Only God Fulfills the Infinite Desire
Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR
Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent, Year A
Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN
Sunday, March 8, 2026
Littered throughout the Bible is the theme of thirst: our thirst for God and God’s thirst for us. In the Book of Psalms, we read, “As the deer thirsts for the running stream, so my soul is thirsting for you, my God” (Psalm 42:1). As we all know, thirst is a basic human desire. When you have walked outside in the sun and you’re thirsty, the thirst is usually so intense and relentless that you must drink to satisfy it. That’s the image the Psalmist uses to express our thirst for God. One of the most powerful declarations of Jesus, as he hung on the cross, is “I thirst” (John 19:28). In a literal, physical sense, God in human form was thirsty for water because of the crucifixion. But in a symbolic and spiritual sense, he thirsts for humanity's souls. He thirsts for you and me.
In today’s Gospel (John 4:5-42), the theme of thirst is on full display. Jesus is in the town of Samaria, during the hottest part of the day, around noon. Weary from a long walk, he sits down at the well. There, he meets a Samaritan woman who has come to draw water. The woman at the well embodies the human race’s thirst for God. Jesus says to her, “Give me a drink” (John 4:7). In other words, Jesus is saying to her, “I thirst,” or “I am thirsty.” What brought the woman to the well? She was thirsty. So we have two thirsty people meeting: the mysterious God’s thirst for us and the human thirst for God. Although God does not need us in the same way, God thirsts for us. St. Augustine teaches that Jesus is thirsty for her faith; Jesus is thirsty for her response. God’s passion to set things right and to share his life and love with us is a kind of thirst. Salvation happens when God’s infinitely powerful desire for us meets our desire for God. Our thirst for God is always trumped by God’s thirst for us.
What is the woman’s reaction to Jesus’ request? She is surprised and feels somewhat insulted. She is doubly shocked by Jesus’ move and question. Then she asks, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” In Jesus’ time, Jews had nothing to do with Samaritans. Moreover, it was generally forbidden and considered inappropriate for a Jewish man, especially a rabbi, to speak to a woman alone in public, even his own wife or daughter. But because Jesus’s approach and teachings were radically counter-cultural, he says to her, “Give me a drink.” At this point, Jesus says, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” What is living water? Grace. The divine life. That’s what he has come to offer the world. Then Jesus makes a distinction between the water from the well and the living water he offers: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst.” What is the Lord saying? You come to this well every day to draw water. You drink it, but it does not satisfy you for long. But I want to give you grace, the divine life, which will permanently satisfy your thirst. What is being described here is the play between concupiscence and desire for God. In my sermon last week, I said we are not for this world; we are meant for God. We are wired for God. Only God can truly satisfy the deepest hunger. The great St. Augustine puts it well, “Lord, you have made us for yourself, therefore our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
As the conversation continues, Jesus tells her, “Go call your husband and come back.” She answers, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus replies, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the man you are with now is not your husband.” Then the woman says, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.” What is happening in this back-and-forth exchange? In first-century Judea, a husband was the legal, spiritual, and economic head of the household, responsible for protecting and providing for his family. By asking her to go call her husband, Jesus was symbolically asking for what controls and guides her life. But who are these five husbands she has had? St. Augustine explains they represent the five senses that have dominated her life. Before meeting Jesus, she had been seeking the beautiful things that the eyes see, the beautiful sounds the ears hear, and the beautiful objects she could touch. She has also been dominated by sensual pleasure. The five senses are not evil in themselves, but they should not be our husbands or the forces that govern our lives. That’s why Augustine says that what we have here is a kind of marriage proposal. Jesus is indirectly saying, “I want to be your husband. I want to be the power that governs your life. Let me live in you so that I might lead your mind, will, creativity, and sensuality.” The Church Fathers often spoke of the marriage of heaven and earth that Jesus brought about. The woman at the well is a kind of bride, and Jesus is proposing himself as the Bridegroom.
I love how the exchange reaches a beautiful conclusion. The woman is so impressed by Jesus and what he offers her that she runs into the city and announces him. She leaves her water jar and goes into the town, saying, “Come see a man who told me everything I have done.” Did she tell her everything she has ever done? Of course not! He did not recount her entire life in detail. But he has uncovered and revealed the secret of her life and what influences everything she has done, which is, her desire. And that desire has guided her actions. So, she proclaims Jesus and wants everyone to know about him. In doing so, she becomes the first evangelist in John’s Gospel, the first to proclaim Christ. She has been healed and set free. She now knows where to find the living water. And she wants her community to know about Jesus, the one who made her new life possible. When you read a great book, watch a great movie, or meet a great person, what do you want to do? You want everyone to know about it. This is the call to evangelization. If you have been healed and set free by our Lord Jesus Christ, bring everyone into it just as this woman has done.
God bless you!
