As I promised in last week’s column, I shall use my column over the next few weeks to share a summary of the reflections I offered at the retreat I preached at Holy Rosary Parish during the first week of Lent.

My goal is to help the people of the archdiocese to live the season of Lent as well as possible.

Our hunger and thirst for God

We have been considering the theme of our hunger and thirst for God. I want to continue our reflection by sharing a lesson a doctor taught me and then applying it to the Christian life.

Doctors tell us that our sense of hunger is much better developed than our sense of thirst. This explains why people are surprised when they find themselves weak and unsteady on their feet as a result of being dehydrated.

What really surprises them is the fact that they were unaware they were thirsty. This rarely happens with hunger. We know when we are hungry. We can feel it and we understand we must respond to it.

There is a parallel with the Christian life. Our hunger for God can become acutely obvious to us when we experience disorder in our lives. If our faith is alive at all, we understand that we must turn back to God.

Thankfully, we have been taught at home, school and parish how to turn back to God. However, our fundamental thirst for God is frequently unrecognised and even when recognised it can be misunderstood.

The classic teaching on the spiritual meaning of thirst is found in chapter four of John’s Gospel. It is the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus surprises the woman by asking her for a drink of water.

First of all, Jesus is a Jew and the woman is a Samaritan. The Jews and Samaritans had nothing to do with each other. Secondly, Jesus and the woman have never met before and the culture of the time frowned on social contact in those circumstances.

The dialogue in the story is interesting because Jesus and the woman are talking on two different levels. Jesus was speaking of life- giving water which is a gift of God and leads to eternal life.

The woman was hearing a reference to ordinary water that she thought would permanently satisfy her thirst and free her from multiple trips to the well each day.

The spiritual meaning of thirst

The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers an interesting insight on the dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. This insight has implications for us about prayer.
 The Catechism notes that Jesus initiated the conversation with the woman and in doing so teaches us two important points: 1) God thirsts for relationship with his people; and 2) God thirsts for us so that we may thirst for God.

The Catechism then refers to a commentary by St Augustine on the same text. The text can be found in the Companion to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Augustine asks,

“Why did Jesus ask her for a drink?” He responds that Jesus was searching for her trust which, when given, would open her gradually to recognise her thirst for God and to accept the living water of eternal life.

Trust of God becomes one of the traditional criteria for opening ourselves to God in prayer and for working toward a quality prayer life. The Catechism concludes this reference to prayer in an easily remembered way. It states “In prayer God’s thirst for us is matched by our thirst for God.”

During the season of Lent and during this retreat, we should examine carefully the intensity of our search for relationship with God and whether we recognise and respond to our hunger, thirst and need for God.

Theme 2: The Call to Holiness

We are continuing our Lenten retreat by considering the implications of some of the themes contained in the various Prefaces of Lent.  The second reference to the first Preface of Lent reads: “the Father is bringing the image of his Son to perfection within us.” The statement of the Preface is a perfect introduction to the call for holiness.

The message of the Preface is rooted in Paul’s letter to the Romans, “We know that God makes all things work together for the good of those who have been called according to his decree. For those whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son….” (Romans 8:28-30). The text outlines the Christian vocation as it was designed by God.

Holiness means cooperating with the Father who is bringing the image of his Son to perfection in us. The first reading of the Liturgy was a reading from the Book of Leviticus. It read: “Be holy for I the Lord your God am holy.”

The remainder of the reading listed the values of God which, when lived, gradually form a holy people. It is important to note that the list of God’s values was specific. There is nothing vague about holiness and there is nothing generic about life. Life is lived in specifics and holiness means living the specific values of God.

The ministry of Jesus

When read reflectively, the Scriptures give us valuable insights into the call to holiness. The Scriptures tell us that the Word, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, became man to be our model of holiness.

Matthew’s Gospel teaches us, “Learn from Me” (Mt 11: 29); John’s Gospel tells us, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (Jn 14: 6); and Mark’s Gospel instructs us, “Listen to Him.” (Mk 9: 7)

Our positive response to these Gospel admonitions allows the Father to bring the image of his Son to perfection in us.

Vatican Council II

The Second Vatican Council provided a new context to a long non- dogmatic tradition in the understanding of spirituality in the Church. It taught that all Christians no matter what their walk in life are called to holiness, to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity in their lives.

Prior to the teaching of the Council, the spirituality of “the two ways” predominated in the Church i.e. the way of the commandments and the way of the counsels. The way of the counsels was considered objectively superior.

It is now clear that all Christians are called to holiness. There is no longer any distinction to be made for any state of life e.g. marriage, ordination, the vowed life or the single life. We are all called to holiness.

During the season of Lent and during this retreat, we must not only consider the intensity of our search for God, whether we hunger and thirst for God and whether we recognise our need for God. We must also consider whether we have listened to and are responding to the call to holiness which we received in Baptism.

Next week we shall continue our consideration of the journey to holiness.