Living Water - Do Not Bottle

It is difficult for me to relate to a tired and thirsty Jesus, especially when I have never been as tired or thirsty as he is in today’s Gospel reading. One source says his journey from Judea to Galilee through Samaria was 70 miles and would have taken 2.5 days. When was the last time I ever hiked for an extended period of time, especially with a limited water supply?

I have a metal water bottle with me at all times at school, just to save me the trip of walking 50 feet down the hall to a water fountain. It is a privilege that my access to water is seemingly unlimited. My thirst can be quenched when I want it to be. Yet, I also unwittingly waste water, like when I use water to rinse out my water bottle just so I can refill it for new or “fresh” water. But this water is bottled: lifeless, contained, stagnant, fleeting.

So what is living water?

If I am being honest with myself right now, I do not thirst as Jesus thirsts in today’s reading. In this age of instant gratification and in the privileged world that I live in, my earthly needs and desires can always and easily be satisfied. But because my needs are earthly, they never last. They are not alive. These are the transient goods of creation: money, pleasure, power, honor. According to C.S. Lewis, “all that we call human history - money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery - is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy” (Mere Christianity).

But what of the needs and thirsts of my soul?

Both fully God and fully man, Jesus thirsts. He thirsts at Jacob’s well and later, when he is hanging on the cross. God thirsts for us and has always been pursuing us before we could ever respond. And when we do respond, when our thirst for God encounters God’s thirst for us, this is prayer. CCC 2561: “Prayer is the response of faith to the free promise of salvation, and also a response of love to the thirst of the only Son of God.”

Today’s Gospel story is also our own love story with God. Christ seeks and pursues each one of us just as he pursues the Samaritan woman, waiting for her at the well that she thinks will satisfy her thirst. He doesn’t care who she is or what she has done but he draws near to her and offers her a living water that will truly satisfy and last.

The paradox of the encounter at the well is that in order to receive the Living Water, the Samaritan woman (and we) must first let go of what we are holding and whatever we are bottling up. The only way to receive more grace is to open our hands. We must release the things we are clinging to so tightly. In surrendering to God’s will, in leaving behind the “wells” in our lives, it is only then that we are open to being filled with this Living Water that truly satisfies. In addition, with our hands open, we cannot “bottle” the water and keep it to ourselves. A soul drenched in the Living Water cannot help but pour that Living Water out for others. This is Evangelization.

When I am thirsty, where do I go to satisfy my thirst? Is it this living water? Or is it bottled or contained in a well that could dry up? Temporary. Our journey through this Lent is the continuation of the greatest and most epic love story of God’s pursuit of us, waiting for us at the well. How will we respond? How will we share this living water with others?

Author: Joe Nava, Mathematics Department