Quench Your Thirst

Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent
23 March 2014

          “Give me a drink.”

        No “Hello.” No “How are you?” No “What’s your name? I’m Jesus.”

        Just, “Give me a drink.”

        If someone was just reading this story from our Gospel in any other context, they may think that Jesus was just-plain-rude.

        But, of course, we know that when it comes to an encounter with Jesus, there’s always something deeper going on.

        Jesus’ command to “give [Him] a drink” to the Samaritan woman is both a command and invitation. The command is given because He is thirsty; the invitation is to quench His thirst.

        My brothers and sisters, we have to be able to look at our Gospel today not just in the context of the Lenten season, but what it ultimately leads up to: the satisfaction of the quenching of our thirst.

        In the depths of our human heart, we thirst for something greater than ourselves; we thirst for something that will satisfy our longings.

        Enter in Jesus Christ. Like the conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, He, too, asks us for a drink, because He, too, thirsts.

        Yet the Lord doesn’t want a physical drink from a physical well. He wants to drink from the wells of our heart. He wants to satisfy His thirst from the love that comes from the depths of who we are.

        Here is the paradox: The more we allow Jesus Christ to drink from the wells of our heart, the more our thirst for Him will be satisfied. Yes, we thirst for Him for He is the Something greater than ourselves; He is That which satisfies our longings.

        The more we drink from the wellspring of our salvation, the more we drink of the water and Blood gushing forth from the side of Christ, the more our thirst will be satisfied and the more we will be able to satisfy the longings of our brothers and sisters.

        Just as the Samaritan woman ran to the townspeople and told them about Jesus after her encounter with Him, so must we go forth and tell people about how we have encountered Christ, as well. The woman at the well had her thirst satisfied, and she wanted to share the living water given to her by Christ. Here, through Word and Sacrament, we are given the opportunity to have our thirsts quenched and satisfied through our encounter with Jesus Christ. It is now up to us to choose that the ritual we now participate in is not something superstitious, but, rather, is a true encounter with the living God and is a moment to procure that drink from the wellspring of salvation.

        Now is our time to bring others to the Well of Jesus Christ.

        My friends, in a few, short weeks, we will hear, once again, how Jesus spoke the words, “I thirst” from the Cross. Yes, He was physically thirsty, but He also thirsted for justice, for righteousness, for charity.

        How many times in our prayers do we cry out to the Lord the same message: “I thirst!”? How often do we allow our stubbornness or confusion to refuse the drink that our Lord presents to us? How often do we thirst for justice, righteousness or charity, but fail to allow the Lord or others – or even ourselves! – to quench that need inside of us?

        How often do we see others in their thirsting for something greater, and fail to satisfy their need for justice, righteousness, or charity? How often do we fail to bring others to the Lord so that they may drink from the wellspring of salvation?

        In our pride and short-sightedness, our prayer before the Lord comes out, “Give me a drink,” yet the prayer that comes from our contemplation of and submission to the will of God is that of, “I thirst.” We, in some ways, must give this command to God so that, ultimately, we may be able to extend the invitation, just as Jesus did with the Samaritan woman.

        My brothers and sisters, Jesus points to Himself as the Wellspring of living water. He invites us to come and drink of all He has to offer. It is through Him, and Him alone, that we are able to live out the Christian paradox: By recognizing that He thirsts for us, we recognize that we thirst for Him, and in that recognition do we understand how that intimate thirst for one another satisfies our hearts and the Heart of God simultaneously.

        Having now dined at the Table of the Word, we move to dine at the Table of the Eucharist, allowing that intimate encounter with our Lord through the reception of His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity to quench the thirst within us; to allow the Wellspring of salvation to irrigate the aridness of our souls.

        Contemplate the words of Blessed Pope John Paul II:

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.”

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Enjoy the journey . . .