lover after another, she had marriage for the duration of the passion, she was a bride subject to lovers, always a widow and a newlywed; or rather, neither purely a widow, nor a bride; for she was neither separated from the first by death, nor was she joined to the seconds by lawful marriage. The witness of this to her

In Samaritanam, in die mediae pentecostes

Εἰς τὴν Σαμαρεῖτιν. Τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῆς Μεσοπεντηκοστῆς.

61.743 Φέρε τοίνυν σήμερον, ἀγαπητοὶ, καθὼς ἂν ἡ θεία χάρις δίδωσι, τοῖς εὐαγγελικοῖς θησαυροῖς ἐγχειρήσω μεν. Κοσμεῖ γὰρ τὸ περὶ ταῦτα φιλομαθὲς τὰς ψυχὰς, καὶ τὴν γηΐνην ἐκτείνει πρὸς οὐρανὸν ἕξιν. Καὶ γὰρ φιλομάθεια τὴν θαυμασίαν ἐκείνην Σαμαρεῖτιν ἐξ ὑδρο φόρου κατεσκεύασεν ἔνθεον· εὑροῦσα γὰρ μαθημάτων θησαυρὸν, παρέδραμε· μᾶλλον δὲ οὐχ ηὗρεν, ἀλλ' ηὕρη ται. Οὐ γὰρ ἀνέβαινε Χριστὸς ταῖς τῶν δεομένων ἀνα ζητεῖσθαι σπουδαῖς, ἀλλ' αὐτὸς ἐφ' ἑκάστης ὠδίνει βοηθείας· συνείχετο μεριμνῶν παραλύτους, συναλγῶν τοῖς πυρέττουσι, τὰ τῶν τυφλῶν οἰκειούμενος, τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς λεπροῖς περιφέρων φροντίδα, τρέχων εἰς δαιμο νιώντων βοήθειαν, ἐκπλύνων ἐῤῥυπωμένας ψυχὰς ἁπάν των, ὑδροφορούσαις διδάσκαλος.

Τότε γὰρ ἐκ τῆς ὁδοι πορίας κεκοπιακὼς παρεκαθέζετο τῷ φρέατι· Ὁ γὰρ Ἰησοῦς, φησὶν, κεκοπιακὼς ἐκ τῆς ὁδοιπορίας ἐκα θέζετο οὕτως ἐπὶ τῇ πηγῇ. Ὥρα ἦν ὡσεὶ ἕκτη. Ἐπάλληλος ἀπληστία φιλανθρωπίας· πρῶτον μὲν, ὅτι κέκμηκε, τῆς Σαμαρείτιδος σπεύδων προετοιμάσαι σω τηρίαν· δεύτερον, ὅτι ἐκαθέζετο, μένων σωθῆναι φα νεῖσαν· τρίτον, ὅτι τὸν τοῦ ἀρίστου καιρὸν εἰς τὴν ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς προσεδρίαν ἀνήλισκεν. Ὥρα ἦν, φησὶν, ὡσεὶ ἕκτη. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ Θεὸς ἦν, ἀλλὰ τὸ φαινόμενον τοῖς τῆς φύσεως τέως περιεβέβλητο πάθεσιν, αἰσθανόμενος κό πων, ὑποκείμενος ὕπνῳ, διοχλούμενος πείνῃ, πᾶσαν ἔχων πρὸς ἡμᾶς πλὴν ἁμαρτίας συγγένειαν. Ἐνίκα δὲ ὅμως ἐν αὐτῷ τῶν σωζομένων ὁ πόθος τὸν τοῦ σώματος κόπον. Ἐβράδυνε μᾶλλον τοῦ κοπιαθέντος ἡ χρῄζουσα, καὶ ὁ μὴ χρῄζων παρέμενεν. Ἐφλέγετο τῷ τῆς μεσημ βρίας αὐχμῷ, καὶ τὴν τῆς σωθησομένης παρουσίαν ἐκαιροτήρει. Ἐκαθέζετο γὰρ, φησὶν, ἐπὶ τῇ πηγῇ, οὐδὲ κατακλινόμενος τὴν θήραν ἀνέμενεν, ἀλλ' ὠδίνων παρασχεῖν σωτηρίαν, ἐν ἑτοίμῳ τῇ Σαμαρείτιδι προη τοιμάζετο. Ἡ δέ γέ που τάχα τῆς οἰκίας ἐξῄει κατὰ μικρὸν προϊοῦσα, γυναικικοῖς χρωμένη βαδίσμασιν, ἀνειμένη, τὴν ὑδρίαν ἐπαγομένη, πρὸς καρπὸν ὡς ἐν ἀγρῷ θεωρίαν ἱσταμένη πολλάκις μεταξὺ τοῦ βαδίσμα τος. Ὁ κατάσκοπος ἄοκνος καὶ ἀφανὴς, θηρευτὴς ἐπι στήμων, κρύψας δὲ τὸν εὐεργέτην, ὡς ἐνδεὴς ἐμφανίζε ται· Λέγει γὰρ, φησὶν, ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Γύναι, δός μοι πιεῖν. Σπείρει τὴν φωνὴν, ὡς κόκκον ῥεμβομένη περι στερά· ∆ός μοι πιεῖν. Ὑποκρίνεται δίψαν ὁ ἐλθὼν αὐτῇ κεράσαι σωτηρίας ποτήριον· μᾶλλον δὲ, εἴ τις λεπτότερον τὴν φωνὴν μεταλλεύῃ, ἀληθὲς τοῦ ∆εσπό του τὸ δίψος· ἐδίψα γὰρ τὴν αὐτῆς σωτηρίαν, καὶ δι καίως πρὸς αὐτὴν ἐβόα· ∆ός μοι πιεῖν. Ἔχεις, φησὶν, ἐν ἑαυτῇ κεκρυμμένην εὐγνωμοσύνης πηγήν· ἀπ' ἐκεί νης με νᾶμα γεμίσασα πότισον.

Ἀλλ' οὐκ ᾐσθάνετο τῶν αἰνιγμάτων τὸ γύναιον, ψιλῇ δὲ φωνῇ προσέχουσα· Πῶς σὺ, Ἰουδαῖος ὢν, παρ' ἐμοῦ πιεῖν αἰτεῖς, οὔσης γυναικὸς Σαμαρείτιδος; Μεθ' ὁδοιπορίας κόπου δίκη τῷ Χριστῷ δογμάτων ἀπήντησεν· ἀλλ' ἅπαξ ἑλο μένῳ τὰ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἀναδέξασθαι, φορητὰ τὰ συμβαί νοντα. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὴν ἐκ Σαμαρείτιδος ἐπιτίμησιν φέρει. Ἥδετο γὰρ κατιὼν τῆς ἀξίας, ἵνα τῆς ἁμαρτω λοῦ εὐτελείας ἀναγάγῃ τὴν ψυχήν. Ἁμαρτωλή τις εὐ τέλεια τὴν Σαμαρεῖτιν κατεῖχε, πορνικῷ ἐῤῥυπαίνετο βίῳ, ἐραστὴν ἐξ ἐραστοῦ μετελάμβανε, γάμον εἶχε τὸν τοῦ ἔρωτος χρόνον, ὕπανδρος ἦν ἐρασταῖς νύμφη, χήρα τις διαπαντὸς καὶ νεόγαμος· μᾶλλον δὲ οὔτε χήρα κα θαρῶς, οὔτε νύμφη· οὔτε γὰρ θανάτῳ τὸν πρῶτον κε χώριστο, οὔτε γάμοις νομικοῖς τοῖς δευτέροις συνήπτετο. Τούτου μάρτυς πρὸς αὐτὴν