Quenching Our Thirst

A friend and colleague, Joy, introduced a group of us to a simple contemplative practice at the start of our gathering together. Moving around a circle she invited us to receive from the person beside us the greeting, I see you; in reply to express, It is good to be seen. Each one of us had the opportunity to receive and give this tender, open-hearted gesture of intention and communion. In the end our circle reverberated with an upwelling of Spirit and deep appreciation.

I think of this as I read about the encounter of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well.* An encounter that begins with a request from Jesus for a drink of water – simple yet profound as it crosses ethnic, cultural, and religious barriers of the time. An open, honest, respectful dialogue follows. In the end the woman experiences spiritual insight that is liberating, and through her an entire community comes to new understanding.

In our own gospel story Jesus meets us at the place of our greatest need, so much more than water to survive. Our human condition, mistakes, sin, do not get in the way of how he knows us – as God’s beloved. He offers God’s Spirit as a spring of water gushing up to eternal life that refreshes, delights, and quenches the unending thirst of ours and every parched soul.  

Jesus and the woman at the well remind me to make space in my life for rest and soulful encounter. The story also calls me to engage in compassionate conversation across difference and trust that Christ will meet us there. And also to not get too discouraged by my imperfect Lenten journey; as the Leonard Cohen song goes – Ring the bells that still can ring / Forget your perfect offering / There is a crack, a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in.