The Woman from Samaria

Today we are in the third week of the Holy Fifty days and the Gospel for Holy Liturgy is about the woman from Samaria.  The Samaritan woman is a loved character in the Coptic Orthodox Church and thus this part about her is read three times throughout the year.  We read it in the middle of the Holy Lent, in the middle of the Holy Fifty days and again in the Fiftieth days (the Feast of the Pentecost), so within 100 days we read this part of the Holy Bible 3 times and this shows how much the church loves this part.  The woman of Samaria chapter is suitable for the Holt Lent because she resembles the stubborn sole that was living in sin and then repented and pulled with her most of the people in the city of Samaria for the belief in the LORD JESUS, although there was a great enmity between the Jews and the Samarians (we will know about this later on). But why then the Church chooses the same chapter to be read during the Holy Fifty days? The Jews thought that they were the only people who worshiped our LORD GOD and their view of other peoples was that they were strangers to our LORD and idolaters. It is clear from this meeting that LORD JESUS loves all of humanity. HE loves the Jews and the Gentiles, HE loves the righteous, and HE longs to include sinners that are coming back to HIM, HIS heart is open to all, and therefore the Church calls HIM the Human Lover. HIS meeting with the Samaritan woman drew the attention of the Disciples in two ways: The first point is that she was a Samaria, the Samaritans were not neither Jews nor Gentiles, they believed in the Fife Books of Moses, but they did not believe in the Prophets or in their books or prophecies. They also refused the worshiping in Jerusalem and they had their own worshiping, and thus The Jews did not like the Samaritans, because they considered the Samaritans as corruptors for Judaism, and they represented a catastrophe for the Jewish people, and they did not deal with them at all, even if it was a small child. This Samaritan was established by the Church in the Holy Fifty as a model for each one of us, because this woman will condemn us priests, servants or the people. What does this mean? Can you recall of a priest who came into a city and within minutes the whole city believed in the LORD JESUS?  I remember when I first arrived to serve here that Bishop Antony asked me about how I am doing and how the service is doing?  My answer was that not yet, I have only 3 or 4 days in Margate. I have to know people by phone, phone, and data. This Samaritan woman was a sinful woman and was well known in the whole city that she was living with a man who was not her husband and that she was married before to 5 different men but the one currently living with her was not her husband, but still with all these characteristics she was able to hunt within a very short time all the people for the LORD JESUS.  When the Samarians believed in the LORD JESUS they asked HIM to stay with them for some time and HE accepted and stayed with them for two days, all this was through the sinful Samarian Woman. This woman is ahead of the disciples. She has not seen the LORD JESUS crucified, nor has she witnessed the Resurrection, nor did she have prophecies, nor religious education, nor extended discipleship, she was a person living in corruption, and after all this she could repent and return to our LORD and experience the Resurrection, before the Resurrection of our LORD JESUS she resurrected, she resurrected from the corruption she was lining in.  she did not return to her house, she left her water jar she used for drinking and never thought of returning home, but she ran into the city calling the people that she was resurrected with the LORD JESUS and asking all the people to come and taste the Resurrection. The Samaritan woman not only her heart was inflamed with the Spirit, but she also ignited the hearts of people with the Spirit. One is ashamed, how will we stand before our LORD on the great day of the LORD? I say that I preached to the people, prayed masses, and made a program for the people they were locked in the houses because of the Corona, and I visited hospitals, homes, and prisons, okay all this is good, but, how many souls I pulled to repentance, were the houses transformed into a new Heaven? People longed to know our LORD? The gates of heaven opened before the sinners to repent and return to HIM? How many I joined from the street or from your neighbors to the church, introducing to the LORD. It is true that this woman deserves to be wonderful and the Church cares about her. We remember her before the Crucifixion because her encounter with the LORD was before the Crucifixion, and we remember her it in the Holy Fifty days, because she preceded all of us and practically enjoyed the spirit of the Resurrection and the people of the city enjoyed the resurrection before the LORD JESUS was resin.  The strange thing is the Holy Bible. He did not mention her name or anything about her because he wants everyone to be like her, witnesses for CHRIST the LORD Everywhere I am, work, university, school, supermarket, shop, where I live. The LORD grants us with HIS blessings and grace to be similar to the Samaritan woman and to be an example for the others to follow the LORD JESUS so that our hearts rejoices with the whole world returning to the LORD JESUS. Christ has Risen. Truly He has Risen.