Gennadius, who first composed a summary of the works of St. Maximus, taught that he discoursed concerning almsgiving; and under that title, with a few additions, the writers of the codices have used it. For codex 90 of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, where it is homily 20, exhibits the following inscription: 'Here begins [the discourse] on almsgiving, and on where the Lord Christ sat upon the well of Samaria.' Codex 99 of the same library, in which it is numbered as homily 54, bears this title: 'On almsgiving and on the Samaritan woman.' The same is read in the Laurentian codex X, Plut. XIV, page 267. But the St. Gall codex retained the old epigraph of Gennadius, inscribing the homily placed as number 20 as 'On almsgiving.' By the editors Gymnicus, page 280; Galesinius, 176; Raynaudus, page 143; and Margarinus, Bibliotheca Maxima,
volume VI, page 43, the same title is employed, nor is it dissimilar in Cumdius, volume II, page 554. But that author, and Gillotius, and the Roman editors of the works of St. Ambrose, numbered this too among the homilies of that holy doctor. We have used the inscription of codex 99 of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, and of the Laurentian.—Divine Scripture says: 'As water extinguishes fire, so almsgiving extinguishes sin' (Sir. 3:33). A truly great sentence, to be sought after by all, which promises to men now almost dead and dried up by the fire of their sins a certain reviving benefit, so that, alms intervening, refreshment may be poured, as water into the half-dead a fresh sap, into those who are withering;
that is, that miserable men, who had withered in their sins, may by almsgiving revive to life; and that mercy may be for them a fount of salvation, for whom avarice had been the fire of death; so that they may quench by giving the flames which they had kindled for themselves by sinning; and by a more useful exchange, he who once had given money to commit adultery may now bestow money so as to cease being an adulterer; and may in a certain way buy for himself innocence, who had once bought for himself sin; for the Lord says to his disciples: 'Give alms; and behold, all things are clean unto you' (Luke 11). Although therefore polluted, although hedged about with many crimes, if you do alms, you have begun to be innocent;
for almsgiving wipes away what avarice defiled; and the stain which you had contracted by plundering others' goods, you purify by giving away your own. See therefore what is the grace of mercy, which one and only virtue is the redemption of all sins. For let us look at the interpretation of that very divine sentence, that we may understand to what thing almsgiving is compared; for it says: 'As water extinguishes fire, so almsgiving extinguishes transgression.' Water, then, is compared to mercy: but I find water from a fount; it is necessary for me to seek the fount of mercy; I plainly find the fount of mercy; a fount, of which the prophet says: 'For with you is the fount of life, and in your light we shall see light' (Psalm 35).
He, I say, is the fount, who in the Gospel asks water of the Samaritan woman, as we heard read of late, but forgives sins; who rejects the water of the well, but grants the fount of everlasting life; for he says: 'Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will not thirst for ever' (John 4). The Saviour therefore asks water of the woman, and feigns himself to thirst, that to those who thirst he may bestow eternal grace. For neither could the fount thirst; nor could he, in whom is living water, draw the wave of earthly dregs. Was Christ then thirsting? He was thirsting plainly, not for the drink of men, but he thirsted for salvation; not for the water of the world, but for the redemption of the human race.
In a wonderful manner, therefore, the fount, sitting upon the well, there produces the streams of mercy, and the living stream's wave purifies the woman fornicating now with her sixth, not a husband but an adulterer; and by a new kind of wonder the woman, who had come to the well of Samaria a harlot, returns chaste from the fount of Christ; and she who had come to seek water, carried back modesty; and immediately, the Lord pointing it out, recognizing her own sins, she confesses Christ, announces the Saviour; and leaving the water-vessel, she does not bring back a pitcher to the city, but brings back grace; she seems indeed to return empty of burden, but she returns full of holiness. Full, I say, she returns; because she who had come a sinner, returns a preacher;
and she who had lost the vessel of her pitcher, brought back the fullness of Christ, bringing no loss to her own city; for even if she brought no water to the citizens, yet she introduced the fount of salvation; sanctified therefore through faith in Christ, the woman returned home. Concerning her, then, I think the prophet spoke (Prov. 30): 'Such is the wicked way of a harlot woman; who, when she has washed herself, says she has done nothing depraved.' Concerning her it was plainly said; who, after she is washed by the fount of the Saviour, does not remember the faults of her transgressions, but takes up the virtue of preaching; and wiping away her stains with the living water, she is drawn to evangelize not by the consciousness of sin, but is impelled by the warmth of faith.
For she says she has done nothing of depravity, while she becomes a messenger of the truth; and by forgetfulness she denies her unchastity, while by devotion she preaches chastity. For this is the virtue of Christ the Lord, that although a sinner, whoever has washed himself in his wave, being restored anew into a virgin, does not remember what he had done before, and by a revived birth displays the innocence of infancy, does not recognize the crimes of his youth; and he is a virgin by faith in Christ, who had been an adulterer by the corruption of sin.