Homilies on John 33.1–33.2

“Jesus says to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.’” Everywhere we need faith, beloved—faith, the mother of good things, the medicine of salvation; and without it one cannot grasp any of the great doctrines. Those who try are like people who attempt to cross the sea without a ship: for a little way they hold out swimming, using hands and feet together, but when they go farther they are quickly swamped by the waves. So too those who use their own reasonings suffer shipwreck before they learn anything, as Paul too says: “who have made shipwreck concerning the faith.” So that we may not suffer this, let us hold to the sacred anchor by which Christ now draws the Samaritan woman too. For when she said, “How do you say that in Jerusalem is the place where one must worship?” Christ said, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain will you worship the Father.” He revealed to her a very great doctrine, one which he told neither Nicodemus nor Nathanael. She was eager to show that her people's ways were more venerable than the Jewish ones, and argued this cleverly from the fathers; but Christ did not meet this question. For it was beside the point for the time being to say and show why the fathers worshiped on the mountain and why the Jews worshiped in Jerusalem. So he passed this over in silence; but taking away the precedence of both places, he rouses her soul, showing that neither the Jews nor they themselves have anything great compared with what he was going to give; and then he introduces the difference. Yet even so he declared the Jews more venerable, not preferring place to place, but giving them precedence on account of their understanding, as if he said: There is no longer any need to quarrel about place; but in the manner of worship the Jews had the advantage over the Samaritans. “For you,” he says, “worship what you do not know; but we worship what we know.” How then did the Samaritans not know what they worshiped? [Because they thought he was a local and partial god;] so at any rate they served him; so too they sent to the Persians and reported, “The God of this place is angry with us,” imagining nothing more about him in this respect than about the idols. That is why they went on serving both demons and him, mixing what cannot be mixed. But the Jews were free of this notion and knew him to be the God of the world, though not all of them. That is why he says, “You worship what you do not know; but we worship what we know.” Do not marvel that he numbers himself with the Jews; for he speaks according to the woman's supposition, as a Jewish prophet. That is why he put “we worship.” For that he is among those who are worshiped is plain to everyone: to worship belongs to the creation, to be worshiped to the Master of creation. But for the time being he speaks as a Jew; so “we” here means “we Jews.” Having then exalted the Jewish things, he again makes himself trustworthy, and persuades her the more to attend to what he says, making his word free of suspicion and showing that he does not exalt their affairs out of kinship with his own people. For one who made this declaration about the place—in which the Jews especially gloried and thought they surpassed everyone—and pulled down their pride, clearly did not speak in this either to win anyone's favor, but with truth and prophetic power. Since, then, he had for the time drawn her away from such reasonings by saying, “Believe me, woman,” and the rest, he adds, “For salvation is from the Jews.” What he says is this: either that the good things of the world came from there (for knowing God and condemning idols had their beginning there, and all the other doctrines; and even among you worship itself, though not rightly, took its beginning from the Jews)—so he calls these things salvation—or else his own coming. Or rather, one would not err in calling both of these the salvation that he said is from the Jews. Paul too hinted at this when he said, “From whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all.” Do you see how he commends the Old Testament, shows it to be the root of good things, and shows in every way that he is not opposed to the law, since he says that the foundation of all good things is from the Jews? “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father.” We surpass you, woman, he says, in the manner of worship; but this too will now have an end. For not only will the matter of places be changed, but also the manner of service; and this stands at the doors: “For the hour is coming, and now is.”

For since the prophets said what they said long beforehand, he removed this idea here by saying, “and now is.” Do not think, he says, that this prophecy is such as to be fulfilled after a long time; the events are already at hand and at the doors, [when the true worshipers will wor]ship the Father in spirit and truth. And by saying “true,” he excluded the Jews together with the Samaritans. For though the Jews were better than the Samaritans, they were far inferior to those who were to come—as far as a type is from the truth. He speaks of the Church, that this is the true worship and the one fitting for God. “For the Father seeks such people to worship him.” So if he sought such people of old, it was not willingly that he allowed those others their manner of worship, but by condescension, and for this reason: that he might bring them in too. Who then are the true worshipers? Those who do not confine worship to a place, and who serve God in spirit, as Paul too says, “whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son”; and again, “I urge you to present your bodies a living sacrifice, pleasing to God, your reasonable service.” And when he says, “God is spirit,” he shows nothing else than that he is incorporeal. The service of the incorporeal one must therefore be of the same kind, and be offered through what is incorporeal in us, that is, through the soul and the purity of the mind. That is why he says, “And those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” For since both the Samaritans and the Jews neglected the soul but took great pains over the body, purifying it in all sorts of ways, he says that the incorporeal one is served not by the purity of the body but by what is incorporeal in us, that is, the mind. So do not sacrifice sheep and calves, but dedicate your whole self to God and make yourself a whole burnt offering; for this is to present a living sacrifice. For one must worship in truth; the former things were a type—circumcision, the whole burnt offerings, the victims, the incense—but now no longer; now all is truth. For one must circumcise not the flesh but evil thoughts, and crucify oneself, and destroy and slaughter irrational desires.

