PASCHA - Day Thirty Five — Our Blindness-es from Birth

 

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

 

CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN

OUR BLINDNESS-ES FROM BIRTH

 

“Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’” (Jn 9:2-5)

As Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth, - while His disciples only saw a puzzling theological problem. The Lord’s response to their question, Who sinned…? and His subsequent healing of the man indicate to the disciples (and to all of us) that they saw the wrong question. Their question should have been: How can we help? Or: How are the works of God to be revealed in him, to us and through us?

Let’s consider this approach to our own “blindness-es from birth,” or to those “blindness-es” that others in our midst might have, which make us or them different from the mainstream. Let’s say, we were never athletic, or studious, or we were always tone-deaf and not musical, or were really good at some one thing, like dedicating ourselves to one political cause, but entirely not interested in other causes; or we were always loners and/or not “the marrying type,” for whatever reason.

Do we accept ourselves and one another, as we are, with our strengths in one area and weaknesses or, if you will, “blindness-es” in other areas? Do we generally accept these common differences among us, without grappling with the theological “why?” or “why me?” or “why my child?” Or do we get on with life, and see how we can help ourselves and one another, when we can help, so that “the works of God can be revealed” in us and through us? I mean, the works of God like patience, love, compassion, humility, and, finally, Church.

That final one, Church, is the sacrament of unity, revealed through the unity of many different people, as St. Maximus the Confessor writes in his Mystagogy: 

For numerous and of almost infinite number are the men, women, and children who are distinct from one another and vastly different by birth and appearance, by nationality and language, by customs and age, by opinions and skills, by manners and habits, by pursuits and studies, and still again by reputation, fortune, characteristics, and connections: All are born into the Church and through it are reborn and recreated in the Spirit. To all in equal measure it gives and bestows one divine form and designation, to be Christ’s and to carry his name.

This morning I pray, Lord, help me to accept myself and others, in our differences, that we may see how we, together, can work the works of You who sent us into this beautiful world.

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Another fine meditation from Sister Vassa. But pay particular attention to the passage that she includes at the end from St. Maximus the Confessor (+662). This is considered one of the great description/definitions of the Church: the Church as the Sacrament of Unity, in which a multiplicity of human persons from every conceivable walk of life, are united in the Body of Christ. In the Church, the paradox holds true in a way no other human institution can claim: Unity in diversity; diversity in unity.

PASCHA - Day Thirty Four — 'Free to be wooed'

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

CHRIST IS RISEN!   INDEED HE IS RISEN!

Referring back to yesterday's Paschal Meditation, we discovered that Jesus is the heavenly "Bridegroom" that fulfills the "types" of meetings and marriages that occurred in the Old Testament around a well (Isaac and Rebecca; Jacob and Rachel). This theme of the true "husband/bridegroom" emerges again in the dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, when Christ asks her about her current husband. After letting her know that this, her sixth husband, was not truly her husband (Jn. 4:17-18), Christ will speak to her of the true worship of God. But if we pause on this someone awkward part of their dialogue - the personal life history of the woman of Samaria - perhaps we can uncover the Lord's motives in exposing her irregular marital history. In again turning to Brendan Byrne from his commentary on St. John's Gospel - Life Abounding - we find a very nuanced and balanced approach, which shifts away from moral condemnation, to the deeper issues of one's longings in life:

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""Feminist exegesis has rightly taken male interpreters to task for letting their imagination run riot in detailed reconstruction of the woman's sinful way of life. On the one hand, it seems impossible to avoid all sense of scrutiny of her way of life - albeit with Jesus as conversation partner rather than master and judge. Dorothy Lee observes, "These verses function, not to expose moral guilt, but to uncover the pain of the woman's life in her relationships with men." True, but such pain in human relationships is perhaps a symptom of the deeper "thirst" that Jesus is attempting to uncover, a longing for "life" that only the experience of intimacy with the divine can give. It is hard to eliminate from the conversation all sense of a need for conversion from a way of life that is to some degree morally suspect. The woman's dismissive disclaimer, "I have no husband" (v. 17a), has expressed the truth (v. 17b-18). She has had five husbands and, unsuccessful in all relationships, is ironically now free to be "wooed" and brought to the truth of Jesus."

From Life Abounding by Brendan Byrne, p. 84.

PASCHA - Day Thirty Three — 'Jesus comes now to woo a people beyond Israel'

 

 by Theophanes the Cretan, Stavronikita, Mt Athos, 16th c.

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

Christ is Risen!   Indeed He is Risen!

