Daily Retreat 02/24/08
2008 Feb 24 SUN: THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT.
Ex 17: 3-7/ Ps 94(95): 1-2. 6-7. 8-9/ Rom 5: 1-2. 5-8/ Jn 4: 5-42
From today’s readings: “In those days, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses.... If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.... Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.... If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,‘ you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.”
Still Thirsty
Even though we’ve all been thirsty before, and we may have even used the words more than once, few, if any, have been at the point of literally “dying of thirst.” How horrendous it would be to be stranded in the middle of a desert with the ever-radiant sun as your worst enemy, and no water at all, no water at all....
And yet, that’s the very predicament the Israelites found themselves in when our first reading takes up this episode in their Exodus. So awful was their thirst, that they peered across the burning sand all the back to Egypt, the land of their slavery, where even the crushing yoke of slavery loomed more welcoming to them than the terror of dying of dehydration.
So they cursed and complained about Moses, their leader, and about their God who had chosen such an arid airhead as their leader. How they must have jeered: “He’s called ‘Moses’ because he was ‘drawn from the water’ - we need a new leader who will draw us to the water!”
But God had made no mistake in electing Moses, and neither had Moses made a mistake in leading the people out of Egypt into the desert. No, but the mistake (the sin, in fact) lay in the hardened hearts of those who, at the waters of Meribah and Massah, tempted and tested the Lord, even though they had seen His works. How could they ever doubt that the Lord could and would satiate their thirst when they had witnessed His miraculous mastery over the waters of the Red Sea which, at His word, had been transformed into the spillgates of their liberation?
And yet, many today harbor hardened hearts which echo the mumbling and grumbling of those provoked by scanty rations provided by Providence . “I don’t have enough money to make ends meet.... I don’t have enough clothes to be considered fashionable.... I don’t have enough friends to be considered popular.... I don’t have enough peace and quiet to hear myself think.... I don’t have enough free time to do what I want to do with my life!”
But regardless of which wishing well we use to slake such thirsts, we always find ourselves thirsty again, and predictably, even more thirsty than before! And no wonder, for we moderns aren’t dying of thirst in the middle of a desert - we’re dying of thirst in the middle of the ocean! Our modern lifestyle claims that it can quench every thirst, so we’ve deliberately marooned ourselves in the midst of a sea of salty and sorry substitutes for that living water once offered to the woman at the well. For clearly, the water of this world will never “well up to eternal life” - we know that well enough instinctively, but even so, we still prefer to re-learn that experientially as we insist on “just one more sip” of the dehydrated soft and hard drinks on tap in the secular city.
But we’re still dying of thirst - no matter how often we wet our whistle with the insipid beverages of this world’s best, we’re still dying of thirst! And as soon as you and I realize that, then perhaps we’ll fully and finally recognize the Gift of God, the One whose words we heard today, “Give Me a drink” - and we would ask Him, and He would give us His living water!
Ex 17: 3-7/ Ps 94(95): 1-2. 6-7. 8-9/ Rom 5: 1-2. 5-8/ Jn 4: 5-42
From today’s readings: “In those days, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses.... If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.... Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.... If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,‘ you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.”
Still Thirsty
Even though we’ve all been thirsty before, and we may have even used the words more than once, few, if any, have been at the point of literally “dying of thirst.” How horrendous it would be to be stranded in the middle of a desert with the ever-radiant sun as your worst enemy, and no water at all, no water at all....
And yet, that’s the very predicament the Israelites found themselves in when our first reading takes up this episode in their Exodus. So awful was their thirst, that they peered across the burning sand all the back to Egypt, the land of their slavery, where even the crushing yoke of slavery loomed more welcoming to them than the terror of dying of dehydration.
So they cursed and complained about Moses, their leader, and about their God who had chosen such an arid airhead as their leader. How they must have jeered: “He’s called ‘Moses’ because he was ‘drawn from the water’ - we need a new leader who will draw us to the water!”
But God had made no mistake in electing Moses, and neither had Moses made a mistake in leading the people out of Egypt into the desert. No, but the mistake (the sin, in fact) lay in the hardened hearts of those who, at the waters of Meribah and Massah, tempted and tested the Lord, even though they had seen His works. How could they ever doubt that the Lord could and would satiate their thirst when they had witnessed His miraculous mastery over the waters of the Red Sea which, at His word, had been transformed into the spillgates of their liberation?
And yet, many today harbor hardened hearts which echo the mumbling and grumbling of those provoked by scanty rations provided by Providence . “I don’t have enough money to make ends meet.... I don’t have enough clothes to be considered fashionable.... I don’t have enough friends to be considered popular.... I don’t have enough peace and quiet to hear myself think.... I don’t have enough free time to do what I want to do with my life!”
But regardless of which wishing well we use to slake such thirsts, we always find ourselves thirsty again, and predictably, even more thirsty than before! And no wonder, for we moderns aren’t dying of thirst in the middle of a desert - we’re dying of thirst in the middle of the ocean! Our modern lifestyle claims that it can quench every thirst, so we’ve deliberately marooned ourselves in the midst of a sea of salty and sorry substitutes for that living water once offered to the woman at the well. For clearly, the water of this world will never “well up to eternal life” - we know that well enough instinctively, but even so, we still prefer to re-learn that experientially as we insist on “just one more sip” of the dehydrated soft and hard drinks on tap in the secular city.
But we’re still dying of thirst - no matter how often we wet our whistle with the insipid beverages of this world’s best, we’re still dying of thirst! And as soon as you and I realize that, then perhaps we’ll fully and finally recognize the Gift of God, the One whose words we heard today, “Give Me a drink” - and we would ask Him, and He would give us His living water!
posted by FrPitstick | 2/23/2008
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