Meeting 3 — “I Thirst”¶
Goal of the meeting + notes for the facilitator¶
This meeting about desires is meant to prepare us directly for encountering Christ in the Eucharist during the evening prayer. For some participants it may feel awkward, because in their lives they may have systematically forgotten what they themselves desire, in favor of the desires of people around them. We do not want to do therapeutic work in 1 hour and 10 minutes—that is not the purpose of facilitators. What we do want to communicate is that it is worth bringing the topic of desires to Jesus and talking with Him about it.
- Goals of the meeting:
to become aware of our desires
to see that Jesus also desires
to see what Jesus desires
Our desires¶
Note
We suggest praying to the Holy Spirit, asking Him to show our desires in a new light.
In faith, the topic of desires and the will is, to say the least, complicated. If we listen carefully to what is in Sacred Scripture—and even more so in various pious prayers and hymns—we can come to the (mistaken) impression that a religious person should have no desires and no will. We say “Your will be done” in the Lord’s Prayer. In Gethsemane, Christ prays, “yet not my will, but Yours be done.” In confession one may hear about “disordered desires”.
Note
Found online (on a forum) while preparing this outline: “I hate this prayer, but if that is what God’s will looks like, then well—I have to adjust to it.”
Today we want to talk about the desires of believers. Let us read:
A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” (For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
—J 4,7-15
What kind of desire is the Samaritan woman speaking about, and what kind is Jesus speaking about?
Is Christ talking about removing (erasing) desire from life, or about its lasting fulfillment (or even continual satisfying)?
The whole conversation begins with water—an elementary need to satisfy physical thirst. Yet Christ very quickly goes deeper, starting from this common experience of people living in the Middle East (and, in fact, of all people everywhere).
For the same God who declares that He has no need to tell us whether He is hungry did not hesitate to beg the Samaritan woman for a little water. He was thirsty… But by saying, “Give Me a drink,” the Creator was asking for love from His poor creature. He was thirsty for love… Ah! I feel it more than ever: Jesus is thirsty.
—St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Christ shows the human person His desires. Just as He did with the Samaritan woman, He approaches each of us and says what He desires. In this way, He provokes important questions in us about what we ourselves desire.
Note
Do not “cut off” these questions. If we do not start from our own desires, the meeting may feel “empty”.
What role do desires play in my life?
What do I do with my desires? (Does life just “happen”, or do I let my desires guide my life?)
How do I recognize my desires?
We began today with a slightly provocative picture of believers as people who “ignore their desires” in the name of misunderstood religiosity. Now we clearly see Christ guiding us toward reflecting on our own desires. Is this a “novelty” of the New Testament? By no means. Let us read:
How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O LORD my God; enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.
—Ps 13,2-4
What does the psalmist desire?
How do you assess the directness with which he expresses his desires?
Jesus on the Cross¶
Note
This part of the meeting is primarily about conveying knowledge. Do not avoid it. Adjust the information here to your participants.
Let us read:
After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to His mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished,” and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
—J 19,28-30
What kind of “thirst” is Jesus speaking about?
In this passage the Greek word “διψω” (dipsō) is used, which literally means “I want to drink / I thirst”. This literal meaning makes sense, and of course Jesus, dying on the cross, was physically thirsty. Yet, just as in the passage with the Samaritan woman, we can also see a deeper meaning here. Psalm 42:2 points us toward this reading: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, O God!” (Combining these two “kinds” of thirst is not a new idea at all.) The Evangelist wrote that Christ spoke so “that the Scripture might be fulfilled”. Which Scripture?
Note
Questions may come up about hyssop—Syrian oregano, whose branches can reach up to about 90 cm. It is difficult to explain why this plant was used at the crucifixion. Many modern translators believe the word may have been confused in copying due to its similarity to a Greek word meaning “spear”. More attentive participants may also look for inconsistencies in the Gospel accounts: Matthew mentions offering Jesus sour wine and notes that Jesus “tasted it, but would not drink.” Nonetheless, the terms used in the texts point to two different things: Mark and Matthew mention a narcotic given to the condemned to dull pain, while John refers to diluted sour wine that soldiers and workers drank.
Note
It is worth knowing that among skeptics there is a common theory that this is not prophecy being fulfilled; rather, the Gospels were written so many years after Golgotha that the authors “piously” wrote them so that everything would fit. Keep this in mind when leading the meeting. It is worth for you, as a facilitator, to think in advance how you relate to this. As a co-author of this outline I can say with conviction: Jesus’ whole life was marked by symbolism to such an extent that His conscious references to it at the climactic moment do not conflict with faith or logic for me at all.
