DRINKING THE WATER OF ETERNAL LIFE

SUNDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT   

Exod 17:3-7; Ps 95:1-2,6-9; Rom 5:1-2,5-8; Jn 4:5-42

Our Thirst for Eternal Life

Our Christian vocation brings us to the company of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Man. The implication of the vocation we have received is that we have communion with Jesus Christ. This communion entails drinking the same cup that he drinks. He made this known to the sons of Zebedee when their mother (or they) made the request for the exalted position of being at his right and left hands respectively. Though he did not guarantee them the exalted position they asked for, he did promise that they would surely drink the same cup with him. We have reflected on the fact that the cup of the Lord has both sweet and bitter, desolations and consolations, material and spiritual contents. Some contents are accessible to our senses, and others through faith. Thus, to truly be the cup of the Lord, we must approach it with our senses and our faith, for Jesus Christ is not just the Son of Man, but also the Son of God. The cup that the Father mixes for him nourishes both aspects of his constitution. Our vocation to follow him entails our transformation into him in both aspects. The transfiguration we witnessed last Sunday revealed both aspects to us. The Father’s voice we heard urged us to listen to him, which means we should drink the cup he gives us. So, to have a taste of these varied contents of his cup, we must come with our senses and our faith.

The requirement to approach with our senses and with faith is never new, but an original requirement from the point of creation. God created the material universe to nourish the sensible constitution of Adam and Eve, while He gave them his word to be their spiritual food. Thus, we heard our Lord respond to the tempter’s demand that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. The sin of Adam and Eve, as we know, was their abandonment of the word of God while desiring what is sensibly given. By abandoning the word of God that is essential for their well-being, they came to experience the unsatisfying nature of material food or goods. We who are nourished and raised on this unsatisfying food have lost the taste of real spiritual food, the word of God. By this loss, which constitutes a foundational mishap, we cannot enjoy the company of the Son of Man without the correction of this lack. The correction of the spiritual fault is impossible without the diminution of our sensible pleasures and satisfaction. This is the reason for the wilderness experience of hunger and thirst. “Tormented by thirst, the people complained against Moses. ‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt?’ they said. ‘Was it so that I should die of thirst, my children too, and my cattle?’” It is never the intention of the Father that we die of hunger and thirst, but through these temporal trials or inconveniences, our spiritual eyes may open to the spiritual reality or food offered by His word.

Moses followed the instructions or words spoken by God, and with faith struck the rock, on which the presence of God was, with a rod, and physical water came forth for the satisfaction of their temporal thirst. “Take with you some of the elders of Israel and move on to the forefront of the people; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the river, and go. I shall be standing before you there on the rock, at Horeb. You must strike the rock, and water will flow from it for the people to drink.’” The flourishing of the temporal goods is diminished for faith in the word to take root in us; by the birth of faith, we join the company of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Saint Paul teaches this: “Through our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith we are judged righteous and at peace with God, since it is by faith and through Jesus that we have entered this state of grace on which we can boast about looking forward to God’s glory.” In the company of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, we drink the holistic cup that contains the will of the Father, containing our temporal and spiritual sustenance.

Our Lord pointed this out to us when he revealed to his disciples that his real food and drink is to accomplish the will of his Father. “Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, do have something to eat; but he said, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples asked one another, ‘Has someone been bringing him food?’ But Jesus said: ‘My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work.’” The will of God the Father is that we drink the cup of the Lord, which is why he bids us listen to him. The work of the Son of Man is to make present the Word of God by accompanying us spiritually through the Holy Spirit and the Gospel. To benefit from the real presence of the Word, we must receive a spiritual birth; conversion must precede this gift; and knowledge, acknowledgement, and confession of our sins must precede conversion. The Son of Man accomplished these in the Samaritan woman at their encounter at the well. He brought her to experience the spiritual reality and goodies before her. “The woman put down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tell the people. ‘Come and see a man who has told me everything I ever did; I wonder if he is the Christ?’ This brought people out of the town and they started walking towards him.” Her thirst for temporal water brought her to encounter Christ at the well, who is the spiritual drink for which she thirsts without knowing it. We all thirst spiritually for the word of God. “O that today you would listen to his voice! Harden not your hearts.”

Let us pray: O God, author of every mercy and of all goodness, who in fasting, prayer and almsgiving have shown us a remedy for sin, look graciously on this confession of our lowliness, that we, who are bowed down by our conscience, may always be lifted up by your mercy. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.