Exodus 17:3-7 / Romans 5:1-2, 5-8 / John 4:5-42
One of the most common elements and also probably the most taken for granted is water.
In this country, at the turn of the tap, flows clean drinkable water.
And most the time, we use that clean water to wash our clothes, wash our dishes, and of course, in this present situation, to wash our hands often.
It may lead us to think that water is in such abundance that even abuse can come in, as in we will waste water.
But when we know how important water is (we won’t be able to go on for more than 3 days without water), then we will realize how important water is.
When in dry arid conditions, and when water is scarce, then water becomes very significant in meaning as well as in reality.
The object of discussion in the gospel is water. In that region, water is obviously of great significance.
The conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman begins with water when Jesus asked her for a drink.
But as the conversation went on, the topic of water began to take on a spiritual mystical meaning.
Jesus used the term “Living Water”. The Samaritan woman would probably think of flowing water.
But then Jesus said that anyone who drinks the water that He shall give will never be thirsty again, and the water that He gives will turn into a spring within, welling up to eternal life.
Those images made the Samaritan woman yearn for that Living Water.
It awakened in her heart, not just a physical thirst for any water, but a deep thirst in the depths of her heart a thirst which only Jesus the Living Water can quench.
As the suspension of Mass continues into the fourth weekend, we are also beginning to feel a thirst.
After four weekends without the Eucharist we are beginning to feel a thirst.
We are beginning to feel like dry arid ground. We are beginning to feel that our lives are as dry as desert sands.
Oh yes, we long to have the Eucharist, we long to come back to some normalcy in life, we long to come back the routine of going for Mass and receiving the Eucharist on Sundays.
We long for this time of uncertainty and instability to be over.
Certainly, this challenging and difficult time will be over sooner or later. Then our lives will go back to normalcy and we will go back to our routine.
So this thirst will be over.
But this thirst for normalcy and regular routine should awaken in our hearts the thirst for something deeper.
Because other kinds of thirst will come along – the thirst for health, the thirst for success, the thirst for achievements, the thirst for recognition, the thirst for relationships, the thirst for happiness, the thirst for love.
But beyond and above all these kinds of thirsts, there must be thirst for the Living Water that only Jesus can give.
On the Cross, Jesus cried out, “I thirst”. His thirst is not for any water, but a thirst for our hearts to be turned to Him, and from His pierced side will flow His Blood and Living Water that will fill our hearts and quench that thirst that will satisfy the other thirsts.
Only when we thirst for that Living Water that only Jesus can give, then our hearts will be like a tree that has its roots by the stream and bear fruit even in dry arid ground.
Let us turn our hearts to the pierced side of Jesus and be filled with Living Water and we shall never be thirsty again.