At the beginning of the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, St. John "sets the scene," so to speak, in the following manner:

"So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was the sixth hour." (Jn. 4:5-6)

Besides the deep historical significance of Jesus sitting by Jacob's well, what other biblical and typological themes are profoundly present in this scene? A very fine biblical scholar, Brendan Byrne, in his commentary on St. John's Gospel, entitled Life Abounding, uncovers the following:

"A particularly rich source of allusion is a pattern in the patriarchal stories where "courtship meetings," leading eventually to marriage, take place at wells. In Genesis 24:1-27 the servant whom Abraham has sent to Aram-naharaim to find a wife for his son, Isaac, meets Rebekah at a well and asks her for a drink. Generously, she offers to draw water for his camel as well. (Also in common with John 4:7-30 is the fact that the woman is carrying a water-jar - hydria; Gen. 24:15, etc.; cf. John 4:28 - and that the success of the mission leads the servant to "worship" the Lord: Gen. 24:26-27; cf. John 4:19-24). In Genesis 29:1-14 Jacob is beside a well when his future wife Rachel approaches to water the sheep that she tends. Recognizing her as the daughter of his uncle Laban, Jacob removes the stone that covers the well, enabling her sheep to be watered; then he kisses her, his cousin and future wife. These biblical associations hover around the meeting between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Already present as "Bridegroom" (of Israel) at the wedding in Cana and explicitly named as such by John (3:21), Jesus comes now to "woo," in the person of this woman, a people (the Samaritans) beyond the confines of Israel, anticipating in this way the first mission of the later church (cf. Acts 8:1b-25)."

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The scriptural text is so rich even before the woman of Samaria arrives to meet her "Bridegroom!" 

From Life Abounding by Brendan Byrne, p. 80

 

 

PASCHA - Day Thirty One — 'The Spring came upon the spring...'

 

Dear Parish Faithful,

CHRIST IS RISEN!  INDEED HE IS RISEN!

 

Christ ... the source of the breath of life for

   all, when he was

Weary from a journey, sat down near a spring

   of Samaria.

And it was the season of burning heat. It was

   the sixth hour, as the Scripture says,

It was the middle of the day when the Messiah

   came to illumine those in darkness.

The Spring came upon the spring, not to drink

   but to cleanse.

The fountain of immortality was near the

  stream of the woman as though it were in need.

He is tired from walking, He who tirelessly 

   walked on the sea.

He who furnishes exceeding great joy and 

   redemption.

St. Romanos the Melode

Kontakion of the Woman of Samaria 9.4.

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We can always trust that in the poetic theology of St. Romanos the Melode we will find an endless stream of images, allusions and types to fill us with wonder over the fact that the eternal Word of God became flesh. Here, in the encounter with the Samaritan woman (Jn. 4:1-42), it is the paradox of the Spring (of Life) coming to a spring in the wilderness, not only to quench his thirst, but to "supply" an endless stream of water that wells up to eternal life in its recipients.

PASCHA - Day Twenty Eight — 'Give Me This Water'

 

Dear Parish Faithful

 

CHRIST IS RISEN!  INDEED HE IS RISEN!

 

““Jesus said to her (the Samaritan woman), ‘Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir (Κύριε), give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.’” (Jn 4: 13-15)

At this point, the Samaritan woman does not yet understand what kind of “water” Christ is talking about. But I love how she immediately wants it, as a “spring of water” that will be “in” her, rather than in this well on the outskirts of her village, whence she needs to carry it home. And she believes that this Stranger can provide it, saying, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” But she hasn’t yet understood that her real “problem” is not physical thirst, which compels her to go to the trouble to “come here to draw,” but the spiritual thirst that has brought her far more trouble, as she has been trying to quench it in the wrong places, in relationships with men. As Christ will point out to her a bit later in this narrative, she has had “five husbands,” and now “has” a sixth guy, who is not her husband (Jn 4: 18).

I’m thinking today about this “spring of water welling up to eternal life,” which Christ offers to open “in” each of us, if we drink of His “water.” Unlike “drinking the Kool Aid” of merely-human teachers or gurus, my drinking of the “living water” of the grace of the Holy Spirit does not enslave or belittle me into human codependency. It empowers me to true usefulness to myself and others, as God, the Source of Life, liberates me from a crippling neediness or “thirst” for other people or things to fill that hole in my heart. Instead, He frees me to offer to others this very-extraordinary Something “in” me, but not “from” me, the grace of the Holy Spirit. “Lord, give me this water, that I may not thirst.” Amen!

Sister Vassa from her "Coffee With Sister Vassa" podcast

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This is a thoughtful meditation on "the spring of water welling up to eternal life" from Sister Vassa, in anticipation of the Liturgy tomorrow morning on the Fifth Sunday of Pascha - the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman. I, in turn, will focus on the reading from The Acts of the Apostles, specifically on Acts 11:26: "and in Antioch, the disciples were for the first time called Christians." Just what does it mean to be called - or to call oneself - a Christian in this day and age?