The Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Canada said on Sunday that Christ revealed as the Messiah to all of us through the Samaritan Woman. He also emphasized that the profound dialogue between our Saviour and this woman shows that woman is equal to man in dignity.
“In the Church we live in apostolic times,” said His Eminence Ioan Casian in the homily he delivered at the Orthodox Cathedral in Saint-Hubert.
“Not because we live in the same period with the Holy Apostles, but because we live the same mystery that takes place in the Church. God transforms these gifts of man, bread and wine, into elements that lead us to eternal life,” he explained.
The hierarch added that Patriarch Jacob’s fountain, where Christ talks to the Samaritan woman, “is an image of what the saving and transfiguring grace of the Kingdom of Heaven means”. At first, the woman thinks Christ speaks of material water, then she receives a mystery: His testimony about Himself being the Messiah.
“this encounter reported today highlights the very Eucharistic dimension of our relationship as a Church with God. The food of which the Savior speaks in this pericope, of doing the will of the Father, is for us the participation in the Holy Eucharist by which we respond to God’s call and fulfill His will,” continued the Bishop.
“This reveals to us the importance of encountering God, which starts from very concrete things of ours and elevates us to a higher spiritual level. The Savior reveal Himself to the woman of Samaria and through her to us all, as the Messiah, as the Son of God, the One who gives eternal life and redemption.”
Photo: Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Canada
