In the gospel of John, chapter 4, Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Jacob’s well represents a source of life that means survival for a people living in a dry and desert world. Well water that is still and stale can prolong life but it doesn’t truly satisfy the thirst that we have for something greater and more pure.

“Water, water, every where, nor any drop to drink…” This famous line from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner speaks to us of a deep thirst. Out on the vast ocean of life, there can be water everywhere but we can still die of thirst. So it is in our own spiritual lives. When we have turned away from the source of life, when we are lacking in God’s grace, we can experience a profound dryness. The world offers us much to drink to try to slake our thirst and to give us life yet nothing satisfies. In fact, it seems that the more we drink of what the world has to offer the more our thirst grows until it seems that we might die of thirst. We are surrounded by water but the water that is offered to us cannot give us life. Like the Ancient Mariner we feel lost and alone, with death all around us, adrift on an endless sea of unfulfilled promise. “I looked to heaven, and tried to pray/But or ever a prayer had gushed/A wicked whisper came, and made/My heart as dry as dust.” The sea of this life can be a vast desert of isolation void of life.

Jesus begins a conversation with the Samaritan woman. He asks her for a drink. Jesus thirsts. We hear of Jesus’ thirst again on the cross when he whispers in his agony, “I thirst.” The thirst of Jesus is for souls to save; for a love that is stronger than death. Jesus thirsts and hungers to do the Father’s will. At the well, the Samaritan woman does not feel like she has anything to offer Jesus. After all, she is a Samaritan and a woman. She doesn’t think much of herself and so she hesitates to meet Jesus’ request. Jesus begins to speak to this woman about real water. “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (Jn 4,10) The woman thinks that this living water is beyond our reach and that it would take much effort to attain it. Jesus freely gives this water to whomever asks. The living water that Jesus has to give is the “gift of God”, grace and love. As St. Paul has to say, “And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”(Rom 5,5) It is this love of God alone that can touch the deep thirst in our hearts and satisfy it. If we ask, God will pour his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. This love can become a “spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (Jn 4,14) and when we have the grace of God’s love flowing through us we will never thirst again.

“Water, water, every where…” The woman that Jesus is speaking to has thirsted for love all her life. She has sought love in five different marriages and is now living with a sixth person. None of these relationships has satisfied her thirst for love. All of these relationships have only served to make her thirsty for something more. Jesus has that something more to give. The love of God is a deep abyss of love that flows freely as living water into the souls of those who trust in him. The water of life that Jesus has to offer flows freely from his heart into the hearts of those who seek him.

God knows that we are thirsting for life and love. He has both to offer in abundance. What the world has to offer in our thirst for life will not satisfy us. Only the living water of grace that flows from the heart of Jesus will give us true life, abundant life, and satisfy our thirst for love and life. Jesus invites us to come and drink freely from the well of life that flows freely from the throne of God.