Pope Francis called on the faithful to “give drink” to those who “thirst for the Word of God” and need to “find an oasis in the Church” against indifference.
The Holy Father made this reflection during the Angelus prayer, focusing on the biblical passage of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well; especially, in the Words “give me a drink”, pronounced by the Lord.
The Pontiff explained that the words “give me a drink” are not “just Jesus’ request to the Samaritan woman, but a call – sometimes silent – that rises to us every day and asks us to take charge of the thirst of the rest “.
“Give me a drink, they tell us who – in the family, in the workplace, in the rest of the places we frequent – thirst for closeness, attention, listening; He tells us who he is thirsty for the Word of God and needs to find an oasis in the Church to drink ”, he assured.
He also said these words are a call from “our society, where the rush, the race for consumption and indifference generate aridity and inner emptiness.”
“And – let us not forget – give me a drink is the inner cry of so many brothers and sisters who lack water to live, while our common home continues to be polluted and damaged,” he added.
In his exegesis of the biblical text, the Pope specified that Jesus’ request for water from the Samaritan woman “is an image of God’s humiliation.”
“God humbles himself in Jesus, God became one of us —humbled himself— [became] thirsty like us. He suffers our very thirst, ”he explained.
However, he recalled that this thirst that the Lord presents “is not only physical”, but “expresses the deepest dryness of our life: it is above all the thirst for our love”.
“He is more than a beggar; he is [thirsty] for our love. And it will emerge at the culminating moment of his passion of him, on the cross, where, before dying, Jesus will say: ‘I thirst’ (Jn 19:28). That thirst for love led him to lower himself, to lower himself, to be one of us, ”he explained.
Pope Francis recalled that the Jesus who “asks for a drink” is also “the One who gives to drink, who: upon meeting the Samaritan woman speaks to her of the living water of the Holy Spirit and from the cross sheds blood and water from his pierced side (see Jn 19,34)”.
Jesus, thirsty for love, quenches our thirst with love. And he does with us as with the Samaritan woman: he draws near to us in our daily lives, shares our desire, promises us the living water that makes eternal life spring up in us (cf. Jn 4:14)”, he concluded.