His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros

Homily for the Great Vespers of the Life-Giving Fountain

May 9, 2024

Zoodohos Peghe Greek Orthodox Church

Bronx, New York

 

Brothers and Sisters in the Risen Christ,

Χριστὸς Ἀνέστη! [and in response: Ἀληθῶς Ἀνέστη!]

Christ is Risen! [and in response: Truly He is Risen!]

What a joy it is to be with you – the faithful of our Ζωοδόχος Πηγή Church here in the Bronx. Your Feast day – the Life-Giving Fountain, is the answer to a warning of the Prophet Jeremias, by whom the Lord chastised the children of Israel, saying:

Δύο πονηρὰ ἐποίησεν ὁ λαός μου · ἐμὲ ἐγκατέλιπον, πηγὴν ὕδατος ζωῆς, καὶ ὤρυξαν ἑαυτοῖς λάκκους συντετριμμένους, οἵ οὐ δυνήσονται ὕδωρ συνέχειν.

Two evils have My people committed: they have abandoned me, the Water of Life, and have dug for themselves broken cisterns, which cannot hold water. *

For the Lord God is the source of all life – both in this world and in the next. And the precious wellspring from which that life pours forth is none other than His Holy Mother, whom we celebrate this evening.

For the Theotokos is the image of the Church, and as much as God is our Father above, the Ecclesia is our Mother here below. Just as the Virgin Mary held the Lord of All within her womb, and gave birth to Him on Christmas, the Church is our Mother who gives re-birth to every Baptized Christian as they come up out of the womb of the Church, which is the Baptismal Font.

We will be reading about the Baptismal Font of the Church on the Sunday of the Paralytic, the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, and the Sunday of the Blind Man, when, through the metaphors of their respective containers of water – namely the Pool of Bethesda, the Well of Jacob, and the Pool Siloam – we are called to learn about Baptism in a unique way. These readings are set for the Church, because it was a way to bring understanding of what it meant to be “born from above,” γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν,† to the newly-initiated Christians, who had received Baptism on Holy Saturday,

The Feast of the Ζωοδόχος Πηγή is more than a celebration of the famous Church in Baloukli. It is a reminder that through the Theotokos, we have access to the Water of Life – to which the Lord invites us, saying:

If you thirst, come to Me and drink!

Ἐάν τις διψᾷ, ἐρχέσθω πρός με καὶ πινέτω! ‡

A verse that will echo at the Feast of Mid-Pentecost.

The Virgin is that container, a true πηγή through which the living water, the very energy of God, springs up in our hearts. The warning we hear from the Prophet Jeremias is not to make perishable containers for ourselves – whether from our riches, or our status, or our lifestyle – because such containers are “broken cisterns.” They hold neither the water of life nor are they capable of transmitting it to us.

In many ways, the Feast of the Ζωοδόχος Πηγή is a reminder to all of us that the foundation and basis for our life is to be found in our connection to the Holy, rather than our reliance upon the secular. Yes, we must eat, and be housed, and clothe ourselves, but as the Lord said:

Do not worry about your lives – what you will eat and what you will drink. And do not worry about your physical body, what you will wear. Is not life much more than food and the body much more than clothing? §

My Beloved Christians: Life is so much more! And the Theotokos can show us the way. The Church can show us the way. So that we satisfy the deepest yearnings of our hearts and souls, and quench the thirst for life with the very Water of Life that flows from God to us.

May we always be graced to drink the Water of Life, through her holy intercessions. Amen.

Χριστὸς Ἀνέστη! [Ἀληθῶς Ἀνέστη!]

* Jeremias 2:13.

† John 3:3.

‡ John 7:37.

§ Matthew 6:25.

Photos: GOARCH/Dimitrios Panagos