give me a drink

Homily Third Sunday of Lent A St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas 27 March 2011 Daily Readings

JMJ AMDG +m

Jesus said to her, 'if you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." Jesus thirsts for the faith of this insignificant woman. She was at the well all alone, for she had been shunned, and had no friends. She was there at the heat of day, where her sins would be laid completely bare, where she could not hide. She was there not on behalf of a family, for she was on her sixth husband. What is more, she is discovered by a Jewish man who would surely scorn her even more since she was a Samaritan. Yet Jesus thirsts for the faith of this woman more than she thirsts for him. He is the wellspring of eternal life. Relationship with him means everything. Relationship with her on the surface means nothing. By the standards of her time, she was a virtual nobody. Yet he thirsts for her more than she thirsts for him. Jesus is the living answer to every deep human question: who am I? who loves me? what should I do to be happy? He is the answer to every question that remained unanswered in this woman's life. Jesus was one, who though needing a drink of water, would never thirst spiritually like this woman was thirsting. He is already the living water welling up to eternal life. Yet he begins by asking this woman for a drink. He makes himself, who is all powerful, dependent upon her bucket, and her answer. He thirsts for the faith of this woman more than she thirsts for him. The disciples eventually return with food, and even though Jesus is famished, he refuses it, telling them that his food is to do the will of the one who sent him. The Father's will was for Jesus to thirst for the faith of this insignificant woman, to love her beginning where no one else could, where she did not love herself, and to wait for her response, to thirst for her response. Jesus thirsts to do the Father's will, and it was the Father's will that he ask this woman for a drink, to ask this most insignificant of women, for a drink of faith. So too in the Holy Eucharist, Jesus is thirsting for the faith of his bride, the Church. The well is the place of engagement, the place of marriage, the place of new life, and in this scene of the woman at the well, we see Jesus thirsting for the faith of his bride, the Church. As we approach the Holy Eucharist tonight, we must remember that Jesus is thirsting for us his bride more than we will ever thirst for him. The Eucharist is not a take it or leave it proposition. Jesus does not offer himself, then remain indifferent to how we respond. Along with the gift of Himself comes a greater condescension; Jesus begs and waits for our response. He thirsts for us in this Eucharist more than we will ever thirst for him. He is the wellspring of eternal life, not us, but he thirsts for us more than we will ever thirst for him. For we are too easily satisfied with filling our bucket over and over with water that will never satisfy. Who of us can say that we do not return to the same sins, over and over and over? We are here at the Eucharist, but we have only barely begun to worship in spirit and in truth, only begun to thirst to do the will of the one who loves us more than we will ever love ourselves. Yet Jesus is here at this moment worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth, thirsting for the will of his Father with a perfect thirst, for he knows better than we that the Father's love is beyond all telling. So Jesus is here, not indifferent to our response, but begging for our faith, thirsting for us, for his Father's will is that Jesus waits for each one of us as long as it takes for us to respond. The Eucharist is not a dare from our Lord to respond in kind to him. No, even if our thirst for living water is imperfect, it is the Father's will that Jesus thirsts perfectly for our faith. Once Jesus offers himself, he waits for us. He thirsts for us. His food is to worship the Father in spirit and in truth not alone but with us, and in us, and through us. This is the food that sustains Jesus, his living water, to bring us home to the Father. Jesus desires the living water of our baptism to be not a distant memory for us, not a vain hope for a life that is unsure and distant. No, Jesus desires the water of baptism to be more than a baptism of repentance, a washing from the outside in, but he wishes that the living water of baptism be stirred up from within as water welling up to eternal life. In the Eucharist, which feeds our baptism, Jesus asks us to enter into his self-forgetfulness and perfect self-giving, that is proper to those who of who are passing with Jesus even at this moment from death to eternal life, into a life not measured in length of days but by the depth of our love for God and for one another. Jesus says to his bride, the Church, in this Eucharist: 'if you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Amen.

JMJ AMDG +m