Athirst for the living God

 

“As the hind longs for running waters, so my soul longs for you oh God.  Athirst is my soul for God the living God.” [Psalms 42:2-3; 43:3-4]

Have you ever noticed how readily people are drawn to sit near fountains in our parks and malls?  The sound and sight of running water is an image that naturally draws our attention and refreshes us.

Fountains, for me, help create an atmosphere that can bridge natural beauty with a sense of God’s supernatural beauty and life amid city noise and business.  God is at work in all creation laboring to refresh us.  The sound and sight of a fountain's running waters can assist us by inviting us to listen within for those streams of living waters, that can quench our deepest thirsts.

Jesus’ Spirit always desires to refresh us as that interior wellspring, that interior fountain that flows with satiating love for us.

A clear way to identify and receive this refreshment is to pay attention to our hearts deepest yearnings.  These desires reach out thirsting for true love.  So often we settle for less and foolishly try to quench our thirsts with material things, through overwork, or with ways of human relating that are at best utilitarian.

As we grow in wisdom and grace we begin to learn the ultimate paradox.  Our deepest yearnings, our thirsts that reach out to be satisfied are best satisfied whenever we freely choose to remain empty.  Instead of allowing our yearnings to be focused primarily on the passing satisfactions that come with acquisitions or achievements, we learn to remain empty, turning with our thirsts to receive from Jesus’ Spirit.  He’s the One who is thirsting for each of us with a love that truly satiates our hearts.

As creator, Jesus’ Spirit instilled living fountain-like streams that flow within our hearts.  These streams are flowing with divine love amid all of our interior noise and busyness.  May we always be “athirst for God, the living God.”  Amid the dryness of our desolations, Jesus’ Spirit desires to console us.  The reality is that the context of our lives is a house of spiritual formation!

Even though yesterday was Mother's Day, I couldn't help but think of mothers and their children when I reflected on today's gospel reading [John 10:1-10].

Today's story revisits the truth of Jesus as gatekeeper, the one true way, and His relationship with those He leads.  The sheep respond to the shepherd, not the stranger (thieves and marauders).  They follow the shepherd in and out of the safety of the sheepfold.

Sheep aren't particularly bright animals, so why do they give loyalty to one person rather than another?  Why don't they follow the stranger?  Because they don't recognize the stranger's voice.  And why do they recognize the voice of the shepherd?  I think it’s because they’re responding to the shepherd's unconditional love.

The shepherd is with them in good times and bad, fair weather and foul, times of peace and times of terror.  The shepherd protects the sheep with his own life against the perils that beset them.  The sheep sense this concern, this deep and unconditional love for their well-being, and they respond with unquestioning faith.

When I was a young boy, my love for and faith in my mother was like the sheep to the shepherd.  She was the life-giver, my solace, the source of all love in my life, the comforter, the healer, even at times the redeemer.  Of course I felt my father's love, but my mother was always the place of first, last and best tranquility.  I knew that she always loved me, no matter what I had done nor how I had trampled on her feelings.  Yet as I grew older, I realized she couldn’t solve all the problems, prevent all the hurts, keep at bay all the wolves of my life.

Jesus reminds us that He alone can provide the ultimate solace as we face the wolves and thieves and marauders in our lives.  He is the shepherd, and if we walk in His shadow we’ll be safe.

And so my prayer for today is that I can re-feel my young love for my mother and hers for me, that I can sense the faith of the sheep toward the shepherd, and that I then can lose myself in the unconditional love of Jesus and not be distracted by the temptations to doubt my safety in His care.