“I thirst.” Mother Teresa loved this phrase of Jesus from the cross so much that she had it inscribed in prominent places in her convent chapels.
This saying of Jesus — one of seven that he spoke from the cross despite his great suffering — has profound implications for the Church militant here on earth. For us, it’s go time. For those who love, when we hear Jesus say “I thirst,” we hear him say, “Bring me as many precious souls as possible. I yearn to be loved by the souls I have died to save!”
We in the West love to daydream about our retirement. We pine for it. We thirst for it. In affluent nations like ours, we believe that at a certain point we have “earned” a rest. But can one take a vacation from loving? Can we retire from serving Jesus with our lives?
We would do well as Christians to meditate often on the shortness of our lives here on earth. Like the Psalmist, we need to beseech the Lord for wisdom: “So teach us to number our days that we may gain wisdom of heart.” (Ps 90) And how few days we have to quench the thirst of Jesus! Tomorrow makes one less day.
It is so easy to become dizzy with indecision over how to serve Jesus. There are so many around us who do not believe. What do we do with our own families who have rejected the faith? Where do we start?
The starting point is very simple. We must attend to the thirsting Jesus in front of us.
As a parent, there is no shortage of opportunities to satisfy the thirst of a child — thirst for water, yes, but also thirst for attention, thirst for playtime, thirst for comfort. There is no shortage of people out there who thirst for a listening ear. There is no shortage of people who are difficult to love or who need help with daily living.
When we give to all of these little ones, we mystically and actually satisfy the thirst of Jesus. In attending to these little needy ones, we simultaneously attend to Jesus and also welcome little ones into the caring arms of Jesus, which look a lot like our arms, come to think of it.
Jesus yearned for consolation from the cross — consolation for all of the blasphemies and indifference that would follow even after his offering of his life for us. Will we ignore his cries from the cross and seek our own comfort and rest as our ultimate goal?
It is justice that we seek to open the eyes of those around us. It is justice that we try to alleviate suffering in honour of Christ taking our suffering upon himself. In so doing, we win souls for the one who loved us to the point of death.
In his book I Believe in Love, Father Jean d’Elbée writes: “Do not ask only for the return of sinners, but that good people will become very good, and that the very good will become saints. Do not ask only for the conversion of souls, but for the perfection of souls, because Jesus not only thirsts to see sinners convert but perhaps he thirsts even more to see the souls which he has chosen rise higher and higher and grow in love and unite themselves more intimately with him.”
What a tragedy for a person in love to say that they have loved enough and that they are going to retire from the effort required. This Lent, let’s pray for the grace to ask for open eyes to see those who thirst in our lives with the thirst of Christ. Not only do justice and wisdom require this of us, but this way of life is the path to deeper love and ultimately results in more souls for our thirsty Saviour.
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