Thirst

Dear Brother / Sister in Christ,

I thirst.

And these days our thirst is getting more and more difficult to quench. We thirst for love, for companionship, for appreciation, for money, for possessions, for positions, for power. Our hearts are restless, constantly searching, constantly thirsting. As the famous Pepsi ad claims “yeh dil maange more”.

So like the woman at the well we seek repeatedly to quench our thirst, but, within no time, we are thirsty again. That is the reality of our flesh nature. Yet, like He did for the woman at the well, our Merciful Saviour waits for us too. With an invitation “that we may draw water in joy from the wells of salvation” (Preface for the Mass of the Sacred Heart). May this Holy Season, and especially the Passion Week, bring us into a deep conviction that whoever believes in Him “will never thirst” (Jn 6:35).

Let us approach boldly therefore the throne of grace – the Cross of our Saviour, this month, as we pray fervently for ourselves and our families, the Domestic Church, especially those suffering due to domestic violence, addiction, disharmony, infidelity. We desire and claim the promise of Jesus to Zacchaeus, “salvation has come to this house” (Lk 19:9). We dedicate our families, so much in need of restoration and revival, to the Divine Mercy of the Lord that His mercy will flow into our homes.

This month we also contemplate the greatest signs of the love of God in Christ Jesus – the Eucharist and the Cross. O sublime humility! O humble sublimity! (St Francis of Assisi). May we nail our own flesh nature to the cross (Gal 5:24) as we commemorate the ‘highest week’ of our faith, that we may, like St Paul, “never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Gal 6:14)

Truly, in all the negativity around us, may the POSITIVE or PLUS sign of the cross (that is its shape, after all) be our source of encouragement and hope.

* That all things will be added (plus) unto us, who seek first his kingdom and his righteous. And so we pray specially for our newly ordained priests and deacons.

* That even in the economic downturn, the “economy of salvation” assures us of our upward momentum. So we pray for those impacted by the economic crisis.

* That even in this environment of political confusion and jockeying, all power and dominion is His. And so we pray for a stable and secular government for India.

Wish you a very Blessed and Holy Passion Week and Eastertide. May we experience the reality of the Paschal mystery of Christ in our lives and families, as “the event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything toward life” (CCC 1085).

May our rest and thirst be met entirely in Christ. And not in wealth, power, possessions and positions. Truly, only Jesus Christ bujhaye pyas, baki sab bakwas.