Sometimes we know a storm is coming; we sit and wait for it and know that it is coming, getting stronger, and there is nothing we can do to control it. I think that may have been how Jesus felt as his passion and death approached. He prayed in agony in the garden; then he accepted all with a remarkable peace, a genuine surrender to his Father's will, and a complete forgiveness of the very ones who were nailing him to the cross. In John's Gospel after the death of Jesus on the cross, "one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out."
Earlier in John's Gospel Jesus had stood up and exclaimed: "Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture says, 'Rivers of living water will flow from within him.'"
Now that Jesus has been lifted up on the cross and given over his life, the hour of his glorification has come. The blood is a sign of his dying and the water is a sign of his Spirit which he promised to give.
"Let anyone who thirsts come to me."
May we stay with Jesus on his way of the cross. He alone can slake our thirst!
Yesterday I received Bill Barry's latest book which I will add to the list of books on the right as I know it is one that will help others. I have enjoyed reading and been helped by all his books. This one is A Friendship Like No Other: Experiencing God's Amazing Embrace published by Loyola, 2008. It is divided into three sections: Experiencing God's Desire for Friendship, Understanding Ourselves and God, and Experiencing God. Father Barry gives exercises and meditations to help us; we profit from this Jesuit's years of experience as both a spiritual director and an excellent director of the Ignatian Exercises.
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