Change for the Good
March 19, 2017
By Russell Gwynn Tan
By Russell Gwynn Tan
Praying. It is an action anyone does when they ask God for His blessings – good health, safety, wisdom, another day to live, and many others. And yet, some – if not many – don’t seem to pray anymore to God.
In today’s Gospel, prayer can be seen as an encounter between the thirst of humanity for God and the thirst of God for humanity. The meeting of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well illustrates this encounter very well. Jesus asks the woman at the well for a drink. What kind of thirst is Jesus experiencing here? The thirst to satisfy her with the Word of God.
He goes on to say to the woman, “If you knew the gift of God, you would ask him and he would give you living water.” What better way to quench our thirst than filling ourselves with the Word of God?
Yet in today’s fast-paced world, even the mere act of stopping by at a church for a few minutes would be “a waste of time.” This thirst for God wouldn’t be quenched, wouldn’t be fulfilled because we are too focused on other “more important” things.
We tend to make our own needs absolute. When we have a necessity of some sort, we become fixated with the satisfaction of that necessity. If we could manage to forget our own needs for a moment and turn to God at these times, then we would experience grace of an incredible sort.
The woman at the well is thirsty for physical water, but Jesus encourages her to open herself to a more profound thirst for “living water.” It would be wonderful if, during this season of Lent, we could forget our physical wants for a moment and open ourselves to our need to be satiated profoundly by God.
This Lenten Season, God thirsts for us. He wants us back and today is the best time to repent for our sins and change for the better. Just like the Samaritan Woman in the Gospel, we too are not worthy of Him. We are sinners, and yet, God loves us no matter what. Now is our chance to quench His thirst. Now is the chance to change for the good.
In today’s Gospel, prayer can be seen as an encounter between the thirst of humanity for God and the thirst of God for humanity. The meeting of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well illustrates this encounter very well. Jesus asks the woman at the well for a drink. What kind of thirst is Jesus experiencing here? The thirst to satisfy her with the Word of God.
He goes on to say to the woman, “If you knew the gift of God, you would ask him and he would give you living water.” What better way to quench our thirst than filling ourselves with the Word of God?
Yet in today’s fast-paced world, even the mere act of stopping by at a church for a few minutes would be “a waste of time.” This thirst for God wouldn’t be quenched, wouldn’t be fulfilled because we are too focused on other “more important” things.
We tend to make our own needs absolute. When we have a necessity of some sort, we become fixated with the satisfaction of that necessity. If we could manage to forget our own needs for a moment and turn to God at these times, then we would experience grace of an incredible sort.
The woman at the well is thirsty for physical water, but Jesus encourages her to open herself to a more profound thirst for “living water.” It would be wonderful if, during this season of Lent, we could forget our physical wants for a moment and open ourselves to our need to be satiated profoundly by God.
This Lenten Season, God thirsts for us. He wants us back and today is the best time to repent for our sins and change for the better. Just like the Samaritan Woman in the Gospel, we too are not worthy of Him. We are sinners, and yet, God loves us no matter what. Now is our chance to quench His thirst. Now is the chance to change for the good.