When we hear the news on the newspaper, the radio or the Television, there are many things that attract our attention, among them, the lack of good news. We are used to hearing a lot of bad things: wars, crimes, deaths, kidnappings, robberies and at home. It seemed as if we suffered from a contagious disease, which makes us hear only bad things, the lack of money, small quarrels with children, husband or wife, a disease of one of the members of the family, resentment, violence within the family, deceit, and lies. The world tells us about the lack of justice; it cries for justice, it is hungry and thirsty of justice
Jesus once said to a thirsty woman, a poor Samaritan that had had five husbands: “I am living water”. We all know the story: It was noon and Jesus had just arrived in Samaria and He was sitting by Jacob’s well when a woman came to get some water. Jesus told her: “Give me some water” she was surprised because He was Jew and she was a Samaritan and they did not get along well, Jesus said: “If you only knew God’s gift and Who is talking to you: if you had asked Him, He would have given you living water”.
It is strange that a man without any recipient to get water out from the well, states that He is living water, that He is the water with which we will NEVER be thirsty.
At the time of the Sukkoth or The feast of the Tabernacles at Jerusalem, Jesus stood up and said aloud: “If someone is thirsty, come to me and drink, he who believes in me: As the Scripture says: will have rivers of living water coming out of his womb” The Bible explains that Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is compared with water, water that is able to quench any kind of thirst, to wash everything, to give new life.
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one and if Jesus says that He is living water, it seems very unlikely that He is thirsty, water is not thirsty; or maybe He is thirsty of justice, thirsty that His Kingdom is established in the world, thirsty that the future of man is different. When Jesus is nailed onto the Cross He says: “I am Thirsty”. What an irony, living water, the water that is able to quench any thirst is thirsty on the Cross, when Jesus is on the Cross He repeats the same thing He had said to the Samaritan: “I am thirsty”. Today, Jesus repeats the same thing; “I am thirsty”. What would you do if Jesus told you, right now, that he is thirsty? Thirsty of a change in the way you practice your Catholicism. That your heart is more fervent towards Him, that your marriage is a testimony of Jesus’ love for His Church, that your children find a Christian testimony in you, that you as a son, honor your parents, that you work to build a new world, what would you do?
For those who were next to the Cross where Jesus was dying that Friday, it was very easy to go off on a tangent. The Scriptures say that they tied up a mop to a branch of hyssop, soaked it in vinegar, and gave it to Him to drink, they did not give Him water, they did not quench His thirst, they just wet His lips.
Many of us do the same when Jesus tells us that He is thirsty, we also give Him vinegar. God asks us to love Him above all things and we only give Him the leftovers of our love. God asks us to love each other, just as He has loved us but we think that it is enough to tolerate only those we like and not everybody, what is more, we do not love even our family as He asked us to love them. It means that we give him vinegar instead of water and we do not even give him enough vinegar, we just wet His lips, we do it to calm our conscience, we live as Christians with the Law of Least Effort.
The funny thing about this is that if we quenched Jesus’ thirst, God in His infinite mercy would, in turn, quench ours and we would experience peace and the rest we can only find in God.
Jesus said once: “All those who feel tired and overwhelmed with their burden, come to me and I will make them rest, carry my yoke, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light, learn from me that I am tame and humble of heart”.
Today, in this Holy Friday, God in His infinite mercy tells you, who are also thirsty that He wants that the news in the world change, that you find good news when you get home. He tells you, who just the same as the Samaritan woman want to get water out from the well and who are thirsty too: “I am Thirsty” What would you give Him? Would you give Him water, which means, would you give Him what He asks from you? Would you convert, would you ask for forgiveness, would you get closer to Him with faith and leave behind your pride? Or would you give Him vinegar and tell Him: “I am sorry Lord, I do not have water for You? I do not have the will to do what You are asking from me, be content with my leftovers, with my mediocrity as a Catholic, with my poorness of heart. I only have a mop with vinegar for you. I think that today, Jesus is also thirsty. May you listen to his voice, do not harden your heart and do what He asks from you.
In spite of all that, I have good news for you: if you give Him vinegar or water, Jesus has already died for you on the Cross and He is waiting for you in the Eucharist with open arms so that you get close to Him whenever you want to, to quench your thirst. Jesus died on the Cross for you and me, and He is waiting for us all so that we can find salvation, may that day be today.
