Fr. J. D. Ousley

When I was in high school, I was a member of the cross country team. On the day of a meet, each runner on the team had to complete a course two-and-a-half to three-miles-long, stretched over hills and valleys.

But though the sport was as grueling then as it is now, the training advice in those days was quite different. For instance, we were told never to drink water before or during the race. Liquids would supposedly fill up our stomachs and slow us down.

Now following this rule -- as we all did -- meant that by the end of a race, we were sometimes dizzy and nauseous -- and we were always very thirsty!

Medical opinion has since changed; I'm reminded of that fact when I see television coverage of a marathon and notice the runners running by relief stations to grab cups of water while they're running! Even now, I envy them!

Now the Gospel lesson for today is also about thirst. Like many of the lessons in Lent, it's quite long -- so we can only consider a couple of points that it makes.

In the story, St. John draws an analogy between physical and spiritual thirst. The Samaritan woman has come to Jacob's well in order to get water. Christ senses, however, that her real need is spiritual, and he offers her spiritual water that will quench the desire in her soul.

As it happens, the Samaritan woman had had five husbands; moreover, it appears that she was living with a sixth man.

Now anyone who has had five or six significant others could be deemed a little restless! The woman might be getting married in a mistaken attempt to satisfy needs in herself that no mate could fulfill!

Of course, trying to quench spiritual thirst in unspiritual ways is as common today as it was in the time of Jesus.

So, for example, when we talk about "drinking" as in "drinking too much," we're not talking about an over-fondness for Gatorade! People try to quench their spiritual thirst with alcohol.

They drink too much to forget; they drink too much to remember; they drink to put off doing what they need to do to change their lives.

And, of course, people may eat too much for the same reasons. Spiritual hunger is as common as spiritual thirst. Think of that vivid phrase "comfort food." What better sign of this habit of looking for spiritual nourishment by eating?

How wonderful it is to indulge ourselves in food that seems to comfort our souls. Potato chips; Chocolates. You may have noticed the appearance recently on the menus in New York restaurants of that classic American comfort food, meatloaf that could well be a sign of our anxious times!

But whatever problems one person may have with physical hunger and thirst, it's important to see that these desires affect everyone. Food and drink are necessities of life. Indeed, people who lose their appetites or who are deprived of food and drink will die.

By the same token, people without an explicit connection to the realm of the spirit can die inside. Substitutes for religion won't do the trick. The woman at the well couldn't find spiritual nourishment on the Samaritan holy mountain or at Jacob's Well. Her thirst for real life could only br satisfied by the Holy Spirit of the true and Living God.

Now one indicator of spiritual dehydration is the experience Christian tradition calls, "dryness."

This is a technical term for what happens to the soul when its' religious connection, whatever that religious connection was, "dries up." Our souls feel parched as though we were "in the desert." "In the desert" is another technical phrase for the times we feel far from the waters of the Spirit.

Now when we feel like this, obviously we're miserable. But we're not as badly off as the Samaritan woman.

For, at least, we know where to go to satisfy our thirst. We know that we don't have to be in a particular "holy place" to find the Spirit, as the Samaritans believed. We know that spiritual waters can be found wherever we are geographically, as long as we approach God "in spirit and in truth."

But while we know that we need to seek the spirit of Christ to be renewed, we may not be sure how to orient our souls to spiritual challenges. Here again, we might profit from an analogy from sports.

Although athletes now know that they can safely consume liquids when they exercise, they also realize that they need to take drinks regularly and in small doses. Tennis players are advised to have a drink of water every ten or fifteen minutes so they can maintain to maintain a healthy level of hydration.

Regular, small doses-this is also good advice for spiritual dryness.

Taking moderate, regular amounts of religious refreshment -- reading the Bible or a spiritual writing with breakfast, short prayers at the end of the day -- these are far more efficient sources of spiritual nourishment than say, trying to load ourselves with a big schedule of prayers when we get into jam.

And along with the spiritual exercises we choose for ourselves, we need the right attitude. Like the Samaritan woman at the well, we need to direct our souls to the Spirit of God; only the Spirit can quench spiritual thirst.

At the first Lenten class a few days ago, we read a powerful passage about spiritual attitude from a sermon by Phillips Brooks. (And I'll be quoting Brooks again during Lent.) Brooks wrote:

"The power of any life lies in its expectancy. 'What do you hope for? What do you expect?' The answer to these questions is the measure of the degree to which a [person] is living."

Especially on those occasions when you feel spiritually parched. Exhausted. Dried out by the demands and challenges life has put in your way.

Especially at these times when you are spiritually dehydrated, you need to ask, "What do I hope for? What do I expect? Am I hoping for God to give me the spiritual nourishment I really need, that will quench my thirst and satisfy my hunger like nothing in this life can?

"Am I expecting to find the renewing, refreshing Spirit of the Living God?"

And now unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit be ascribed as is most justly due all might, majesty, power, dominion and praise, now and forever, Amen.