Homily 641 – 5 Pascha
Holy Transfiguration, Ames, Iowa
May 18, 2025
Epistle:  (28) – Acts 11:19-26, 29-30

Gospel:  (12) – John 4:5-42

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, One God.

Christ is risen!

The Samaritan Woman – the woman at the well – is never identified in Scripture, but the Church has kept her name known.  At least, her name after becoming a follower of Christ.

That name is Photini – from the Greek word “Phos” meaning “Light”.  In Russian, the word for light is “Svit”, and she is known as Svetlana.

In both instances, the name means “the enlightened one.”

In the Gospel reading itself, we have some images that relate to baptism.

We have the physical well itself, for one.  We have Christ speaking of Living Water.

We know that Living Water of which Christ speaks is the Holy Spirit.

The Church ties these images together, to weave a multi-faceted tapestry of our salvation, and our life in Christ.

While this tapestry doesn’t explain the mystery of Baptism for us, it does help us understand the change that occurs.

Baptism is more than a physical act.  It is a physical act with a spiritual dimension.

We are symbolically, mysteriously (meaning “mystery” – iosly) placing our entire being – our mind, our will, our desire – under the subjection of Christ.

In the catechumen service that precedes baptism, we already exorcise – or, “ban” – Satan and all his influence from our lives.

Then, we reject Satan, and then unite ourselves to Christ through a confession with our mouth – the recitation of “I believe …”

After that, we baptize.  But first, we call down the Holy Spirit to indwell – to sanctify and live in – the water.  We anoint the water with oil.

Then, the one baptized is buried in the water, and resurrected with Christ.

We call that “illumination” – the motif of “light” returns!  The one baptized is called the “newly illumined” – the “newly enlightened”.

Photius or Photini (depending on male or female).

What does enlightenment or illumination – what does it mean?

It might be easier to start with what it doesn’t mean.  It doesn’t mean instant understanding of everything, or instant knowledge, or instant perfection.

What it means is that we are restored.

In the Garden of Eden, the first humans were clothed in Glory – clothed in righteousness.  Many Church fathers, although not universal, believed that this was the uncreated light – the same light that Christ manifested on Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration, and that some saints have manifested in their earthly existence.

Baptism restores us to that state – that state of submission.  That state of being which has no ego – no will apart from the desire for God.

No thirst except the thirst for God.

The thirst which God is overjoyed to quench in abundance for us!  So that, as Christ tells Photini, you will never thirst again.

There are some unusual aspects to this encounter, though.

Photini was not told “Go and sin no more.”  Her reaction to the encounter was to tell all her friends – and ask them to consider if this man, Jesus, was the Christ.  He said he was – another unusual thing!

Jesus didn’t often confirm who He was – even to the Apostles themselves.

And unlike the Gergesenes, when Christ chased the demons into the herd of pigs, the Samaritans asked Jesus to stay – which He did.  The Gergesenes asked Him to leave.

Are there implications to our lives?  I certainly hope so.

We have to understand that illumination through baptism restores us to innocence.  It allows us to begin to experience, to grow, into perfection through Christ, with Christ.

It makes us capable of receiving grace.  It makes us capable of struggling with ourselves – our self-will, our ego, which is sin.

Baptism – the water, the Spirit, the light – is the beginning point, not the end.

St. Photini is known as an Apostle and Evangelist, the first to proclaim the Christ to her countrymen.  She went on to Carthage, modern day Tunisia on the North African coast, with her five sisters and two sons, and preached Christ to the people there.

She was tortured by Nero.  Ironically enough, by being thrown into a dry well.

She was never an educated woman.  She was a faithful one – simply sharing her experience, her life in Christ.

And we, today, do the same.  We don’t retreat into a self-absorbed cocoon.

We repent – we change –we become.  And we tell everyone about the man, the Christ, that met us at the well.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God.  Christ is risen!