ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

Exarchate of Parishes of Russian
Tradition in Western Europe

Finding Christ within

John 4: 5-42

Sermon preached by Bishop Basil of Amphipolis at the annual conference of the Vicariate, 25 May 2008

I would like to say something about today’s Gospel because it seems to me to have something particular to say about our present situation in some of its detail.

First, those of you who have over the years been coming to the conferences that we have held annually, will realise that on many occasions this particular Gospel is read during the conference – that is just the way the calendar falls out, but there is something very special about this year.

That is the fact that Christ meets the Samaritan woman at the sixth hour – that is to say, at the very high point of the sun’s power, in the very heat of the day, when everyone feels exhausted when life begins somehow to slow down and we find it quite difficult even to react. This incident takes place at, and in, the heat of the day.

Also, the Samaritan herself is quite clearly confused. She is confused on two levels. She is confused about her life, about the way she has been living, and is ready for change. She is also confused about her faith, about the real source of life which is greater than this life. At this point she finds Christ, she finds Jesus. And what he offers her in the heat of the day is water.

This is not the water from the well but another water which he is capable of offering her. And with that, and through her encounter with him, she is able to re-centre her life. She is able to find her place in the community and in the historical moment in which she lives, and she is also able to access those spiritual sources which will enable her truly to live.

Now it is just for this reason that we come together every year – in particular this year, when many of us, I believe, are finding it difficult simply to endure the heat of the day, and are looking inwardly for that cool water which will be for us a huge source of life. So let us identify ourselves with this Samaritan woman, and let us come to Christ – at this moment, and again and again – in order to find the true life that springs up from within us, because Christ himself is within us.

Christ is risen!