The weather is so hot in Nigeria. Many times, coming back from school I realized that my throat was parched with thirst. Sometimes when I was a good boy, Mom will buy a bottle of coke or fanta for me. I loved it. But that didn’t happen very often. Drinking a bottle of coke or fanta on a hot day was very refreshing but after a minute or two, I realized that I was still thirsty. More than fanta or coke, I needed water.
The Samaritan woman in the Gospel today comes to the well to fetch water. More than physical thirst, she was a woman thirsting for love. In her search for true love, she had married five times and none of them worked out. All her relationships had failed. As a result, she’s been alienated by the community hence she comes to the well at noon – the hottest part of the day when nobody goes to the well.
Jesus meets her there. He sees her secret thirst and her deepest desires. Jesus didn’t condemn her, rather with gentleness He asks her to give Him water. At the end it was Jesus who gave her the living water. For the first time someone treated her not as an object but with honour, love and respect.
Her shame is gone. She returns to her community with joy because she has met someone who quenched her thirst for love: someone who restored her soul and healed her heart.
There was a story of a poor man who sat by the side of the road begging. He had only a handful of wheat, just enough for one last cake. Suddenly he saw the king coming towards him and hope flared up inside him: ‘The King is a kind man,’ he said to himself. ‘He will give me something. As the king approached the poor man, he said to him: ‘Friend, could you spare a little corn for your King?’ The poor man was astonished. He was completely taken aback at this turn of events. He opened his sack, took a quick look inside, picked out the smallest grain he could find, and gave it to the king, saying, ‘I’m sorry it’s so small, your Majesty, but it’s all I can afford.’ The King thanked him and moved on, leaving the beggar feeling terribly disappointed and empty. All day long, he sat there by the roadside begging but got nothing. When evening came, the poor man made his way home, sad, tired and hungry. Once home, he took a pan and emptied the last of the wheat from the sack into it. As he inspected the meagre heap of grains, he made a startling discovery: the smallest of them had turned into a grain of pure gold. He bitterly regretted that he had been so miserly with his king. If only he had known what gift the king wanted to give him, he would have given him all the wheat he had. Then he would never have to beg again.
Isn’t the Season of Lent when I pay attention to the thirst of Jesus for my soul and my thirst for that which will last – the thirst for true love, thirst for the living God? The Psalmist echoes our thirst: ‘O God you are my God for you I long, for you my soul is thirsting like a parched land without water…. I gaze upon you in the sanctuary…. for your love is better than life …(Psalm 63).
What if during this Lent, I strike a deal with Jesus (my King): I give him a part of my heart, or my whole heart, or my whole life? Maybe, just maybe, I might be joyfully surprised. Maybe I would have struck something better than gold. As I end, I think of the beautiful song by Jason Wright:
Lord, you are more precious than silver; You are more costly than gold; You are more beautiful than diamonds; and nothing I desire compares with You.
Thank You, Jesus, for your gift of friendship, thank you for being my friend!
Your brother, ~ Fr. Obi