In an episode of the 90s sitcom Seinfeld, Cosmo Kramer, Jerry’s neurotic neighbor, boasts that he has just landed a part in an upcoming Woody Allen film. It turns out that the extent of his one line “part” in the film is comically minuscule: sitting at a bar with Woody and spouting, “These pretzels are making me thirsty.” So much for Kramer’s moment of cinematic glory!
Thirst. Our bodies thirst – and are unable to survive without water. However, we also have another kind of thirst. It is a thirst, a desire that resides in the soul, and requires ‘hydration’ as much as our bodies do. In Psalm 42 we read: “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God.”
Deep within our soul lies a desire for God and the fullness of the life he imparts. But unfortunately for various reasons many do not even realize or acknowledge their need for God. Why? For some it is pride, others fear. Some do not recognize God as the source of the goods in their lives: their material blessings, family, health, and so forth. Others struggle with meeting the moral demands of the Gospel, or with intellectual difficulties such as the problem of evil. Whatever the case may be, we (the Church) are called to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus to others and make disciples of all nations. Pope Paul VI proclaimed in his encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi:
“Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate Christ’s sacrifice in the Mass, which is the memorial of His death and glorious resurrection.”
In today’s Gospel Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well that, “…whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” His personally engaging and unique encounter with this Samaritan woman is nothing less than a Masterclass (pun intended) in evangelism.
Following the example of Jesus, we are challenged to engage and enter into the ‘world’ of the lost, strayed, injured, and weak. In our mission we can take great consolation knowing that even before we begin to preach, teach, and reach others, the One who prepares the hearts of thirsty souls to hear and receive the Good News is at work. Jesus is already there waiting patiently at their ‘well’ thirsting for them. He told us so from the cross in his dying words, “I thirst.”
Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us!
God bless,
+Dcn Dave
“They shall hunger no more, neither shall they thirst any more.” Revelation 7:16