St Photini – Equal to the Apostles
5th Sun after Pascha, May 22, 2022; St. Photini – Humility John 4: 5-42;
Today we have the Gospel reading from St. John of the Samaritan woman at the well, St. Photini “Equal to the Apostles” as the Church knows her. The Samaritans came from the “other” 10 tribes of Israel. When the tribe of Judah along with the tribe of Benjamin returned from the Babylonian captivity (about 6th Cent. BC), and began re-building the Temple in Jerusalem, the Samaritans’ offer of help was scornfully rejected. The Samaritans built their own temple on Mt. Gerizim, but the Jew’s destroyed it in 120 BC. So we see there was some serious bad blood between the two nations.
It is remarkable that Christ being a Jew, is even here in Samaria. The first thing the woman at the well says to Him is “…Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” Quite the understatement. Christ Himself said that He was sent to minister to the Jews. Remember another Canaanite woman, who asked Christ to cast away the demon that was afflicting her daughter? Jesus says, (Matt: 15:24-28) “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” and “it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs?” Her wonderful answer, was full of humility, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” Her humility was rewarded by Christ and her daughter cured! We pray a most benificial prayer in our post -communion prayers when we ask the most holy Theotokos to”Grant me humility in my thoughts, and a release from the slavery of my own reasonings.”
All through the ages, the Fathers have seen humility as one of the most important virtues to cultivate in our journey to unite with Christ. It is a great protection against the mother of all sins, pride, which gives birth to all sins. St. John Climacus said, “An angel fell from heaven without any other passion except pride, and so we may ask whether it is possible to ascend to heaven by humility alone, without any of the other virtues.” He gives us three essential properties of humility:
- Acceptance of indignity with pleasure
- Loss of all bad temper and modesty regarding this accomplishment
- True distrust of one’s own good qualities and constant desire to learn.
In our present culture where self-promotion, self-confidence, personal fulfilment, and standing up for our rights are considered crowning virtues, humility is hardly considered at all, unless as a weakness to be corrected with positive thinking or assertiveness training. As usual, Orthodoxy is paradoxy. Take any of the “self” prefixes, and replace them with either “God” or “Christ” and you start to move from pride to humility, and do a direct U-turn into oncoming societal thinking traffic. Beginning to understand just how completely dependent we are on God, and how tiny our understanding really is, can be a good starting point. St. Maximus summed up the underlaying mind set well, “A person is humble when he knows that his very being is on loan to him.” We should be mindful not to hold onto our opinions too strongly, as we understand so little of what is really going on in any given situation. We can be quite easily self-deluded. The Lenten prayer of St. Ephrem, “Allow me to see my own transgressions and not to judge my brother” can be a good mental tool to keep us on a proper track towards humility.
Christ points out the Samaritan women’s past multiple husbands and her present “not married” situation to her. How does she react? When we are accused of something, our initial reaction is often to react defensively. We might expect her to react by saying, “Well yes, but it wasn’t all my fault, let me explain…” We are concerned that we look “ok,” respectable. But humility is realizing and not trying to cover up that we are really not “ok.” Probably a good working definition would be “You may be ok, I’m actually a mess.” It is only because of the patient unfathomable love of God that we have any hope. But rather than defending herself, the women reveals her great thirst for spiritual truth. “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.” Talk about a quick study! She then asks the question burning in her soul. “Who is right, the Jews or the Samaritans? Where does God want to be worshipped? How do we do it right?”
Christ’s humanity is descended directly from the Jew’s, and He is of course the source of all salvation, so He answers, “…salvation is of the Jew’s.” “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” Did you catch that? “The Father is seeking such to worship Him, in spirit and truth.” Are we responding? I hope so because we are being sought! Everything has now changed as Christ has come.
When spirit and truth unite, it is like a great fireplace which warms all who come close. The good solid dry wood stacked in the safety of the fireplace is the truth, the solid doctrine which has been carefully passed down to us through all the ages, from the Apostles through all the saints. The flame is the spirit. What we believe needs to square with what has always been taught by the Church, everywhere, and throughout all the ages. The wisdom of 2000 years of continuous Church understanding can be trusted. Our own new inspiration or the latest “revelation” of what God is doing – not so much.
Truth however remains dead and lifeless or even worse, cruel and judgemental without the flame of the Spirit! But spirit running enthusiastically outside of the fireplace, the boundaries of the truth, produces either a flash in the pan which quickly goes out, or worse, ignites anything in its path, having no discretion for the type of material (truth) it consumes. This produces a flaky, frenzied destructive fire that eventually crashes and burns out, taking along friends and family as casualties. Spirit and truth in balance are key. The fruits of the Spirit are, (Gal. 5:22) “…love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” not necessarily enthusiasm, ecstasy, and fervor.
Christ answers St. Photini’s question regarding where to worship, changing it from a “where” to a “how and Who” to worship, and then for the first time in the gospels, He reveals to her point blank that He is the Messiah. “I who speak to you am He (the Messiah)” clearly revealing Himself to be GOD. When someone tries to tell you that Christ was just a good man, or a prophet, somehow elevated like perhaps Buddha or one of the many supposed ascended, enlightened ones, remember this. Jesus clearly said that He is GOD, and the Nicene Creed tells us that He created all things. So, this leaves us with only two possible choices. Either He is who He and the Church claims He is, the uncreated GOD incarnate, or He is simply a complete lunatic. The Jews understood what He was claiming and crucified Him for uttering blasphemy. If His claim is not completely true, then Christ must be a raving lunatic, and certainly not worthy of being considered anything but deluded and mentally ill. There is no middle ground.
No other religious system has a founder that claimed He was the one and only God Who created all things. Christianity is not fundamentally about a good moral teaching, or doing good, or any of the benefits which are produced by connecting to the true vine of Christ. These are all by-products. Christianity is about the person of Christ. We surrender our lives to Christ, not some philosophy. Christianity is not a religion with rules and moral principles we must follow, but a living relationship with Christ, the one true and eternally living God who created us, and all that exists. We are created in His image, and only in Him do we have life. Only Christ is the way the truth and the life, and only as we unite with Him in communion and in spirit and truth are we brought to life and able to truly find life!
Saint Photini went on to be a great evangelist and brought her two sons, her four sisters, and even Nero’s own daughter Domnina to Christ. They all joined her as martyrs, St. Photini ironically by being thrown into a well and joining with her beloved Christ eternally at the well. Through the prayers of St. Photini, may we answer the call of Him who seeks all to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Christ is Risen!