We cannot come to the Lord with just any thirst, but only thirsting for salvation


What a good model of teaching the Samaritan woman presents to us today! She had gone to get ordinary water, but at the spring of ordinary water she found the spring of salvation. It is clear that her soul was not completely absorbed by daily worries. Therefore, the Lord managed, in a few words, to shift her attention from earthly things to heavenly things and, under the pretext of drawing water, teaches her to seek that water after which the one who drinks it will never thirst. “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst, for the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14). Hearing this, the woman said to Him, pleading: “Lord, give me this water!”

The Holy Church, in her hymns on this day, draws our special attention to this moment and presents to us the Lord, Who calls us: “Let anyone who thirsts come to Me and drink” – expecting us, like the Samaritan woman, to address Him, begging Him: “Lord, give us this water of Yours!”

Let us penetrate, brothers, into the teaching of the Gospel and listen to the voices of the Church!

Let anyone who thirsts come to Me and drink – the Lord invites us. But we cannot come to the Lord with every thirst, but only with that which it is right for us to ask Him to quench. What is it right for us to ask the Lord more than salvation? Therefore, thirsting for salvation, let us present ourselves to the Lord with the desire to quench this thirst, using, with a pure heart, the means that He has been pleased to prescribe for us for this.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

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