Christ is Risen!
It is within the nature of any human being that we need nourishment, both eating drinking, since the moment of our birth till our very death. At first a baby drinks breast milk, then begins to take soft food, while an adult spends most of his life eating solid food earned in the sweat of his brow, and drinks water that is vitally important. A strong and vigorous man may live without food for about a week or even longer, and much less time without water, especially in our climate. In southern regions and in the Middle East, a person may die of thirst in hours—a healthy man may become corpse.
Survival, the struggle for bread and water, has been the crucial task of mankind throughout its entire history. New studies have recently emerged that try to explain the paths of human development. Everything can be accounted for by the presence or lack of food and water. Great institutions have toiled to explain this, and large empires have existed relying on this teaching. People used to say that if there are substantial amounts of milk and meat, cast iron and steel, if there is good medicine, then everyone will be happy and joyful, and will live almost forever. Millions of people believed it, and the doctrine that once dominated Russia is nothing new. It had earlier emerged in world history in various civilizations.
Today the Lord speaks about something absolutely different. He speaks about the water springing up into everlasting life (cf. Jn. 4, 14). People care too much about the material, but this does not bring them any happiness. Moreover, we know precedents of how care for the material, devoting all our strength, talents and abilities, leads to disappointment, the collapse of whole states and nations, their disappearance, shame, and downfall. This happens because people neglect what is most important, which the Lord speaks about today.
People lived two thousand years ago near Jerusalem and in other lands, and food and water were their main concern. Suddenly appeared a Teacher, Who rejected all their ideas about the meaning of life, about the strength that preserved any human life, about things that a soul really needed and that united a man with his Creator.
The Lord offers us a well of water springing up into the everlasting life. We just need to come to this well and drink from it. We have to embrace this Well with our faith and love and preserve it clear in our hearts and souls. Living waters will spring from him who drinks from the well. Having filled the soul with the grace of the Holy Spirit and God’s love, each of us becomes a source of this divine grace for everyone else.
This is the great strength and love that our Lord Jesus Christ has granted us. Having received this gift, may we not darken it and defile it with our sins.
Christ’s conversation with the Samaritan woman is His dialogue with anyone of us. Considering our lives and works of faith, we are closer to the Samaritans than to the chosen people, the Jews. We are like people who know something about God, but who have distorted this notion and live in their sins, habits and customs, believing that they serve the Lord in this way. But if we wish to fully embrace divine grace and become a well of water springing up into the everlasting life (cf. Jn. 4, 5-26), this is not enough.
Today the Lord speaks about food as well. His food is to do the will of the Father Who sent Him (cf. Jn. 4, 34). For all of us Christians, this is the very foundation of our life. If we care only about the material, we will die spiritually. We see in what terrible discord people around us, even Christians, live. Death is pervasive—it is both spiritual and physical—because we die of hunger and do not eat that bread, we do not do the will of the Father Who sent us. The Lord sent us all to preach love, truth, and the Holy Spirit in spirit and truth—so that people would worship their Creator.
Amen.
