If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me, and from his belly will flow rivers of living water (Jn. 7).
Jesus made this statement on the "last and greatest day of the feast" of Tabernacles, the celebration and remembrance of God's Presence and Care of the Jews in the desert. When they were hungry, He provided food; when they were thirsty, He provided water from the rock. And now, on the day of living water, Jesus stands up in the Temple courtyard and says that He is the Source of Living Water.
And John goes on to add, "By this He meant the Spirit, which had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified." The Holy Spirit is the Gift of Living Water, given to those who ask, who come to Jesus seeking Life.
All of the passages I gave last time refer to this living water, either from the Old Testament prophets or from Jesus Himself. Those who come to the waters are those who finally realize that there is another access to reality beyond what we can hear, touch, and see -- that there is a world of spirit and truth beyond our senses. Belief in God is the conversion in which we discover that we are following an illusion if we devote ourselves only to the tangible world.
For most of us, this conversion begins somewhere in our 30s, when we have grasped our goals of education, job, marriage, and maybe children. Is there something else? we begin to wonder, something deeper and more satisfying? I remember in my mid-thirties attending a session given by some Yogi teacher who was supposed to lead us into a deeper spirituality. He offered us a guided meditation, where we closed our eyes and he talked us through a kind of spiritual journey. I remember I started out mentally heading toward some distant mountains, but the journey was long, and the mountains seemed so far away. I found myself growing discouraged -- not by major obstacles, but by small stones along the path. I was tired and just wanted to sit down and rest.
The Yogi's interpretation of my "dream" was that I tended to get discouraged along the way not by large, but by small day-to-day obstacles. Perhaps he was right, but I think my insight may be typical of life wearing us down along the way -- whether through small or large events.
God's answer to the colllective grid that forms the site of human existence, which we call "Original Sin," the web that forms our daily lives, is the Holy Spirit. We live in a "dry and thirsty land," growing increasingly thirsty for joy without the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus encountered our thirst on the Cross, enduring what man endures -- but He brought to their knees the "powers and principalities" that oppose us, according to Ephesians 6. By the power of His new existence, His new life, He is able to give the Holy Spirit, the Water of Eternal Life, to all who come to Him.
The entire message of the Gospel is that Jesus has overcome the powers that wear us down and discourage us. He has given us His own peace, His own Joy, His own Love -- it's called the Holy Spirit, our Advocate. At first (John 4 -- the woman at the well ), it is a "spring of water welling up to eternal life." But then, the water He gives becomes "rivers of living water" flowing from within our breasts to the world beyond (John 7).
