The Living Water That Quenches our Thirsty Soul

The Living Water That Quenches our Thirsty Soul Fr Luke A Veronis   Our level of happiness and our level of contentment does not depend solely on what is happening around us but more so on what is happening within us. In a recent survey evaluating many studies that looked at the level of happiness in the Western world, it reveals a disturbing trend shows that instead of the traditional U-curve we have seen in life over the past 50 years - where young people are happy, and then in mid-life people reach the time of most unhappiness, and then it turns up for happiness in elderly life – now it shows the unhappiest time of life are in youth and young adult years. Stress, anxiety, depression, combined with a dark and pessimistic outlook on life and its future lead many people to feel overwhelmed by the negativity of life. Every day we get bombarded with what is going wrong, with how lost and confused our society is, with the corruption and evil of our leaders and influencers. If our young years of idealism and optimism have become dark and unhappy, what does that mean for the future? Yet, in the midst of any such reports, we need to pause and remember that we always have choices in life. No matter what the mystery of life brings us, in our personal life, as well as on the international scene for the future, we choose what lens with which to look at life. Our level of happiness and our level of contentment does not depend solely on what is happening around us but more so on what is happening within us. What does our heart hold? What do we plant and cultivate in our hearts and minds daily will determine how we perceive what is happening in the world around us. If we fill our hearts with hope, joy, peace and love on a daily basis, then we will see the world around us in a particularly optimistic way. If we choose to make the Risen Lord Jesus Christ the rock and foundation upon which we build our lives and look at our lives, then we understand that the One who conquered darkness and death, overcoming all evil Himself, is our refuge and guide. If, however, we fill our hearts with all the darkness, fear, anger, and hatred of the world, and if we allow our hearts to be filled with self-pity, self-loathing, and resentment toward others and our circumstances, then we will see the world in a completely different way. Remember, what is in our heart will reveal how we perceive the world, how we navigate our future, and how we determine contentment and happiness in our lives. Our level of happiness and our level of contentment does not depend solely on what is happening around us but more so on what is happening within us. Thus, we need to tend to our hearts. We need to care for what we allow to enter into our hearts and what will ultimately possess our hearts. In today’s Gospel story, a woman with a very dark and hopeless heart meets Jesus. We don’t know what happened in this woman’s life but we see her brokenness and hopelessness. In the middle of the day, at noontime, she is coming to the well of Jacob to get water. None of the other village women come in the middle of the day to fetch water, when the heat is greatest. Everyone comes in early morning before the sun reached its zenith. The village women come together to share in companionship, doing their hard work while enjoying the company of one another. Not this woman. She was alone. She was friendless. She was getting her water during the heat of the day, all by herself. She was a broken, rejected, social pariah. She had been married five times. FIVE TIMES! She was a social outcast. As a despised and sinful woman, she saw little reason to hope in her future, especially for a peaceful, content-filled future. What hope could she find? What could possibly change her life and future? Then, she encounters Jesus. Christ perceives her grim circumstances. He realizes she is a despised outcast with little hope for her future. He knows the sinfulness and brokenness in her heart which may have come from her past poor choices in life. He realizes her heart is parched and dry, thirsting not only for the water she was drawing from the well but more so thirsting from the barrenness and emptiness of her life. This is the moment when Jesus reaches out to her. He speaks to her. He breaks the taboos of social society. As a man he talks to this woman; as a Jewish rabbi He speaks to this foreign heretic; as the only Pure and Perfect One, He reaches out to this impure, sinful soul. And He offers her hope! “Ask of me and I will give you living water… Whoever drinks of the water I give will never thirst… The water I give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” At the well of Jacob, this woman tries to get her daily water supply, yet Jesus offers her something much more – life-giving and eternal water. He tells her not to focus on the water from Jacob’s well but instead ask Him for life-giving water. Christ is happy to offer this water which will quench her soul’ s thirst. Christ proceeds from offering living water, to water that will eternally quench her thirst, to a spring of water that will well up inside her heart and refresh her with eternal life. Of course, this living, eternal water our Lord offers is the gift of the Holy Spirit. We read this Gospel story right after the middle of the Paschal Season as we prepare ourselves for the next great feast of Pentecost. Our attention is turning from the Risen Lord and His victorious Resurrection to the great promise of Christ to send His Holy Spirit upon His followers and empower them with His Eternal Presence. This Spring of Water welling up to eternal life, which Jesus offers to the Samaritan woman, is a precursor to the Coming of the Holy Spirit. And when Christ’s eternal Presence enters into our hearts, when we partake daily of the life-giving water, and when we allow His Spirit to dwell richly in us, then our hearts will be filled with the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control. Our level of happiness and our level of contentment will not depend on what’s happening around us but much more so on what is happening within us. Let us drink of the Living Water; let us open our hearts to receive the Holy Spirit; let us allow His divine fruit to take root and be cultivated in our hearts. This will change the way we look at life. It won’t matter what’s happening outside, in the world with all its confusion, darkness, and hatred. When our hearts quench their thirst with the Living Water of Christ, then we will discover peace, contentment and happiness. The abundant fruit of the Spirit will dwell richly in us - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control a part of our lives! Drink and quench your thirst with the Living Water of Christ. Christ is Risen!