The Thirst for Meaning

Our Lord’s encounter with the Samaritan Woman as recorded in St. John’s Gospel is one of the most moving in the Gospels. This woman, shunned by her community because of her “checkered past,” is approached by Jesus as she goes at mid-day to draw water from Jacob’s Well. She is likely ostracized by others, looked down upon, and struggling under the weight of her own sin and guilt. But Jesus reaches out to her with love and offers to her something far surpassing the water from the well that momentarily satisfies but does not ultimately quench the thirst of her soul – He offers to her the Water of Life, to drink of which is never to thirst again – Christ offers her the Holy Spirit.

 

All of us, like the Samaritan Woman, thirst for meaning, for belonging, for freedom from our past mistakes and the burden of our guilt. We often seek for such things from many different “wells,” only to find that the thirst of our souls may be momentarily quenched but quickly returns. We seek satisfaction of our needs and desires in all the wrong places, not realizing that our ultimate thirst, our ultimate longing is for God Himself. We long for the “water” only Christ can give, the Holy Spirit that wells up within us, “springing up into everlasting life.”

 

An important detail of this encounter that St. John recounts is that the woman, now known by the Church as St. Photini, left her water jar by the side of the well, and went back into the town to tell others about Jesus. She no longer thirsted for the water that does not ultimately quench but had found the source of true life in the “one who told me all that I ever did.” The question remains for each of us: From which “wells” do we draw water?

+ + +

Blessings,

Fr. David