Don’t just thirst for water ... thirst for Living Water
Homily preached March 12, 2023
by Monsignor Michael Deering

Most everyone, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, know of Mother Teresa ...

    that tiny Catholic Religious Sister who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 ...

for her 30 years of care for the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, India.

She died in 1997 and Pope Francis declared her a Saint in 2016.

This holy woman, St. Mother Teresa, who founded the Missionaries of Charity order of sisters to bring dignity and care to the poor and suffering had two words inscribed over the doorway of the entrance to her Mother House there in India.

Do you know what the two words are?      They’re the words ... “I Thirst”.

Those were the words that an old man cried out to her as he lay dying under his blanket on the street. She had just boarded a train and had no way to help him.

But the dying man’s two words “I thirst” touched her heart deeply.

Yes, those were the words that moved her to leave her role as school teacher ...

and undertake her now famous ministry ... of caring for the poorest of the poor. 

How interesting that the last two words that dying man spoke laying in the street

   were the same last two  words that the dying Jesus spoke hanging on the Cross.

Imagine that … Jesus, the Son of God, who was there with the Father at the dawn of creation ... and brought water into existence … He says the words, “I thirst!”

For one thing, that shows us the humanity of Jesus ... who we know was born into our world of space and time and became fully human ... just like you and me, which means that he experienced everything that you and I experience ...

 including such feelings as tiredness and thirst.

We hear this in today’s Gospel, which opens with John the Evangelist telling us, “Jesus, tired from His journey, sat down there at the well.” So Jesus was tired. And then Jesus says to the Samaritan woman, “Give me a drink.” So Jesus was thirsty.

We all know what it’s like to be thirsty. We’ve experienced that feeling many times,

      and we know how awful it is when we can’t immediately satisfy our thirst.

It soon becomes all we can think about … so dependent are we on water for life.

People stranded in the middle of the desert ... or stranded in the middle of the ocean,

crave one thing … fresh water ... fresh water ... to refresh them.

Water is essential for human life. Doctors tell us that water makes up the great majority of our body weight. People who don’t drink enough fluids can become dehydrated and are generally treated with IV’s of saline solution to refresh them.

We recognize water to be so essential for human life ...

that scientists exploring other planets always look for evidence of water ... because that would indicate that perhaps human life was there at some time.

Now just as liquid water is essential for human life ...

living water is essential for Eternal Life.

So, you see, when Jesus cried out from the Cross “I thirst”,

that didn’t simply indicate His humanity; it also indicated His divinity.

For when Jesus said “I thirst”, He wasn’t just thirsty to receive regular water ...

He was also thirsty for the chance to give us “living” water.

“Living” water is God’s Holy Spirit.

This was the first gift that Jesus gave right after He rose from the dead. John tells us in his Gospel that on that first Easter evening, Jesus appeared to the Twelve Apostles in the upper room & breathed on them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit!”

In doing this, He gave them the gift ... of living water.

Each of us received the gift of Living Water on the day of our Baptism.

That’s the day that our souls were washed from the stain of Original Sin ...

so that the Holy Spirit could come and dwell within us.

On the day of our Confirmation, we received ...

the full outpouring of the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Each time we receive Holy Communion, we receive Living Water because

God’s Holy Spirit is inextricably attached to the Body and Blood of Jesus.

And each time we celebrate the Sacrament of Confession we receive Living Water.

Notice the words of the Prayer of Absolution: “God, the Father of Mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son has reconciled the world to Himself and poured out (sent) the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins.”

Jesus loves us with an incomprehensible love,

a love that moved Him to undergo suffering and death

     so that we would be able to receive His Holy Spirit ...

and thereby have the birthright to be with Him forever in Heaven.

In His humanity ... Jesus thirsted for ... liquid water ...

in His divinity ... Jesus thirsts to give us ... Living Water.

Notice in our Gospel how Jesus indicates that He would have gladly turned His request around for the woman ... saying, “If you knew who it was that asked you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.”

Jesus thirsts for us and He wants us to thirst for Him.   What are you thirsty for?

