Our scripture readings for this third Sunday of Lent may sound somewhat familiar. They were the last readings we heard prior to the lockdown last year due to the coronavirus.
Leading upon to the third Sunday of Lent last year, we began to see news reports of this mysterious virus from an overseas laboratory beginning to hit our shores. And stories of stores being ransacked for basic necessities, especially toilet paper, as we with our fellow countrymen began to brace ourselves for the unknown. How much of the activity of this past year was governed by healthy caution and safety, or irrational fear, it will be hard to tell for some time.
But amidst the chaos and confusion, what has remained throughout it all, has been the human thirst for God. Whether in good times or in bad, in poverty or wealth, in sickness or in health, whether you’re a republican, democrat, atheist, Christian, Muslim, or Jew, man thirsts for God.
We all experience many types of thirst.
Daily our bodies thirst. We of course desire actual water to quench parched lips and dry throats. Our bodies need water; it’s part of our bodily nature. Without water, our bodies die. In the first reading, the Israelites who had been wandering in the desert begin to fear that they might die of real actual physical thirst. It is clear they didn't quite trust God yet, which is why they are described as grumbling, complaining to Moses about this god who would lead them out into the desert. But their fear, and their thirst, was real.
One summer I visited the African Island Country of Madagascar with Catholic Relief Services. I remember visiting villages where regular access to clean drinking water was a real problem, as it is in many third world countries. And one of the tasks of Catholic Relief Services was to help people develop reliable access to clean drinking water. Certainly, one of our duties toward the Lord is to give drink to the thirsty--"for I was thirsty, and you gave me drink"
Beyond physical thirst, we also experience many different types of emotional thirst. A thirst for companionship; after months of isolation, thirst for human touch and social interaction, to see people’s faces and smiles. At points in our lives we thirst for fun and excitement, perhaps adventure; at other times we thirst for a stable job and a sturdy roof over our head. We thirst for knowledge and beauty and goodness and justice. Our human nature thirsts for these very good things.
And then of course, the deepest thirst of all, a thirst that nothing, no earthly relationship or earthly pursuit can quench: the thirst, only God himself can satisfy. This deepest thirst is not for some THING, but for some ONE. For God. God IS the living water, of whom St. Augustine said, “my heart is restless until it rests in you, my God.”
Remember that beautiful Psalm 63: “O God, you are my God, for you I long, for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water” And Psalm 42, “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God.”
Our bodies need H2O and food, our minds need companionship and knowledge, and our souls need God—our souls need intimate, personal contact with Him.
As the Catechism puts it: "Man is made to live in communion with God, in whom he finds happiness" (#45). God has created the human person to be in Communion with Himself. We will never find true joy outside of His will.
Finite things cannot quench the thirst for the infinite living God, and yet, and yet sinful man attempts to quench the thirst for God with so many artificial substitutes. The addict, the drug-addict, the sex or porn-addict, the gambling-addict, the tv-addict or video-game addict, the food or shopping-addicts, seeking God in so many artificial substitutes bring such sadness to themselves and their families. Their addiction cannot satisfy and leaves them hollow. To paraphrase Ken Kesey, every time they take a drink from the bottle, the bottle takes a drink from them.
When some false God becomes the center of our life—the pursuit of pleasure, power, or the good-life, we are left exhausted and unhappy—because we end up drinking sand—and sand does not quench. The neglect of prayer and right religion leaves us literally dying of spiritual thirst while refusing to acknowledge that God could save us if we but humbly turned to Him.
In the beatitudes, the Lord promises blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Our deepest hungers and thirsts can be satisfied by God. And not just ultimately in heaven, either. Our spiritual thirst for God begins to be satisfied as we enter into the mystery of God in this earthly life through the sacraments and the life of faith, through prayer and works of charity.
Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.” Jesus wants to give us this living water of His very Life with us, but he will not force us to drink.
During Lent, we acknowledge those times in which we have been misguided in our search for God, when we have turned to sin, instead of turning to him. And we do penance—we pray, fast, and give alms, not just for ourselves, but for the conversion of the lost souls out there. Those who cannot bring themselves to humbly admit how much they need God. We undertake penances, praying that their pride, their egos, will be softened, that they may hear the voice of Christ calling them to the waters of everlasting life—the living water of God.
[Tomorrow ]/[This morning] we celebrate a special ritual, the first of three rituals called the Lenten scrutinies, for those preparing for the easter sacraments. Angela and Bruce will stand before the congregation, acknowledging their thirst for Christ, their desire to drink deeply of the waters of the Christian life and the sacraments. They are reminders to all of us, to seek to be free from all that keeps us from drinking deeply from the waters Christ gives.
In Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we strip away the non-essentials of our lives, and make our lives into a sort of desert, and yet, it’s in the Lenten desert, that those with faith drink deeply of the living water of God flows abundantly in prayer, fasting, and self-giving.
Again, if you haven’t gone to confession this Lenten season, it is so important to acknowledge those times when we’ve have turned away from the living waters. Without confession, we begin to settle for less, we begin to settle for sand, and are left dying of thirst.
I offer confessions on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings, on Monday nights, and will offer an evening of confessions for three hours, 5 to 8pm on Wednesday march 24. .
“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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