The adult human body is made up of approximately 60% water. Studies show that we can survive for about three weeks without food, but we cannot survive for more than three or four days without water. Water is so important to us that we need to replenish it often. There is even a Latin saying about this: salus per aquam – “health by means of water.” All this applies insofar as our body is concerned; but today’s Liturgy teaches us about a different kind of water – water that nourishes not only our body but also our soul.
What our soul needs is God, the Source of the living water that sustains us. Often our soul is crying out in its thirst for God, but since we also experience the needs and desires of our body, with all its limitations and flaws, we tend to confuse our spiritual thirst with our physical and emotional cravings. When we strive to satisfy our thirst for God with earthly pleasures, which are often sinful, we only grow thirstier.
This is what happened with the Israelites after they left Egypt. They were not dying of thirst; they were longing for earthly security. Their thirst was an occasion to recognize their need for God, a time for deeper conversion and a renewed relationship with him. It was time to recognize that God was the only one who could really satisfy them. Instead, they complained and even longed to go back to Egypt. In Egypt they had enough food and drink to survive, but they were slaves in a foreign land, under the domination of oppressive rulers. Their longing to return to Egypt shows us how easily we are tempted to return to our slavery to sin. In today’s reading, the Israelites do not go back to Egypt because Moses intercedes for them. Through his mediation, God gives them a marvelous sign of his power and abiding presence: abundant fresh water flowing from a rock. St. Paul later identifies this rock as the presence of Christ in the desert (cf. 1 Cor 10:4).
Lent is a most fitting time for us to recall the experience of the people of Israel in the desert. We face the same faith challenge. Not that we are thirsting for water, but the many obstacles and difficulties we face in this “valley of tears” tempt us to waver, and to question: “Is the LORD in our midst or not?” The good news is that, as the Israelites discovered, God is always with us. He is the one who provides what we long for the most. In Lent we deliberately renounce lesser things so as to make this same discovery, to meet God personally.
This is the discovery that overwhelms a suffering woman who meets Jesus at Jacob’s well in the Samaritan town of Sychar. This woman represents us all. She comes to draw water, as she has done so many times before. It is midday. She is hot, tired, and thirsty. Her life is full of disappointments and confusion – a string of failed marriages, unanswered questions, empty hopes. Are the Jews right after all? Does she have to go to Jerusalem to worship God? What about the Messiah? She knows he is coming, but when and where? Besides, what can the Messiah do for a woman like her? The only thing she can be sure of is that Jacob’s well, according to ancient tradition, will always provide water.
Jesus is waiting for her when she arrives. It is no coincidence. He is also thirsty, not only for water, but even more for her faith. He wants to give her eternal life, the very thing for which she unknowingly thirsts. She does not “know the gift of God,” that she is in the presence of the Messiah, so he begins a conversation with her and gradually draws her out of her preoccupation with getting water and into a communion with God “in Spirit and truth.” Jesus starts simply, asking her for a drink. This is a much bigger step than we may realize, for during that time Jews and Samaritans were divided. A faithful Jew would not associate with a Samaritan. John notes that “Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.” Jesus breaks down every cultural barrier in order to reach the heart of this thirsty woman.
The whole encounter reveals the stages of conversion through which we all pass as we draw near to God. We start with basic needs and selfish desires. As God draws us toward himself, we become aware of the futile and sinful ways in which we have sought happiness outside his will. A growing knowledge of God leads us at the same time to greater self-knowledge. In time, we no longer need what we thought was so essential. Leaving behind our fear and shame, we are free to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others. This freedom is represented by the woman’s readiness to abandon her water jar and go into the town to tell everyone about Jesus. Full of joy, she becomes a witness and an evangelist, telling everyone, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Christ?” She has not yet received the Holy Spirit, but already she has new life springing forth from within her, for she has found Jesus Christ.
Jesus is waiting for us today. The well we approach in prayer and worship is his own Heart. From this Heart, pierced by love, flows an abundant stream of grace and mercy. Jesus invites us to enter into conversation with him, to meet him, be cleansed by him, and be transformed by the power of his love. Because of him, we can stand in grace, as St. Paul says, and “boast in hope of the glory of God.” We have a great advantage over the Israelites in the desert, and even over the Samaritan woman. Jesus has already begun to satisfy our thirst for eternal life, for, “the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
When have I tried to satisfy my deep yearning for God with earthly pleasures? What are the main obstacles and difficulties that I face in this “valley of tears”? How can I make prayer and worship a daily encounter with Jesus, the Source of living water?
Excerpt from The Anawim Way, Volume 22, no. 3. More information about The Anawim Way may be found here.