Let us read:
My throat is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth
—Ps 22,16
Or perhaps Jesus is referring to a verse from another psalm. Let us read:
Answer me, O LORD, for Your steadfast love is good; according to Your abundant mercy, turn to me. Hide not Your face from Your servant, for I am in distress; make haste to answer me. Draw near to my soul, redeem me; ransom me because of my enemies! You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to You. Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.
—Ps 69,17-22
What feelings does this fragment express? What does the psalmist desire?
What Does Jesus Desire?¶
We have talked about our desires. We have seen that our desires are not indifferent to Christ. Desires matter. How often do we talk about them?
Warning
Be careful not to arrive at the conclusion: “I don’t know anyone’s desires, therefore I have no friends.” Sharing desires is a strong and quite common factor, but it is not necessary—friendship can be built without it.
Whose desires do I know?
With whom do I share my desires?
What is it like to hear about someone’s desires?
What is it like to speak about my own desires?
Sharing our desires is one of the basic “building blocks” of deep interpersonal relationships. Many people know my achievements and flaws, my way of speaking and my habits—these things belong to the “public space” of who I am. I decide myself who knows my desires. Sharing desires is one of the distinguishing marks of friendship.
Christ wants a relationship with us. He wants to know our desires—our heart—but He also wants the opposite: for us to know His desires. Sometimes getting to know each other’s desires takes a long time, and even after many years there may still be more to discover.
During a festive breakfast celebrating their golden wedding anniversary, the wife thought: “For fifty years I have always given my husband the upper, crunchy part of the roll. Today I have the right to treat myself to that favorite bit.” And she took the top half, handing the bottom half to her husband. Then the old man joyfully kissed his wife’s hand and said: “My dear, you have made my day. For fifty years I have not eaten the bottom half of the roll, even though it’s the part I like most. All this time I thought that since you enjoyed it so much, you should have it first.”
—Anonymous
In this context, let us try to think about Jesus:
Note
If the group has trouble recalling passages, the facilitator should be ready to give a few examples: Jesus desired to heal, desired to teach us, desired to save us, etc. If this point “doesn’t land”, simply move on to reading the passages later in the outline.
A friend comes to you and asks a “simple question”: “What did Jesus desire?”—what do you answer?
What moments from Jesus’ life (Scripture passages) come to mind that show what Jesus desires?
God shares His desires with us very openly. We do not have a God who creates riddles and wonders whether we will decipher the correct answer. Throughout His life, Christ spoke plainly about what He was about and why He came.
Let us read:
I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!
—Lk 12:49
Let us read:
While He was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged Him, “Lord, if You will, You can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him.
—Lk 5:12-13
Let us read:
I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
—Hos 6:6
Let us read:
Pilate therefore said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world: to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
—Jn 18:37
Let us read:
And taking the Twelve again, Jesus began to tell them what was to happen to Him, saying, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they will mock Him and spit on Him and scourge Him and kill Him; and after three days He will rise.”
—Mk 10:32b-34
Directly before the Passion, Christ reveals to us in prayer to His Father His deepest desires and motivations. This is Christ’s High Priestly Prayer.
Let us read:
I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. All Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You.n+ Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one.n+ While I was with them, I kept them in Your name, which You have given Me; I guarded them, and not one of them has been lost, except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.n+ But now I am coming to You, and I speak these things in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.n+ I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.n+ I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.n+ Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.n+ As You sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.n+ I do not pray for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word,n+ that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.n+ The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one.n+ I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.n+ Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am, to see My glory, which You have given Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
—Jn 17:9-24
What is Christ asking for, for us?
What does it mean to me that Christ chooses unity as His main desire?
Which of Jesus’ desires do I identify with most?
As a summary, let us read:
These are simple explanations; they make sense and stick to the facts. Yet once more allow me to suggest something that can enrich our understanding of Calvary even further. It has to do with John the Evangelist and his symbolism. I mean his frequent use of words and phrases that suggest more than they can explicitly say. How can we connect Jesus’ “I thirst” with John’s own symbolism?
Let us begin with an event you certainly know. Do you remember how Peter, in order to protect Jesus, drew a sword and cut off the right ear of Malchus, the servant of the high priest? What did Jesus say to Peter? “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given Me?” (Jn 18:11). What cup? Suffering and death. Remember how Jesus knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane, covered with bloody sweat, because His body recoiled from suffering and death, and yet He prayed: “Father, if You will, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours be done” (Lk 22:42). On the cross, the physical thirst—the kind of thirst one feels after a day without water in the desert—was indeed enormous; yet physical thirst did not dominate Jesus’ mind. Above all, Jesus desired to drink the cup of suffering and death—to drink it to the last drop. Why? Because only then, when He tasted the bitter wine of death, was His Father’s will fulfilled.
