WATER FOR LIVING AND LIVING WATER.

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT. YEAR A.
February 24, 2008.
(First Reading: Exodus 17:3-7) (Second Reading: Romans 5:1-2, 5-8)
(Gospel Reading: John 4:5-42)


WATER FOR LIVING
AND LIVING WATER.

It goes without saying that we humans need water to live, and whenever there is a deficit of water in our body, we experience thirst, the distressful feeling caused by the unmet need for water. The longer such need goes unmet, the more painful it becomes, and it will lead to death if there is no intake of water within a given time.

It can also be said that if the human body receives the water it needs in a constant and systematic manner, the person will not come to experience the distressful feeling of thirst.

Thus, the appropriate supply of water consumed to satisfy one's thirst, eliminates the feeling of thirst and renders the need inexistent. However, once water is withheld thirst signals that the need has reappeared(1).

Just like the proper use of an inexhaustible supply of water prevents the onset of thirst, a similarly inexhaustible supply of, say, food will prevent a person's hunger(2).

Once human beings find a way to properly and fully satisfy their needs, then we can say that they have found a way to eliminate said needs.

The Lord Jesus speaks of "living water" (John 4:10), water that "will become in [a human being] a spring of water" (John 4:16). He also says: "Whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst" (John 4:14).

What is this living water Jesus is speaking about?
Is the caring commitment that bonds human beings with one another and prompts them to mutually meet all their human needs(3) in a manner that causes them to no longer experience the destructive effects of unmet needs.

Let us present the following example to clarify the concept of the "living water": The commitment that parents establish with their children.
Through their efforts, work and sacrifice the parents, with utmost dedication give their child all the things he needs so that the child's needs are properly and timely met. The parents' caring commitment renders the child's needs actually inexistent because said needs are never left unmet.

The parents' unselfish care, loving commitment and unconditional dedication constitute the spring of "living water" that satisfies the needs of their children. And the children, through the example of their parents, learn not only to receive but also to give such "living water". Therefore, parents and children "can rejoice together" because the "living water" flows between them.

Jesus gives us an example of the "living water" flowing between the sower and the reaper. He describes the benefits people gain from working toward their common well-being: "The sower and the reaper can rejoice together" for they are "sharing the fruits of their work" (John 4:36, 38).

How does Jesus satisfies his own hunger and thirst?
By doing "the will of the one who sent me and finishing his work" (John 4:34); will and work which are the fountain of "living water". The work of Jesus consists in giving all human beings the ability to live in a world where all people properly and fully meet one another's human needs.

The work of Jesus is to bring his "living water" to all human beings. And, in the same way he meets all our needs, we are also to meet the needs of our fellow human beings.

Our present world is against generating "living water".
Our world has turned the possession of goods (whose sole and proper use is the satisfaction of the needs of all human beings) into a privilege of a few, and the work of men into a source of dispossession. In our world there are countless human beings whose needs are unmet, who die of hunger and disease; there are countless workers who produce wealth but are dispossessed of it and can only live in subhuman conditions.

Just as our body needs water to live, so does our whole being need justice, peace and mutual respect, that is, "the living water", in order to live as wholesome human beings(4).

Today Jesus is eager to share his "living water" with us, water which we also are to share with all our fellow human beings, water that satisfies all our human needs (material and spiritual), water that becomes in each one of us "a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:16).
______________________________________________________
Footnotes:
(1) For the sake of clarity let us define the following terms: the need is the lack of water. Thirst is the body's call for water. Water is what satisfies the need. Thirst as the body's call for water is a natural biological reaction which only becomes painful and distressful once it is left unmet. It should also be noted that the withholding of water, in the context of this gospel, is only the result of a human action, not the lack of water caused by events of nature, a drought, for instance (for there is no intent in nature).
(2) The same principle applies to all human needs; that is, once a needs is satisfied, that need no longer exists.
(3) It must be emphasized that whenever we speak of "human" needs we refer to all the needs that are human, that is, physical and spiritual.
(4) Those who deprive other human beings of their means of subsistence or destroy them through wars and starvation or deprive them of their culture and their right to live in peace, are essentially depriving them of their "living water".