Lent JourneySample

DAY 30
Spiritual thirst

There is no doubt about what Jesus needs now, here on the cross. He verbalises clearly that He heeds something to drink. Water can now make a big difference. For the past 16 hours He has not taken any liquids.

He certainly needs much more, but this is what He asks for – water.

It is not always easy to know exactly what my needs are. Sometimes it is much easier to ignore it and rather ‘pull myself together’. When I look back over my life, I see that my needs were actually completely different from what I thought they were.

There is a ‘thirst’ I cannot always describe – one that is not physical, psychological or social. Nothing and nobody can quench this ‘thirst’. I think about the times when I am filled with a restlessness, emptiness, longing, and nostalgia . . . lonely times. How many times in my life have I thought I had the answer, just to ‘thirst’ once again?

Augustine said: “You made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

I also see the longing in the woman who has had five men in her life, when she comes to fetch water at the well. Jesus points out to her that physical water cannot quench her ‘thirst’; the water she really needs is the living water of the Spirit.

I become one with the longing deep in my heart, ‘Show me, give me – the water for which I truly thirst.’

EXERCISE
• When you pray today, try to get in touch with your deepest longing for God.
• Talk to God about it.