by Fr. John Martin Shimkus, O.S.B.

      In this age of modern infrastructure and bottled water, it is hard for us to imagine what it was like to live in an arid land like Israel in the time of Jesus.  Very dry conditions prevailed, especially in the summer.  So the preciousness of water was constantly kept in mind, especially for those hot and thirsty from the heat.

     The Samaritan woman who encounters Jesus is just such a person.  Coming draw water at the hottest part of the day, she is clearly thirsty and not just in a physical sense.  She has been ostracized by her peers, she has failed so many times at marriage that she no longer bothers to make it official anymore, and she just seems tired and dissatisfied with her lonely existence. 

     In the midst of her dissatisfaction and spiritual thirst Jesus offers her a very special water, “living water” as he calls it, water that flows like a river, water that will become “a spring welling up to eternal life”.  And because he speaks this way we know he is talking about the Holy Spirit, the refreshing and enlivening Spirit that will make it possible for her to share in the life of God, the Spirit that will make it possible for her - and for us - to worship God in spirit and in truth, because by the Holy Spirit we become God’s sons and daughters. 

     Lent is a season that is meant to make us thirsty.  And although that may begin in the literal sense, by fasting from a favorite beverage – coffee, pop, beer or wine - we really want it to move to the spiritual sense as well.  In our fasting and prayer, we want to feel a bit empty, looking to God to fill that emptiness by the fullness of his Spirit.  Our almsgiving too, can remind us of our thirst for God as we consider the thirst we see in the lives of our brothers and sisters in need. 

     So, after two and a half weeks of Lent, how thirsty are we?  Maybe not as thirsty as we would be if we had gone all that time without water!  But are we feeling a little more thirsty for God?  Do we have a better sense of our great need for him and for the ways that he satisfies that thirst?  What might we do to open our hearts more to him? 

    What Jesus said to the Samaritan woman he also says to us, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink’, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”  My brothers and sisters, we know the gift of God, and we know the One who gives it.  So let us ask him through our Lenten practices to send the Holy Spirit more deeply into our hearts that he may satisfy our thirst now and forever.

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