Are you thirsty for liquid water?       Good that’s our drive of self-preservation.

But we know what’s going to happen ... as Jesus told the Samaritan woman ...

“Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again.”

So it’s to our advantage to take Jesus up on His invitation to receive Living Water. For He says, “(it) will become a spring of water welling up to Eternal Life!”

The Living water that Jesus offers to us is ... God’s Holy Spirit.

The gift of this living water was prefigured many times in the Old Testament.

For example in our First Reading today from Exodus we heard,

“In those days, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses saying, ‘Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?

Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?’”

You see, no sooner had God brought the Israelite people out of captivity to Egypt

 by parting the Red Sea, saving the Jews and destroying Egyptian army ...

that the Jews start to doubt that God will continue to take care of them.

So God tells Moses to go and strike the rock in Horeb ...

and once again God miraculously takes care of His people ...

by quenching their thirst with water from the rock. 

Another huge miracle … water flowing from a rock!

He had just parted water of the Red Sea and now He makes water flow from rock.

In doing this God prefigured the two ways that the Holy Spirit would work in man

… to wash him … and to nourish him.

Water … the element that God chose for Baptism … is the element that He used

in Salvation History to wash away evil (at the Red Sea)

       and to bring life (water from the rock at Meribah).

Just as God brought forth streams of water from the rock at Horeb in the desert,

so too will He bring forth streams of water from the rock that His Son established in the desert of this world … the rock that is the Catholic Church.

Recall how Jesus said, “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.”

The water that Jesus most wants us to have is Living Water ... His Holy Spirit.

He established the Seven Sacraments in His Church as the channels ...

through which He would pour down His Holy Spirit on us till the end of time.

• In Baptism we get our first taste of Living Water as our souls

are washed of Original Sin and the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us.

• In Confirmation, we receive the full outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

• In Confession, both mortal and venial sins are washed away …

and we are strengthened by the Holy Spirit.

• In Holy Communion, our venial sins are washed away

and we are nourished by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus thirsted to be able to give us this Living ... Life-Giving Water!

Recall how He promised, “When I return to the Father,

I will send you the Advocate, the Holy Spirit”

St. Paul declares this accomplished in our Second Reading from Romans writing:

“The love of God has been poured out into our hearts

through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Do you realize that? 

Do you realize that your thirst can be eternally quenched by the Holy Spirit?

The Woman at the well didn’t know this.

Which is why Jesus asked her to call her husband. Call her husband? What for?

In doing this, He was opening the door for her to consider her deeper thirst.

5 husbands! What was she looking for ... and not finding ... in 6 different men?

She was seeking life itself ...

something that only one man can give ...

the God-man, Jesus Christ!

Jesus offers us Eternal Life through His Holy Spirit.

It’s His Holy Spirit that quenches our thirst in life and prepares us for Eternal Life.

We affirm this each time we pray our Creed and declare,

“I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.”

The Priest prays this in the Eucharistic Prayer saying,

“by the power and working of the Holy Spirit,

you give life to all things and make them holy.”

So, where do we get the Holy Spirit? He comes from Jesus ... through His Church!

As we continue our Lenten journey of growing in holiness ...

       and becoming perfected in love ...

please meditate on the two words ...

“I thirst”.

Those were the words that moved St. Teresa of Calcutta to spend her life for others.

Those were the words that Jesus used to describe why He spent His life for all of us.

God wants us to thirst for Living Water, and He delights in pouring it into our souls.

Sin interrupts the flow of that Water!

That’s why Lent is so important ...

it’s a time to get rid of sin ... so the Living Water can flow once again.

There’s no need to die in your thirst.

God does not want you to die in your thirst.

He is streaming water from the Rock to quench your thirst ... now and forever.

All of us get thirsty ... God designed us that way.

He made us thirsty for water ... and thirsty for Him.

So, let us come to the well ... the Sacraments ...

      not with an empty bucket ... but with a humble heart

... and allow Him to pour His Holy Spirit into our souls.

This is how we satisfy Jesus’ desire ... that each of us possess ...

 “a spring of water ... welling up to Eternal Life!”