PEACE IS THIRSTING FOR GOD

PEACE-LENT 2023: Third Sunday of Lent

March 12: Exodus 17: 3-7; Romas 5: 1-2,5-8; John 4: 5-42

Life is beautiful, no doubt; but it never lacks its share of problems, difficulties, confusions, traps and temptations. The beauty lies precisely in the manner in which a person lives these peculiar moments more than the happier ones. Especially, anyone claiming to be a person of faith, has to manifest a level of maturity that shows him or her capable of living with a constant thirst. Although this thirst itself is a lack of internal peace, true and wholesome peace can come only from a thirst, a thirst for God. The liturgy today invites us to reflect on this aspect of one's faith life: thirsting for God, as a way to peace!

Life has its own patches of dryness and no one's life is an exception to it. The dryness could be more severe in some, when compared to the others. What matters is not actually how much more or how much less, but how a person handles one's own share of dryness in his or her life. Handling aridity in life is a faith-skill. In the first reading today, we see the people of Israel in their driest patch of their history - the sojourn in the desert. They are brought forth from slavery across the Red Sea, with great and mighty signs and wonders. But once in the desert, they complain for every little thing, lacking patience to the core. They long for the onions and the garlic of Egypt, they long for the flesh and meat they once had in plenty, they fret that they are without a drop of water! It is easy to laugh at them or judge their impatience, but we will do well before that to think of ourselves and our lives. 

Issues in the family, the employment issues, the financial crisis, the relationship issues, sickness, misunderstanding... as soon as a problem begins in our lives don't we begin to complain too? The Lord teaches us - to TURN TO THE ROCK, when struggling to handle aridity in life. Dying without water, the people get water from the least expected source... in the dry parched desert and worse still, a dry boulder of a rock in that desert. If we turn to the Lord, our Rock... we will see solutions to our problems, clarity to our confusions, help in our difficulties, from the least expected quarters. Let us turn to the Rock.

The second reading instructs us how to comport ourselves while feeling the thirst. When in the thick of a problem or in the eye of the storm, where do we fix our gaze? There could be varied ways of interpreting one's problem and seeking a way out of it. One way is to fix our minds on the problem, but that will only magnify the problem. Another way is to fix our eyes on ourselves, but that will only make us more and more depressed in self pity. Yet another way is shift our attention to something else in life, but beware, the problem will continue to be there only to return at another opportune moment to torment us. 

St. Paul invites us to fix our gaze on Christ, on the Lord who, even while we were undeserving sinners, was ready to lay down his life for us. Such is the love of God for us and should we fret when we are in a crisis? We are invited to TURN TO THE SPRING, to the saving grace that loves without measure, the love that has been "poured" into our hearts from that Spring. It is from this spring that we shall fill ourselves, our hearts and our being with that peace we are thirsting for.

In the Gospel, Jesus speaks of a thirst with which we should all live! It is not the thirst for a material good, not a thirst for a interim peace, not a thirst for a breath of temporary relief but a thirst for eternal life, a thirst for perennial peace, a thirst for fullness of life - a life-giving thirst. He offers to give us the living water, the spring "gushing up to eternal life" (Jn 4:14). "All who are thirsty, come to me and drink" he declared elsewhere (Jn 7:37). We are called to live with that thirst, constantly longing for God, looking for that peace that can come from God alone. 

Like that deer that yearns for running streams, like the parched land that longs for rain, our soul should thirst for God, teaches the psalm (42). Let us thirst for God, let us thirst for a deeper and stronger relationship with God. Let us thirst for the Spirit, let us thirst for the fruits of the Spirit, let us thirst for a life that is united with God, let us thirst for a life that is filled with God. Let nothing disturb us... let nothing separate us from God... neither hardships nor distress nor persecution nor famine nor perils nor sword, not even death; let nothing separate us from God. Let these days of lent help us to TURN TO LIFE IN GOD.

True peace is a thirst, a thirst for lasting good in life, a thirst for the only unchanging aspect of our life, yes, it is a unending thirst for God. The more we thirst for God, the more shall we seek peace and the more shall we be disposed to true peace. Peace be with you! Shalom!