Meditation
for the Third Sunday of Lent
(Ex
17:3-7; Rm 5:1-2, 5-8; Jn 4:5-42)
On the Cross, after they had inflicted on Jesus on the
pain, He cried out, “I am thirsty” (Jn 19:28). Having lost so much blood, Jesus
was exhausted and He begged for water. But they squeezed a sour wine in His mouth.
Christian spirituality sees through this thirst of Jesus on the Cross as not
just thirst for water, but a thirst for souls to be redeemed. In addition, thirst
occurring just before He died becomes an offering of humanity’s thirst for God
and wellbeing. Now, every human thirst can become a participation in the thirst
of Jesus for us. The wicked will offer Him sour wine of bad behavior, while the
faithful ought to offer Him their hearts, repentant, full of love and charity.
That means our thirst for material wellbeing and for our spiritual
life must properly ordered, so that the thirst of Jesus becomes the meeting
point. There is always the tendency to exalt and focus on our thirst for
material wellbeing, and use it as a weapon against our innate thirst for God. At
times we do not realize our true thirst for virtue, goodness, and eternal life.
We are distracted by temporary desires for pleasure and possession becloud our
minds and hearts. This was the experience of the Israelites at Massah and
Meribah. In their thirst for water in the desert they spoke against God and
wanted stone Moses to death.
In the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at
the well, we see how Jesus gradually led the woman to discover her true thirst,
over and above her thirst for water. Jesus made it clear that there is a true
thirst, which brings lasting satisfaction than thirst for physical water and
wellbeing. He said, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but
whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water
that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to
eternal life.” Once the woman began to thirst for this living water, Jesus led her
to abandon her thirst for life of pleasure, repent of her sins, then she
accepted Jesus in her life as the Messiah.
Jesus is the source of the true fountain that satisfies our
every thirst. The second reading explains that it is through faith in Jesus
Christ that we unlock this peace and satisfaction. Through Jesus we obtain
access to the grace that sustains us, and we rejoice already in our hope of
sharing in the glory of God. “And hope does not disappoint us, because God’s
love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given
to us.” This fountain of love flows from the Cross, even to the sinner and the
ungodly, who are distracted with thirst for pleasure and worldly life. The ‘thirst’
of Jesus on the Cross is an expression of His love for us, which longs for our
salvation and wellbeing. It is the true thirst in which our every thirst is
ordered and offered; here, we identified the things that really matter, thirst
for the living water that satisfies us for health and wellbeing, and for
eternal life. Amen.
Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Ojo, Lagos.
Sunday March 12th, 2023.
www.nwachinwe.blogspot.com
19th Lenten meditation
