Christ is Risen! On the fifth Sunday of Pascha, the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, we hear our Lord's discussion with the woman he met at Jacob's well. Despite societal prejudices against her as a Samaritan woman, Christ called her to share in the kingdom of God.
“Everyone 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” (John 4:5-14).
St. Photina showed how open she was to Christ by how quickly she believed. Like her, we can reach a higher level of truth through silence. The reorientation of the world heals sin's divisions, but we must let go of discursive reasoning to witness and encounter the body of transcendent truth. Let's imitate St. Photina and drink from Christ's well of wisdom. Christ can remove our dualistic worldview, allowing us to see the kingdom of God beyond that duality, as he revealed it to the world.