What, then, was Jesus’ deepest thirst—far greater than thirst for water or wine? Simply this: He thirsted to fulfill what He was born for. More than anything else in life, He desired death—for us—out of pure love.
—Walter Burghardt SJ, “Love is the Flame of the Lord”
The Eucharist — a meeting of desires¶
Since we know that we desire God—and that God desires to meet us—the question arises: how can we meet? Where can we meet? Sin is what separated the human person from God.
In what circumstances is it easiest for me to meet the personal God?
Which part of the Mass feels most personal to me? When is it a personal encounter?
The Eucharist, in its structure, is a dialogue!
- Structure of the Liturgy of the Word:
Scripture reading (God speaks to us),
Responsorial Psalm (the human person responds to God),
Gospel (God speaks to us),
Prayer of the faithful (the human person responds).
This evening we will experience the culminating point of the retreat. After listening to Jesus’ seven words, we want to meet Christ in the Eucharist.
Vatican II speaks of the Eucharist as “the source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen gentium, 11). “The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the most blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch” (Presbyterorum ordinis, 5). Even if we “feel” this, we know from experience that we grow into experiencing the Mass this way gradually—and we do not always perceive it like that.
Let us read:
The spring desires that we drink from it
—St. Gregory of Nyssa
What is the “purpose” of a spring? What can a spring “do”?
Christ’s desire is to satisfy your desires—how does this perspective affect your life?
Let us read:
The symbolism of a spring helps us understand the symbolism of the heart more deeply. Usually, when we hear about the heart, we think of it as the seat of feelings. But the heart must be seen as the symbol of a person giving themselves. That is what love is about, because love is not a feeling. Of course feelings accompany love, but the essence of love is not feeling—it is an act of the will by which a person makes a gift of themselves. A spring expresses this attitude of giving—of giving oneself. An inscription on the stone rim of a certain spring, “My simple task is to give, and only to give,” captures well what the ever-flowing water “says”: water, so to speak, in the state of giving—unceasing giving.
—Fr. Franciszek Blachnicki
In a meeting of desires there is… a sense of longing and incompleteness! This unceasing longing builds a path of maturing. Faith is a meeting of a desiring human person with a desiring God. We have desired to be together ever since we had to leave Eden.
The community of those who desire¶
We have clearly seen two perspectives. Let us summarize them:
Let us read:
I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that You have done; I ponder the work of Your hands. I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide Your face from me, or I will be like those who go down to the pit.
—Ps 143:5-7
Let us read:
Then He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks He said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” And He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.”
—Lk 22:15-20
How we wish such a pairing of Scripture were widely known! How different this approach to faith is from mere rule-keeping, fear of judgment, and a sense of obligation. Seeing faith this way would give all of us joy.
So far we have spoken about Jesus’ desires and our individual desires. These two perspectives are the closest and most natural to us. Yet we are not alone in these desires.
Let us read:
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being united in spirit and purpose. Do nothing from selfish ambition or vain glory, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Have this mind among yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus: though He was in the form of God, He did not cling to equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming like human beings; and being found in human form, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death—even death on a cross.
—Phil 2:2-8
What is the “completion” of St. Paul’s joy?
How often do you look at others in the Church as people who desire the same thing as you?
Desires are profoundly personal, and they are a distinguishing mark of relationship. That is where we began today. Believers “expand their hearts” and discover that the “deepest and most intimate desires” of their hearts are not incomprehensible to the people around them. That changes everything. From that point on, my neighbor is not merely someone who shares the same living space with me. My neighbor is a person who, in the depths, is like me: they carry the same desire for love and for meeting God. Each of us is a separate microcosm—mystery, individuality—but we are united by one thing: we desire God and love more than anything else. Some of us already know this and name it; others feel it but do not yet know how to express it. We are at different stages of the same longing.
How can we help one another in this “community of those who desire”?
What does such a way of looking at the people around me change?
Note
This is a good place for the facilitator’s testimony about the Church community, in which they receive strength from other “desiring” people on the way to unity with God.
Summary and application¶
“No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten God, who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him known” (Jn 1:18). The incarnate God revealed to us that God desires our desires: He wants to love us, to be present in our soul, and to flood us with His mercy. He wants to keep giving Himself—that is His nature. Our God “has only as much as He gives.”
—H. U. von Balthasar
As a final summary, let us read:
You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.
—St. Augustine
Let the application of this meeting be today’s preparation for the Eucharist. Right before it begins, find five minutes (no more is needed) to ask yourself:
What do I desire right now? With what intention am I coming to Mass?
Why do I want to participate in this Eucharist?
What does God desire from me?
Let the entrance procession “find us” with the answers to these three questions.