Most people are familiar with the life and work of the famous “Mother Teresa of Calcutta”. If there’s anything that you need to know about her, it is the words “I thirst”. The words spoken by Jesus on the Cross come from deep within his pain and suffering. Mother Teresa felt the pain and suffering of the people she served in Calcutta, India, and when it came to describing to others what she was doing to serve the poorest of the poor, she simply said, “I thirst”. It was her way of describing Mother Teresa’s longing for the Heart of Jesus in reaching out to those who were suffering.
Mother
Teresa grew up in Macedonia, next to Greece.
At an early age, she felt the heart of Jesus was everything. By age 12, she knew she wanted to be a
missionary. She joined “the Loreto
Sisters” at age 18, and immediately applied to go to their mission in Bengali,
India, where she was sent the next year.
In the Loreto community, she was a teacher. Ten years later, on a train, at age 36, she
encountered, what she said was “a call within a call”. What became of that was – as she described –
“a burning thirst of Jesus for love and for souls”. At first, her spiritual directors and
leaders did not want to approve of her request – to found a missionary
organization. She was undeterred, and
she wrote to the Bishop saying, “Don’t delay, your grace, don’t put it
off…it is the heart of Jesus in his suffering, and He thirsts for love and
souls”.
It's
easy for us to look at Jesus’ words on the cross and read into them a mere
physical desire for something to drink.
It is just two words, “I thirst”.
Yet, Jesus knew that his soon-coming death was how God, the Father,
would satisfy the “soul thirst” of many.
Jesus’ thirst is from his heart, and comes deeply within his soul and
spirit. It is a thirst of the Spirit for
the souls of people that Jesus cries out for.
His thirst is one of his love going out to all who would come to
him. He had said it before…
“On the
last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone
thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture
has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he
said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as
yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John
7:37-39).
If we
step back from the literal words, we see something that is rather amazing. God, in Christ Jesus, is crying out for us –
he wants us. He thirsts for us to
discover his love, to live knowing he is ours, and we are his. Does Christ need to earn us? No, for we belong to God in creation, but in
our drifting, our darkened, often soul-less state, we forget that we belong to
him. Now, Christ Jesus, from the cross,
speaks to his heart’s desire – “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and
drink!”.
As we
get closer to Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, let us – from deep within – long
for Christ’s thirst for love. Let us
cast off any negative thoughts from within that we are not worthy, or that God
doesn’t really know who I am, or I have failed him much too often. Let us remind ourselves of Christ Jesus’
short, short prayer from the Cross – “I thirst”, and his plea to us, “Would
you come?” His water is himself, and
he is full of life to all who will receive Him – the one who suffered for us!
I will
add, that Mother Teresa’s Missionary of Charity organization did not take off. She spent years agonizing over her work. She felt inadequate, and disappointing, and
was frequently discouraged. Later she
wrote of her life for years as living “a dark night of the soul”. Later, through several honest, vulnerable
conversations, she came to realize that her life mirrored the “thirst of
Jesus”, and allowed her to comprehend, spiritually, the heart of Jesus in his
suffering.
Let us
remind ourselves, that the sometimes frequent dark-night times, when we feel
alone, even if surrounded by family, and friends, is not a source of
discouragement but can allow us to become centered on Jesus’ suffering, and
draw us closer to understanding the heart of Jesus.
In
Mother Teresa’s book, “A Life for God: Mother Teresa Treasury”, her
compiled life is published at her death in 1997. On one particular page she wrote:
“Suffering
has to come because if you look at the cross, he has his head bending down – he
wants to kiss you – he has both of his hands open wide – he wants to embrace
you. He has his heart opened wide to
receive you. When you feel miserable
inside, look at the cross and you will know what is happening. Suffering, pain, sorrow, humiliation, and feelings
of loneliness, are nothing but the kiss of Jesus…your suffering is a gift from
God…between you and Jesus alone inside.”[1]
Peace
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