St. Photina
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One
Today is the Feast of St. Photina – the woman Jesus met at the well in John chapter four.
Jesus journeyed to a city of Samaria, called Sy′char, (today it is Nablus). Jacob’s well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”…The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where do you get that living water?...Jesus said to her, “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.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
Then she said to Jesus, “I perceive that you are a prophet…I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”…So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city, and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” Then they went out of the city and were coming to him. Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.
Two
From Tradition we know the name of the Samaritan Woman. Her name is Photina.
She had five husbands and was living with a man who was not her husband. But then she meets Jesus. She has no theology degree, no professional training, but she knows Jesus is the One Savior of the World. She goes immediately and tells her family and friends. Photina has the two great qualities which we need: she desires God and she is not timid. She is not controlled by fear. She has courage. We are not like Photina, we are too timid. Our faith was meant to be personal, but it was never meant to be kept private.
In 66 AD, Photina and her grown children, being warned that Rome was about to conquer Israel, left and moved to Carthage in North Africa. Her son Victor became an officer in the Roman army. A Government official and friend of Victor, named Sebastian wrote him, urging him and his mother to stop leading people to Jesus and to keep their faith private. As Sebastian was writing the letter, he fell blind for three days. On the fourth day, he declared, “The God of the Christians is the only true God.” He asked for Baptism, after which he immediately regained his sight. Reports of this miraculous event reached the Emperor Nero. Both Sebastian and Victor were arrested and taken to Rome.
Hearing this news, Photina and her family went to Rome, accompanied by many Christians. They too were arrested and brought before Nero, but they refused to renounce Jesus Christ and were imprisoned, where they continued to speak to the fellow prisoners about Jesus and converted many. Finally, they were tortured and put to death. A relic of the skull of Photina resides in the Church of Jacob’s well in Nablus in the Holy Land. I have often stood before that relic of the Martyr, Photina, praying God give me and you the grace to have the same love and courage as Photina.
Three
When Jesus met Photina at the well and told her that he wanted to give her a new kind of water, Living Water that would satisfy every good desire she ever had, she begged him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst…”
Photina had the one thing necessary: she had the right desire. She had a desire for the Living Water. She had tried everything else and it didn’t work. Now she wanted God. St. Thomas Aquinas was asked, “What does it take to become a saint?” He responded, “Want it. Desire it.”
That is the essential ingredient, to want to drink this Living Water that is God. In fact, the last passage of the whole Bible in the Book of Revelation sums it all up. “The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come'. Let everyone who listens answer, 'Come'. Then let all who are thirsty come: all who want it may have the Water of Life, and have it free.”
You may not feel like you are good enough spiritually or morally, and you may feel like an imposter much of the time. But I’m telling you, you are not! You have the right desire, you want God, and that is the most important quality!
Four
The Mansions aren’t for me
We just finished the series on Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross and some said, “Mike, I couldn’t relate to it. The Mansions aren’t for me. I am so far away spiritually.”
Well, I’m here to tell you that, just like Photina, you may be way closer than you think.
Remember, the 1st Mansion is the initial stage of conversion where we begin to pray but we have no idea what a mess we are. We are being eaten alive by our vices and we don’t realize it. But at least we are beginning to pray.
Then we enter the 2nd Mansion where we commit to Daily Mental Prayer and a Resolution. Most of you are in the 2nd Mansion! We begin to realize the trouble we have with vice and sin. Still, we haven’t made all the changes we need to make. But we are starting to see more clearly. Like when the sun breaks through a window and reveals all the dirt and dog hair everywhere. We realize, I’ve got to change everything but you have not yet resolved to remove the near occasions of sin.
We reach the 3rd Mansion when we become way more disciplined in a life of prayer and frequenting the Sacraments, working hard to love others, avoiding the near occasions of sin rigorously, and growing in your attachment to God and a detachment from lesser things by voluntary self-denial and accepting what we can’t change. Many of you are doing this!
All this gets us ready for the 4th Mansion, the beginning of Infused Prayer or Contemplation, the beginning of the inflow of Living Water where we begin to delight in the experience of God and God begins to take over and do the work of our prayer and our continued growth in virtue.
Don’t you see, you have already made the biggest steps by following your desire for God, committing to prayer, removing the junk from your life, and growing in love of others. You are closer than you think. Just don’t quit or turn back, you are really close to the Living Water.
Five
God said, “Let all who are thirsty come!” So how do we move forward?
Receive Jesus as often as you can. He is the Fountain from which the Living Water flows. Persevere in daily meditation and a resolution, you can do that right here in the Rosary. Mental prayer and a resolution pump the water toward us, prayer and virtue keep pumping the water.
Remove the junk from your life that is blocking the flow of the Living Water. Get rid of the things you are doing with your time that are a waste or occasions of sin and fill your time with good things. Then be ready to sit down on the bank of the River of Living Water and let it flow in with no effort on your part. It is for you, just as it was for Photina, so keep it up.
The river begins as a trickle, then just ankle deep, but soon you will be swimming in it.