Sunday of the Samaritan Woman (Acts 11:19–26, 29–30; Jn. 4:5–42)

After the Savior had stayed with the Samaritan woman’s fellow townspeople for two days, they said to her: ”We no longer believe because of what you said; for we have heard for ourselves and know that this is truly the Savior of the world, the Christ” (Jn. 4:42). And so it is with everyone. At first people are called to the Lord by an outward word—or, as with us today, by way of birth—and then, when they have tasted by experience what life in the Lord is, they no longer hold to the Lord merely on account of their outward belonging to Christian society, but through an inward union with Him. This is what all who are born into Christian communities must make their own law: not to be content with outward belonging to the Lord, but to take care to unite inwardly with Him, so that they may thereafter constantly bear within themselves the testimony that they stand in the truth. What is needed for this? One must embody the truth of Christ within oneself. The truth of Christ is the restoration of the fallen. Therefore put off the old man, who is corrupted through deceitful desires, and put on the new, created after God in righteousness and true holiness—and you will know within yourself that the Lord Jesus Christ is in truth the Savior not only of the world, but specifically of you.