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Abounding Water, Around and Within!
The condition of the arid desert of Sinai is grueling: the scorching and unrelenting sun during the
day with no signs of greens or life anywhere, and icy cold and shivering dampness at night. It is no wonder that those Israelites complained to Moses and longed for the bygone days in Egypt even it meant the shame and toil of enslavement. The choice was quite stark: between the rock and the hard places.
Desperation and hopelessness is found not only in deserts but also in the seemingly placid lives of many people. When coupled with chronic depression, the result can be deadly. Some people resort to harmful drugs, which end up destroying them and their loved ones. Drug addiction is such an overpowering and destructive disease. May the Lord help and save all those who are affected by this terrible calamity! Help is available, for example, https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline.
The conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman (John 4:5-42) shows a gradual process of overcoming hopelessness and discovering a new possibility. Perhaps the woman was in such a dire social condition that she had to go to the well under the scorching midday sun so as to avoid the shame of ostracism and gossip of villagers. Probably she lived in silent desolation and isolation. Loneliness and negativity must have been her daily experience.
The story develops like peeling an onion as her understanding makes gradual leaps. She only expected to get some stagnant cistern water, but Jesus promised the living water, in fact, “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Jesus has a propensity to far exceed our expectations as in the case with the Samaritan woman. Franz Liszt was inspired by this passage to write his sparkling and ebullient piano piece, Jeux d´eau a la villa d´Este. Indeed, the magnificent villa in Tivoli is replete with fountain water everywhere. Some years ago, I had a joy of an accomplished pianist with a doctorate from the Juilliard playing this piece during my Mass on this Sunday.
St. Paul describes the very fount of life in an astounding passage today: “And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:5).” It is the very person of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, like living water. Indeed, God has flooded our inmost heart with His Love through the Holy Spirit He has given us. And we carry out our daily life in the light of that Love.
That is the most wonderful actuality of our ‘spiritual life’: the living and real presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We do not have to trek through the peaks of Himalayas or to the deep abyss of the Pacific. We only need to make a journey to our heart. Still, it takes a gradual awakening for us to understand this marvelous reality. Through the conversation with Jesus the Samaritan woman’s understanding grows in crescendo. So will each of us grow spiritually through the encouragement and prompting of the significant others in our lives. The Holy Spirit enters into our lives in subtle, sometimes unexpected, ways.
Last Sunday our catechumens from St. Jude joined other catechumens of the Archdiocese for the Rite of Election. We pray for those who are preparing the Easter Sacraments. Together may we all grow as an intimate family of Christ, sharing the living water of the Holy Spirit!
Water, water, everywhere!
Fr. Paul D. Lee