THIRST QUENCHER
Exodus 17:3-7; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8; John 4:5-42
Several years ago, I was trekking with my friends. By mid-day, after trekking a few hours, we were half-way to our destination and were out of water! There was no water source/ human habitation in sight. Two hours later, we chanced upon a tiny stagnant pool of water. We were tired and thirsty. And so, though the water was dank, we drank!
Thirst! This was the condition of the wandering Israel.
It was thirst that made them grumble against Moses; lament their liberation from Egypt; question God’s presence among them.
God’s response? He gives them life-giving water: a reminder of his continued and powerful presence among them.
Thirst! This was the condition of the Samaritan woman.
It was physical thirst that made her come to the well in the noon-day sun; emotional thirst which took her through six relationships; spiritual thirst which made her dialogue with a male Jew.
God’s response? Jesus gives her live-giving water. He satisfies her longing for love and understanding; he treats her as a human person with respect and dignity. Through a seven-part catechesis, he guides her from ignorance to faith; she grows progressively in her knowledge of Jesus’ identity: a Jew, sir, prophet, and Messiah.
Her growth in the faith journey culminates in her leaving her water jar behind; she goes from being a social outcast to becoming a disciple and a missionary.
Thirst! This is our condition too.
We, too, have our physical, emotional, spiritual thirst. God’s response to our thirst is like his response to the thirst of Israel and the Samaritan woman. He fills us with living water! We need not go back to the well because the source of living water is within us… from our baptism.
Do I still go to other wells, or do I allow the living water to be my thirst-quencher? In what way can I, like the woman, invite people to “come and see” and encounter Jesus, and drink of the living water that I have drunk?
By: Fr Dr Mascarenhas Vinod SDB
