Augustine Sokolovski
The Sunday of the Samaritan Woman is already the second "women's memorial" of the Easter season. Let us recall that the Third Sunday of Easter was dedicated to the myrrh-bearing women. They were women and disciples of the Lord. The Sunday of the Samaritan Woman is the Fifth Sunday. And it is dedicated to the woman who also became His disciple.
The Second Sunday of Easter commemorates one of the Twelve Apostles who lost the faith, and the Fourth and Sixth Sundays commemorate two different men, one of whom was paralyzed for thirty-eight years, and the other born blind. The women to whom the Third and Fifth Sundays are dedicated, on the other hand, by the power of grace, set an example of service in deed, like the myrrh-bearers, or in word, like the Samaritan woman.
How can we not think of the nihilistic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), son of a Protestant pastor, who asserted that women were always stronger than men. Let us recall that Nietzsche literally went mad with grief when he saw a horse owner cruelly beating his animal in Turin. After this event, the philosopher was never able to recover; his intellectual and mental capacities sank into darkness. A true "Shroud of Turin" from one who, in words but not in deeds, called for the renunciation of all mercy. It is impossible to renounce mercy, for mercy is God Himself, and humankind is created in His image.
All of them—the women who served the Lord in word and deed, the myrrh-bearing women, and the Samaritan woman—belonged to the circle of the Lord's disciples, whom He Himself had chosen and from whom He had already begun to build the Church during His earthly life.
In the conversation with the Samaritan woman, the call to faith in Christ the Messiah is proclaimed not only for the Jews, but for all nations. The opposition between impeccable Judaism and the faith of simple and lowly people is abolished.
This anticipates Paul's proclamation that in Christ there is neither male nor female, which, of course, was not invented by Paul, but, being an expression of the New Testament faith, has its source in the teaching of the Lord Jesus Himself. Jesus annuls the ritual impurity that had previously manifested itself in the fundamental refusal of the Jews to enter into contact, let alone speak, with the Samaritans.
The book of Revelation is often viewed with fear by believers. In fact, it is the book in the New Testament with the strongest Easter theme. Everything in it is about the triumph of the risen Christ. In Revelation, we read: "And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' Let him who is thirsty come; and whoever wants to take the water of life freely. Everyone who testifies to these things says, 'Yes,' says the Lord, 'I am coming quickly!' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!'" (Revelation 22:17, 20).
Thus, the living water of many biblical texts, running water and well water, which is capable of simultaneously quenching physical and spiritual thirst, becomes a prototype of the life-giving water of the Words of Christ, of the Spirit of the Lord, celebrated first in Baptism and then in the Eucharistic expectation of the Second Coming of Jesus. The water of which the Lord speaks in the Conversation with the Samaritan Woman is the water of His life-giving rib on the Cross; it is the communion of the Eucharist.
Orthodox Christians of recent times almost always forget this eschatological aspect of the Eucharist. The Holy Mysteries of Christ and communion are then transformed into a personal exercise of piety and a kind of metaphysical medicine. But the Eucharist, received in communion, is truly the water of life; it is a pledge and a sign of the Heavenly Jerusalem and of the approaching end of this world. History is now the expectation of the return of the Lord Jesus.
Like the apocalyptic mosaics of ancient Christian churches, primarily in Rome, history is the preparation of the throne. Similarly, as stated in the prayers of the Divine Liturgy, and especially in the Cherubim Hymn, the bodies, hearts, souls, hands, and lips of the faithful in the Eucharist become the throne of the divine King.
On the day commemorating the conversation of the Lord Jesus with the Samaritan woman, the Church, as a Society of Believers, invokes Him with words that, short and simple, can replace ordinary prayers. "Lord, always give us this water, the life-giving water of the Eucharist, so that we may never thirst again." Christ is risen!