May the Peace of the True Messiah and God, our Lord Jesus Christ, be with you.
Brothers and sisters, today is Sunday, May 18th 2025 and the Gospel read today during Divine Liturgy is John 4:5-42 (you can read it here)
I am far from worthy to give a homily on this topic, but I can do my best to remember and translate the one Father Constantine gave today in Church.
Aware I am that some things will be left out since my memory is not perfect, but I got to write down some takeaways.
Living Water
5 Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6 Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime.
7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.”
8 He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.
9 The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”
When I first read verse 9, I didn’t fully understand why the Samaritan woman was surprised and rather shocked that Jesus was talking to her.
Father Constantine explained the full context of the conflict between Jews and Samaritans.
This conflict arose from a combination of historical, ethnic, religious, and political factors.
After the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC, deportations and resettlements led to intermarriage between Israelites and foreign colonists, creating a mixed population in Samaria that many Judeans considered ethnically impure.
Over time, the Samaritans developed their own religious identity — accepting only the Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Old Testament) and establishing a temple on Mount Gerizim — directly challenging the Jerusalem-centered worship of mainstream Judaism.
These divergences crystallized into mutual hostility, so that by Jesus’ time observant Jews typically avoided contact with Samaritans, regarding them as inferior, heretics, “half-Jews”, and used to make fun of them constantly.
Jesus’ deliberate engagement with a Samaritan woman (John 4) models a radical cross‑boundary outreach, challenging prevailing social norms.
The later parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29–37) further subverts Jewish prejudices by portraying a Samaritan as the exemplar of neighborly love.
10 Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
11 “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water?
12 And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”
13 Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again.
14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
Father Constantine explained that “living water” meant the Holy Spirit.
But the Samaritan woman didn’t understand this.
The association with water is extremely important because water itself is crucial for our survival, because we are water.
60% of our bodies are made out of water.
If we are dehydrated, our brains slow down, we increase the risk of injury, and we are slowly dying.
Without food, our bodies can survive up to 382 days.
But without water, maximum 5 days.
In the same way, you can have everything in your life, but without God — you will feel empty, without meaning, and eventually you will die.
The well mentioned is Jacob’s well, that is not a regular one.
It’s 131ft (ca. 40 meters) deep, and it has access to fresh water streams.
The Samaritan woman went out a noon, when it was scorching outside, to get water from this deep well.
15 “Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.”
16 “Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.
17 “I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied.
Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband— 18 for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. 20 So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”
In these verses, we can see that Jesus Christ, is not avoiding sinner, and people that built their own pseudo-religion (Samaritans) and He is calling everybody to Him.
In verse 19, the Samaritan woman also acknowledged Jesus as a prophet.
21 Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews.
23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus told her, “I AM the Messiah!”
In verse 22 we can read “You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews.”
This is meant to highlight the fact that even if Samaritans do their best to worship the True God, as long as they broke from the root, they are not in the Truth.
Salvation comes through the Jews, means that they have the whole history and the deep soil in which the seeds of our Faith can be planted to grow, and that the Messiah is also coming from Jews.
Now I feel to mention that the Jews from the Old Testament are not the same as today, because true Judaism stopped at the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Jews today are part of a sect that the Pharisees started in 70 AC, after the fall of the Temple.
In verse 23 we can read “23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
Here it is clearly mentioned that we MUST worship God in spirit and in truth.
“in Spirit” means that when we pray, we must be present, we must feel the fact that we stay in front of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and we must act accordingly.
Sometimes I catch myself praying before bed just to do it.
If I don’t do it, I will feel guilty, but if I say a quick prayer, I lie to myself that I am a good Christian and now I can go to sleep.
This is terribly wrong, and I am the worst Christian because I am doing exactly what the Pharisees were doing, treating everything as a formality.
If I don’t involve my spirit, my feelings, and my whole being into prayer, I am not worshiping God into spirit.
That’s why I always feel guilty when I stay up late… because when I’ll go to bed I will be either too lazy or too tired to pray correctly.
“in Truth” means that we must be in the True Faith.
Father Constantine gave some examples of people that call themselves Christians, but also believe in manifestation, new age, crystals, and all sorts of weird energies.
That person is not Christian anymore… they created their own religion.
That’s why it is crucial to have the Holy Tradition and hold it firmly (2 Thessalonians 2:15).
That’s why we need to respect the teachings of the Church Fathers, and be part of the True Church, which is the Orthodox Church.
We cannot just come up with Bible interpretations however we want, and if people disagree with us, create our own Church.
We must submit to the Truth, and the Church is the pillar and foundation of the Truth. (1 Timothy 3:15)
Similar to how Samaritans broke from the root, but still worshiped the True God, all these Protestant denominations are doing the exact same.
In verse 26, our Lord Jesus Christ confirmed that He is the Son of God, and Messiah.
27 Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, “What do you want with her?” or “Why are you talking to her?”
28 The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?”
30 So the people came streaming from the village to see him.
31 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32 But Jesus replied, “I have a kind of food you know nothing about.”
33 “Did someone bring him food while we were gone?” the disciples asked each other.
34 Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.
35 You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest.
36 The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike!
37 You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true.
38 I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”
This whole passage is a direct call for all nations to come to God, and also for the Apostles to go to them, because “the fields are already ripe for harvest”
39 Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me everything I ever did!”
40 When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, 41 long enough for many more to hear his message and believe.
42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Then, Father Constantine presented the following metaphor:
The well is God.
The bucket is our soul.
The water is the gift of God, the Holy Spirit.
The rope is the multitude of virtues we need to be able to read the water.
Woven into this rope are strands of humility, patience, obedience, love, forgiveness and many other virtues that we, as Christians, must have and develop.
The well is deep, and it’s not easy to lower the bucket in there.
Also when the bucket might be dirty.
If the bucket is dirty and our souls have been stained by sin, the water won’t be drinkable when we are taking it out, first.
But the second time it will be cleaner.
Third time, even cleaner.
We will repeat this, as many times as we need until the bucket is clean and the water is pure and drinkable.
The same with our soul, that must be cleaned through the Divine Liturgy and Holy Confession. (if you are not baptised, Holy Baptism comes here too)
Sometimes the bucket might be broken, and there might be some holes.
This is the alteration of the truth.
When you go to Divine Litrugy, but then on your way home you try to “manifest” things into your life, or check the vibration of the day for your zodiacal sign.
If you combine the Truth with lies, it will be a bunch of nothing.
If you don’t combine stuff, sometimes you might just miss something.
Protestant, for example, are missing the Divine Liturgy.
During the Divine Liturgy, the Holy Spirit comes into the Church.
During the Divine Liturgy, Jesus Christ, the Angels and the Saints are there in the Church with us.
They are missing these important parts,and the fact that after Divine Liturgy in which we worship God in spirit and in truth – we are cleaning our souls, and getting closer to God.
Father Constantine told a story about a monk that was nearly deaf, but he was still attending Divine Liturgy because of the contact we have with God during that time.
This journey is not easy.
This fight is far from being easy and comfortable.
But it is 100% worth it.
It will only get easier and easier, the cleaner our souls gets… but the only way we can do it is through humility, patience, obedience, love, forgiveness, prayer, and fasting.
Brothers and sisters, please forgive me for not being able to remember and reproduce everything I heard today during Father Constantine’s homily.
Next time, I will do my best to record it and then transcribe it.
God bless!