The wildflowers on the side of the road look cheerful and welcoming. The rolling green hills and lush foliage look like a picture-perfect postcard. I can’t enjoy the beauty; the scene fills me with dread. Soon they will become the dried up kindling of the summer wildfires. I live in an area of California constantly affected by droughts. From ripping out our lawns to following day of the week “assignments” for watering, our lives are influenced by water or the lack of it. A brief period of heavy rain may cause a burst of life that can just as easily burst into flames. The region lacks the long-term, sustained water to nourish these plants and shrubs over time. The fleeting beauty is overshadowed by the ever-present fear of how dangerous it will become.
If you think people in Los Angeles talk about traffic a lot, just get us talking about water. And this obsession with water is not new for us Southern Californians. By 1905, the rate of population growth in Los Angeles began to outpace the available water. Engineers, businessmen and government officials began to seek sources of water that would not run out, even using forceful and dangerous measures to secure the land and water rights. In 1913 a massive 200-mile aqueduct was completed that brought water weaving through California’s Central Valley. 100 years later, the Los Angeles Aqueduct still delivers 430 millions of gallons of water to Los Angeles each year. The region could not have grown the way it did without a reliable source of water… and none of us would be here today. What extreme measures are we willing to take for the sake of life-giving water?
The Samaritan woman comes seeking this water from the well during the hottest part of the day. Jesus engages her in conversation, challenging her to pause and reflect on her life and how she has been deceiving herself for many years. Her past relationships, which have all ended in failure and shame, were like temporary bursts of color that never really bore fruit. Jesus reveals her inner worth, and that God loves her more than she could possibly imagine. While she recognized her own thirst for love and belonging, she was trying to quench that thirst in all the wrong places. She is seeking a long term solution now, not just momentary relief. Jesus’ invitation extends to each one of us: come and rest, drink from my unending source of nourishment.
“The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’”- John 4:15
Fatigue, nausea, and headaches are some of the ways our body begins to tell us that we are becoming physically dehydrated. By the time we begin to really feel thirsty, our brain has caught up with the symptoms our body is already experiencing. Likewise, by the time my spirit is thirsting, I have probably already been running at a loss for quite some time. I suddenly become very aware of my needs and desperate for God’s grace, but I have probably been slowing, drying up in prayer for a while.
Hanging on the cross, Jesus calls out “I thirst.” I feel myself thirsting with Jesus. I sense the air is so dry that static electricity builds up and sparks fly with each touch and my skin hurts. I imagine myself meeting Jesus at a trickling spring of the LA River. I point out that the water is drying up, there isn’t enough to go around, maybe not even enough for me. I’m so thirsty, yet who am I to take this life-giving water from someone else? The well is running dry and there is no hope in sight. The landscape of my heart is desolate and crackling in the heat. Is the life-giving water really for me?
I drink and drink and can’t quench my thirst. The headache, the hopelessness, the fatigue. I am so unimaginably thirsty. And instead of just sending a trickle down the stream, I imagine a cascade of 430 million gallons of water traveling over 200 miles to reach me. I cannot imagine the magnitude of God’s love for me, or the Father’s love looking at Jesus on the cross. But I’ve seen the cascading falls of water in the aqueduct, I’ve seen the hundreds of miles of pipeline. World records were set to bring physical water to LA. How much more earth-shattering will God’s efforts be to quench my spiritual thirst?
Going Deeper
Companioning With Christ’s Last Words, pray with the rest of the series
Stay Hydrated with Marina Berzens McCoy and Loretta Pehanich
Store Up the Waters of Consolation for fortitude during times of desolation
Find more Lenten Resources at Ignatian Ministries.
Image: Canva.com “Aerial Aqueduct” IOPHOTO
Jen Coito: Ignatius at Home 