Photini, the first Evangelist.

Photini, the first Evangelist.
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Jesus came into this world in search of sinners.

It is the sick who need a doctor.

Hospital is a place frequented by the sick to be treated by doctors to get well.

Our Church itself is the  tent for sinners

who are there to be forgiven

and made holy by the tent,  Jesus.

Tradition reveals us an Evangelist, 

who was once a sinner,

forgiven by Jesus Himself.

The following is taken from John Chrysostom's Homilies on the Gospel of John.

“As the apostles left their nets on being called,

so she leaves her water jar

to do the work of an evangelist

by calling not one or two people,

as Andrew and Philip did,

but a whole city”

Hope you have guessed who the evangelist is.

It is the 'Samaritan woman', whom Jesus saw at well of Jacob, drawing water.

The time was the sixth hour, that is,

at the height of noon — when the sun was at its highest in the sky

and the day was at its hottest and brightest point.

Jesus knew that she was a sinner.

He had decided to forgive her.

He started the process for forgiving her sins by asking her for some water to drink.

Then the conversation turned to 'living water,' the one that gives everlasting  life.

He helped her to confess her sins by  revealing them Himself.

When she told Him about the coming of Messias ',

He said to her, "  I, who speak to thee, am the Christ."

Now the woman understood that Jesus was talking with her.

Just as the apostles left their nets on being called,

she left her water jar at the well and went to her village to tell the people about Christ.

Thus she did the work of an Evangelist.

The apostles took the good news to many parts of the world.

She took the same to her village.

That was what she could do at that time.

She was  the first evangelist, who  brought people to Christ even before His death and resurrection.

She is called by our tradition
equal-to-the-apostles.

By tradition,

we know that she was baptized

and brought her five sisters

and her two sons

into the faith

and they all continued to evangelize.

After  Peter and Paul were martyred  

she and her family went to Carthage

to preach the gospel there until they, too, were martyred.

From tradition, we also know  that

her baptismal name was 'Photini,'

which means,  'the enlightened one'.

Like Photini,

we are all subject to darkness because of our sins

when Christ encounters us at the well,

or at the font of our baptism,

through which

He shines on our dark soul and makes it bright.

Our souls must be filled with evangelical fervour.

We too must become Evangelists

and carry the word of God wherever we can.

Like her,

We must proclaim to everyone we meet

without fear of what they might think of us,

the good news of Christ.

People we meet  must know through us

that world can  be forgiven and saved by Jesus and Jesus alone.

Our priests should not wait for sinners to come to them.

They,

like Jesus,

who is activating them,

  must go in search of sinners.

That is what our missionaries did when they came to our country from abroad.

They brought with them the words of Jesus, 

the forgiveness of Jesus

together with our salvation

for which Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross.

We on our part must take Jesus

to all our neighbours,

  like, Photini,

the first Evangelist.

Lourdu Selvam.