The woman grew dizzy at what was said and gave up before the height of the words; and hear what she says in her weariness: “I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ; when he comes, he will declare all things to us.” Jesus says to her, “I am he, the one speaking to you.” And from where did the Samaritans get their expectation of Christ's coming, since they accepted only Moses? From the very writings of Moses. For at the beginning he revealed the Son: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” was said to the Son; and he is the one who conversed with Abraham in the tent; and Jacob, prophesying about him, said, “A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until he comes for whom it is laid up, and he is the expectation of the nations.” And Moses himself says, “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me; him you shall hear.” And the story of the serpent, and of Moses' rod, and of Isaac and the sheep, and many other things could be gathered by those who wished, all proclaiming his coming. “And why,” someone says, “did Christ not lead the woman on from these? Why did he bring forward the serpent for Nicodemus and remind Nathanael of prophecies, but say nothing of this kind to her? For what reason, and why?” Because they were men and were versed in these things, while she was a poor woman, untaught and unacquainted with the Scriptures. That is why he does not converse with her from these, but draws her on by the water and the prediction, and through these brings her to remember Christ, and then reveals himself. If he had said this at the beginning, when the woman had not asked, he would have seemed to her to be talking nonsense and speaking idly; but as it was, leading her little by little to remembrance, he revealed himself at the right time. And to the Jews who kept saying, “How long will you keep our soul in suspense? Tell us if you are the Christ,” he gave no clear answer; but to her he said plainly that he was the one. For the woman was more fair-minded than the Jews. They did not ask in order to learn but always in order to ridicule him; for if they had wished to learn, the teaching through words, through the Scriptures, and through the signs was enough. But she said what she said from an impartial judgment and a simple mind, as is clear from what she did afterwards. For she heard and believed, and caught others in the net for this; and everywhere one can see the woman's exactness and faith.

“And upon this his disciples came.” They arrived very opportunely, when the teaching had been completed. “And they marveled that he was talking with a woman; yet no one said, ‘What do you seek?’ or ‘Why are you talking with her?’” What did they marvel at? At his freedom from pride, his exceeding humility: that he, so distinguished, bore with such lowliness to converse with a poor woman, and a Samaritan. Yet, though astonished, they did not ask the reason; so well had they been trained to keep the rank of disciples, so much did they fear and revere him. For though they did not yet have the opinion of him that he deserved, they attended to him as to someone wonderful and paid him great respect. And yet in many places they appear speaking with great freedom: for example, when John falls on his breast; when they come to him and say, “Who is greater in the kingdom of heaven?”; when the sons of Zebedee ask that one may sit on his right and one on his left. Why then did they not ask here? Because all those things concerned themselves, so they had to inquire into them; but here what was happening made no great difference to them. And John too did that much later, right at the end, when he enjoyed greater freedom and took courage in Christ's love; “for this was he,” it says, “whom Jesus loved.” What could equal this blessedness?

But let us not stop at calling the apostle blessed, beloved; let us do everything so as to be among the blessed ourselves; let us imitate the evangelist and see what it was that produced such great love. What then were these things? He left his father, the boat, and the net, and followed Jesus. But this he had in common with his brother, with Peter and Andrew, and with the other apostles. What then was the special thing that produced the great love? He himself says nothing of the kind about himself, only that he was loved; the achievements for which he was loved he passed over in silence out of modesty. For that Jesus loved him with a special love was plain to everyone; yet he does not appear talking with him or asking him privately, as Peter often does, and Philip, and Judas and Thomas, but only when he wished to oblige and comply with his fellow apostle. For when the leader of the apostles made a sign and constrained him, then he asked; for they had great love for one another. Thus, at any rate, they appear going up to the temple together and speaking to the people together. And yet Peter in many places is moved and speaks more warmly; and at the end he hears Christ saying, “Peter, do you love me more than these?” And one who loved more than these was plainly also loved. But the one became clear from his loving Jesus, the other from his being loved by Jesus. What then was it that produced the special love? To me it seems that the man showed great gentleness and meekness; that is why he does not appear speaking freely in many places. And how great this is is clear also from Moses; for it made him the man he was, so great a man. For nothing equals humility. That is why Christ began the Beatitudes from this. As one about to lay a foundation and base for the greatest building, he put humility first. For it is not possible, it is not possible, to be saved without it; even if someone fasts, even if he prays, even if he gives alms with arrogance, all are abominable without it; just as, when it is present, all are desirable and lovely, and all is done with safety. Let us then be modest, beloved, let us be modest. For the achievement is very easy if we are sober. For what is it at all, O man, that lifts you up to arrogance? Do you not see the cheapness of your nature, the slipperiness of your will? Consider your end; consider the multitude of your sins. But perhaps you think highly of yourself because you do many good deeds? By this very thing you will lose them all. That is why it is not so much the sinner as the one who does well who ought to be eager to be modest. Why? Because the one has the constraint of his conscience, while the other, unless he is very sober, is quickly lifted up and vanishes, as if fanned by a wind, like the Pharisee. But do you give to the poor? Not your own things, but the Master's, the common property of your fellow servants. And for this reason above all you ought to be humbled, foreseeing your own fortunes in the misfortunes of those of your kind, and learning your own nature in them. Perhaps we too came of such ancestors. And if wealth has passed over to us, it is likely to leave us again. And what is wealth at all? A powerless shadow, dissolving smoke, the flower of grass—or rather cheaper even than a flower. Why then are you proud over grass? Does not wealth come to robbers too, and to the effeminate, and to prostitutes, and to grave-robbers? Does this lift you up, then, that you have such partners in the possession? But do you love honor? Nothing is better suited to win honor than almsgiving. For the honors of wealth and power are forced and attended with hatred, but these come from the free choice and conscience of those who give them; that is why those who honor can never cast them off. And if men give so much respect to almsgiving, and pray for all good things for those who practice it, consider how great a recompense, what a reward, they will receive from the God who loves humankind. Let us then seek this wealth, which always remains and never runs away, so that, being great here and becoming illustrious there, we may obtain the eternal good things, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.