But at that time these words of the Divine Teacher were incomprehensible not only to the people who heard Him, but also to His disciples and apostles. The meaning of these words became clear only after the Resurrection of Christ. Only then did both the apostles and His disciples understand that He was indeed the Lord of life and the Conqueror of death. And they went preaching into all the world. We, beloved, joyfully greet each other in these days, saying: "Christ is risen!

" — and we will greet you in this way for 40 days, until the day of the Ascension of the Lord. Just two words! But these are wondrous words, expressing an unshakable faith in the truth about our immortality, which is most pleasing to the human heart. Christ is Life! He spoke many times of Himself as the bearer of life and resurrection, as the source of eternal life, never-ending for those who believe in Him. Christ is risen! — and let our soul rejoice in the Lord. Christ is risen! — and the fear of death disappears. Christ is risen!

— and our hearts are filled with joyful faith that after Him we will also be resurrected. To celebrate Pascha means to know with all one's heart the power and greatness of Christ's Resurrection. Celebrating Easter means becoming a new person. To celebrate Pascha means to thank and glorify God with all one's heart and mind for His ineffable gift – the gift of resurrection and love.

And in these days we rejoice and joyfully celebrate, praising and glorifying the feat of the victory of Divine love. Christ is risen!! Let us open our hearts to meet him who suffered, and died, and rose again for our sake. And He will come in and fill our lives with Himself and His Light, transforming our souls. And we, in response to this, will lovingly follow Him along our way of the cross, for at the end of it, undoubtedly, our resurrection into eternal life shines.

Celebrating Easter means becoming a new person. It is this salvific state of our souls, beloved, that I wish for all of us from the bottom of my heart! 1993   Homily for the 5th Sunday of Pascha, O Samaritans In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! Christ is risen! Our friends, the feast of Holy Pascha has already come to an end, and I am now inclined to give it away.

And the Church of Christ, our guide to salvation, condescending to the weakness of our weakened souls, again calls us to the source of living water, to the word of God, which alone can revive our soul, spirit and body. So today, like any Sunday, we look into the immeasurable, bottomless depth of this storehouse, so that everyone can draw from it according to their strength and ability the water of life.

Today we have heard the Holy Gospel, which tells of a conversation between Christ the Savior and the Samaritan woman Photinia at an ancient well dug out in the wilderness by the forefather James. There is no need to repeat the plot of the Gospel narrative again. But as we look into the depth of the events that took place at the Spring of Jacob, we see with trepidation that these sources of life continue to operate to this day and in our time.

How many travelers passed through the desert and clung to the spring with parched lips in order to go on to the next spring? How many times a day did the Samaritan woman return to this well to satisfy the need for water for herself and her loved ones? The forefather Jacob himself drank from it, his children and his cattle drank, his descendants and the descendants of his descendants drew from the well, supporting life. But he (both then and now)

could not quench the constant thirst of those who came to him, for "... whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst for food..." — according to the word of the Saviour (John 4:13). But this single meeting of Christ and the Samaritan woman for the sinful woman and for the whole world turns into a meeting with the Living God, for here, at the fount of temporal life, for the first time the hitherto unknown source of Eternal Life began to flow into the world.

Here Christ for the first time discovers by Himself a new inexhaustible fount of living water flowing into Eternal Life. And this spring will not dry up and will not become impoverished, for it is not dug by human care, and nothing human can muddy its crystal purity and poison its life-giving properties. And this source on earth is the Holy Church of God, and its living water is the power of God's grace, forgiving, enlightening and sanctifying every person who clings to it.

And let us, our friends, talk today about this main thing. After all, for the first time in this meeting, at the beginning of His public ministry, Christ openly confessed Himself to be the Messiah, the Savior of the world. "I am" the Savior of the world – Christ. Christ, God and Man, came into the world to seek and save that which was lost. And He sows the first seed of the Gospel word among a people who do not belong in their beliefs either to the Jews, although they were waiting for the coming of the Messiah, or to the Gentiles.

Christ does not reveal Himself to the wicked Jews, but to the woman who did not know the truth, but was not malicious. The Samaritans did not know the True God, but their faith was alive, albeit unskillful and unconscious. And the question of where and how to worship God lived even in the heart of a simple Samaritan woman. Jews and Samaritans did not associate with each other, living in close proximity.

But for Christ the Saviour, for His teaching, given to the earth, there is neither Greek nor Jew, neither slave nor free, but there is a man to whose heart His love is directed. And the love of Christ is so evident that it conquers in spite of the age-old enmity of their tribes. “... woman, believe in Me with them, for the hour is coming... and now is, when true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth..." — she receives Christ's answer (John 4:21, 23).

Henceforth, not in Jerusalem, where the Jews worshipped, nor on Mount Gerizin, where the Samaritans gathered to pray, nor in Athens, where the altar to the Unknown God stood, but wherever there is a living human heart, thirsting for spiritual thirst, thirsting for truth, thirsting for God, it will meet God and worship Him in spirit and truth. And the thirst of the spirit will not be quenched by any of the earthly sources, but only by the living water of preaching the teaching of Christ and faith in Him as the Redeemer of the world.