Thirsty Souls

Dry parched land cracks and crumbles and the seeds planted in hope for a bountiful harvest die. Drought destroys. The rich soil becomes barren. What use to overflow with bounty and beauty     becomes a desert. Thirsty people cry out. 

How long, O LORD?

Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? (Ps 13:1—2).

The bounty we seek drives us for we have seen the bounty of the Lord in the land of the living. This living land, however, needs cultivation, not from the rains and snows watering the earth, not from the farmers who till the soil, but from the faithful who cry out in prayer. Prayer tills the soil of our soul and cultivates our hearts not only to receive the Word of God, but to do what the Word commands.

The command of the Word cuts us free from our slavery to sin, becoming children of the harvest. The command of the Lord sets us free, quenches our thirsting souls, tills the desires of the heart freeing us from the unruly desires that choke and block the Word from taking root deeply in our hearts.

Jesus condemns hardened hearts filled with anxiety and worry for they do not understand; they do not trust; they do not allow the Word to take root. So He speaks in parables: because hearts are filled with earthly and worldly concern (Mt13:13) not heavenly ones. So Jesus preaches:

They look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand. Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
You shall indeed hear but not understand, you shall indeed look but never see.

Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, be converted, and I heal them .

As land thirsts for water so too does our heart thirst; not for water, but for God.

The heart that knows it is hardened, even shattered and broken, cries out for help from God. 

Jesus wants to heal our hearts. because only healed hearts can offer healing to hurting hearts. We, then, expose our hearts to the Living Water that Jesus offers through baptism. This living water is not merely a stream rushing and bubbling over with the rains and the snows, but is the Living   Water that pours forth from the pierced heart of Christ restoring our hearts from sin.

This Living Water is the source of all water and this water does not return until it has watered the earth, that is watered the hearts of those who wish to be cleansed, refreshed and then grow multiplying and fructifying the earth for which we were made.

Baptism pours forth the Living

Water upon the deserted soul.