Jesus and We Quench Each Other's Thirst

Gospel, Week 3, Lent

John 4:5-42: Jesus Meets the Samaritan Woman

In this Sunday's Gospel, Jesus reveals that God thirsts for us and that we, ultimately, thirst for God.

Jesus begins the dialogue with the Samaritan woman by asking her for something to drink.  The thirst Jesus experiences is more than just physical thirst, it is the thirst that he, as God, has for us; as such, it is a thirst that comes from his love for us.  God thirsts for our hearts.  And, in some way I cannot fully understand or explain, there is a sense in which God's thirst is unquenched when we do not give him our lives.  God has put himself in a position where he is incomplete without us.


Jesus reveals our ultimate thirst for God when he tells the Samaritan woman that the water in the well will make her thirsty again.  Again, this is more than physical thirst.  Jesus is saying to us that our ultimate thirst for happiness can only be satisfied when we give ourselves wholly to God.  Everything else we depend on for happiness will leave us thirsty.  God has put us in a position where we are incomplete without him.


Jesus and we quench each other's thirst when we give ourselves entirely to each other in love.  Jesus has done this perfectly since our baptism.  May God give us the grace this Lent to do a better job at giving ourselves wholly to him, as we promised at our baptism.

Do I Really Need a Mediatrix With the Mediator?

In his book, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, St. Louis Marie de Montfort (along with St. Bernard and St. Bonaventure) makes the point that, due to our impurity, we need Mary to be our mediatrix with the Mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ.


At some level, probably due to my Protestant past, I have a problem with this intellectually/theologically.  The incarnation means that God, through Jesus, has given us access to himself.  Because Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, we can go directly to God in prayer.


However, I know from my experience, that I am a better person when I go to God through Mary.  So, in my head, I have a slight problem with this.  But, in my life, I have seen how effective it can be.


I think that Christ's mediation has opened the door to other, subordinate, mediations.  Of these subordinate mediations, Mary's is the most important.  When I go to Mary in prayer, I am, at the same time, going to Jesus in prayer.  And when Mary blesses me with grace, it is Jesus who blesses me with grace through Mary.  In other words, Jesus' mediation is the source of all grace.  Mary's mediation, as the channel, draws on Christ's.


So, it is not that I either go to Christ or I go to Mary.  Rather, it is I go to both Christ and Mary.  The two mediations are inseparably united with Mary's being entirely dependent on Christ's.  


Do I really need a mediatrix with the Mediator?  The Church and my experience would say that I do.

Two Positions on How God's Grace & Our Free Will Interact

Within Catholic theology, there are two primary perspectives on how God's grace and our free will interact.

First, there is the Jesuit position, which states that God's grace woos and leads us to choose what is right but is never efficacious, that is, grace does not guarantee our cooperation.  God's grace might lead us to the water, but it does not make certain that we will drink.  The final decision as to whether or not grace is effective is our choice.

Second, there is the Dominican position, which states that God's grace not only woos and leads, but is also efficacious, that is, it guarantees our cooperation.  God's grace leads us to the water and guarantees that we will drink.  However, this guarantee does not do violence to or take away our free will.  The will is totally free.  Its cooperation is assured because of the influence of grace on the heart.

I prefer the Dominican position for one reason: it seems to eliminate boasting in a way the Jesuit position does not.

According to the Jesuit perspective, we can thank God for his wooing grace, for leading us to the water; but we cannot thank him for our choice to cooperate because this was totally ours.  God gets the praise for leading us; we get the praise for making the right choice, and this praise we get seems to be a ground for boasting on our part.

According to the Dominican perspective, God gets the glory for everything, for leading us to the water and for seeing to it that we drink.  In this, there is no ground for boasting on our part.

The Glory is In the Self-Denial

When I think of the glory of God, I think of two things.  


First, I think of bright light like the sun. Funny that in the Transfiguration, when Jesus reveals his glory to Peter, James, and John, the Bible describes it as bright light and says that Jesus' face "shone like the sun."  (As an aside, I think the glory of God is his love in all its fullness.)


Second, I think of God's glory as being revealed in those events where his power and victory are clearly displayed, e.g., creation, the Resurrection, the Ascension, Pentecost, Judgment Day. I think I am correct in this, yet I know, through revelation, that the highest way God reveals his glory is through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  To my natural mind, this is strange because there is nothing glorious about the crucifixion; it is humiliation to the core.  But, it is not just humiliation to the core; it is also love to the core; and since God's glory is the fullness of his love, and since love, by its nature, is sacrificial, the greatest display of God's glory is in the sacrificial act of the crucifixion.


The fact is, I have the same glory in me that Jesus had at the Transfiguration.  It is true that this glory or love of God enables me to deny myself, to have my own little "crucifixions" throughout the day; however, it is more than that: it is in the self-denial.   As God's glory was most manifested in the death of Jesus, so it is most manifested in all the ways I die to myself.

Encouragement for Self-Denial in Lent

A Catholic nun I follow on Twitter asked if it was possible for her to love Jesus and hate Lent.  This tweet gave me a chuckle because it is honest and because something inside me also hates Lent with all its self-denial.  Call it the flesh.  Call it concupiscence.  Call it the fallen nature.
But as I am sure sister would agree, there is something inside of me that wants to throw myself headlong into Lent and heroically deny myself.  Call this the loving encouragement of God the Holy Spirit.
I have found the Holy Spirit encouraging me with two thoughts to get me through Lent.  
First, my self-denial is in union with the self-denial of Christ who denied himself all the way to the cross for the redemption of the world; therefore, my self-denial, if patiently borne, is also for the redemption of the world.  
Second, there are millions of my brother and sister Catholics who are also struggling to deny themselves during Lent.  I am not alone in this.

Reflection on Gospel for Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 7:21-27

I do not know anything about building a house, but I would think that building a house on sand is probably easier than building one on rock or on a foundation.  In the same way, I find it easy (like building a house on sand) to build my life on the Pope's teachings but harder (like building a house on rock) to build it on his love .  In other words, it is easy for me to be orthodox or with the Magisterium in my head but difficult for me to be orthodox in my heart, that is, to love.  In this sense, I am not much different than the people in today's Gospel who called Jesus, "Lord, Lord".  They seemed to have the correct knowledge of things in their head since they were able to do mighty things in Jesus' name.  But our Lord never knew them because they never did the will of the Father, that is, they never loved God and neighbor.  
I have read most of Pope Benedict's encyclicals and several of his books and have found that, intellectually speaking, his works are very orthodox and profound; however, they also flow from a man who deeply loves Christ, and this love comes through every word he writes.  The Holy Father is orthodox in his mind and heart; and if I am going to be the complete Christian Jesus calls me to be in today's Gospel, I must imitate Pope Benedict's mind and his heart.  If I do this, through God's love for me, I will be building my life on the rock and will be able to stand on judgment day.