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.