Give drink to the thirsty
From the website of the CEI’s National Office for the Pastoral Care of Health, commentary on the second work of corporal mercy
(by fr. Tullio Proserpio, Chaplain National Institute for the Study and Treatment of Tumors in Milan)
Expression we know well able to express concrete invitation to stand in solidarity with respect to those who experience this need. We hear recalled the theme of water as it is described in the Gospels. Some passages we are probably familiar with: Jesus’ meeting at the well with the Samaritan woman, when weary from the journey, he sits by the well (Jn. 4:6); Jesus hanging on the cross says, “I am thirsty” (Jn. 19:28); to Jesus hanging on the cross, seeing that he was already dead, one of his soldiers struck his side with a spear and immediately blood and water came out (Jn. 19:34).
Especially the episode of the Samaritan woman, it seems to me what a great need
and thirst for true and authentic relationship.
In this episode, both Jesus and the Samaritan woman, go to the well driven by thirst (in truth, Jesus is tired from the journey, yet when the Samaritan woman arrives, he asks her, “give me a drink.”
Jesus dares to show his own need, his own inability to act alone, he shows his own poverty.
Only those who share the same condition of poverty can truly make themselves close to the other. A real sharing of poverty can open the space for a true and fruitful relationship, the outcome of which is not guaranteed to anyone and yet is guarded by the Lord.
This is precisely what happened to the Samaritan woman to the point that after her encounter with Jesus, the evangelist reports, “she left the pitcher, went into town…” (Jn. 4:28).
He seems almost to want to tell us what quenched the thirst of both of them: the genuine and profound encounter, in other words precisely the relationship! A relationship that precisely because it is authentic, restores both and gives new energy, the future is transformed, hope is reborn: “may he be Messiah?”
A recent study conducted at the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan (“The hope of cancer patients: the centrality of relationship as a crucial aspect”) decisively highlights the centrality of relationships that can sustain the journey of sick people and nurture true hope.
Those who encountered Jesus and entered into relationship with him came out as transformed, as if to say that the very encounter with him was able to heal those who allowed themselves to be encountered by him. Somehow, we know, it can be said that Christ is the very “medicine” capable of bringing refreshment, peace and serenity to people’s bodies and often to their souls.
Relationship never leaves one neutral, it somehow compromises, perhaps this is one of the reasons why one is afraid to enter the relationship: I know how I enter the relationship, I do not know how I leave it. One cannot know a priori what happens, not only to the other but also deep inside the one who makes himself available and meets the person in his need.
The study I mentioned just above reminds us that the more trustworthy the one who makes himself available for encounter, for dialogue, the more hope grows.
The Christian faith has relationship at heart: from person person; the Christian God is the God person. Every human being seeks and desires relationships so because every human being is created in the image and likeness of God and bears within himself this imprint that the very imprint of God whose essence profound love relationship Father – Son – Holy Spirit.
Relationship is not owned, it is lived. It is a continuous becoming, it is a reality that is not static but dynamic.
The need for relationship expresses our truest and most authentic humanity. And that is precisely what Jesus lived in his human experience: a daily relationship with God the Father, so well narrated in the Gospels.
I think we are all increasingly aware that today, at its core, there is a profound crisis in humanity. In this we can sense and recognize the providential aspect: those who profess to be believers are called to convey this human image. Precisely on the example of Jesus who – deeply man – in all his dimensions, captivated his interlocutors.
Such a man, fully and totally realized, able to make himself close to the other, to share with the other to feel, to con-suffer with the other…, such a man could only be God.
I believe that precisely this Face of God we are called to witness.As individuals who are part of the Church, we feel a responsibility not to betray that Face that still fascinates and attracts, even among those who claim to be non-believers.
A man who welcomes, does not judge, consoles, mourns, laughs, shares with the men and women of his time the moments of joy and those of sadness.Without ever being naïve or clueless: a man who quenches the ardor and burning yearning of every man’s heart. He is capable of getting angry all right….- never with the with the sinner-he gets angry at falsehood and hypocrisy; he gets angry when a value is at stake, when the rule is put before the person.
Encountering those who in different capacities are confronted with situations of fatigue, fear, anguish, sickness, suffering, etc., leads one to recognize how great is the expectation still today, the expectation, sometimes the claim!, towards the Church and those who claim to belong to it.
Then with amazement and gratitude we discover as true and ever relevant the words of Jesus, “Lift up your eyes and look at the fields that are already blond for the harvest” (Jn. 4:35).
We all understand that much is “at stake” in the relationship, more or less adequate, that we know how to establish with the people we meet. We are therefore challenged with respect to a preparation that is adequate with respect to what is required today: besides theoretical-conceptual, above all and primarily human!
Precisely because we are embedded in complexity, we must finally truly walk together, to foster that alliance that alone can express itself in authentic service on behalf of the entire community, in the awareness that “one never hopes alone but with others and for others.”
Source
Image
- Illustration by Sister Marie-Anastasia Carré (Communauté des Béatitudes)