Do I Thirst for Christ? - Sermon for the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman (2026)

Today’s Gospel is about thirst. The thirst of God for man. The thirst of man for God. Let us always ask ourselves: Am I seeking the love of God with my whole heart? Do I thirst for salvation? Or do I thirst for worldly things, pleasures, status, human honor? This is a very simple question, but one of the most important questions in life.

Do I thirst for Christ? Do I thirst for the Holy Spirit? Do I thirst for righteousness, virtue, the very life and energy and grace of Christ pulsing through my veins? Or have I lulled myself to sleep in ignorance, negligence, forgetfulness, insensibility? Have I mistaken idle self-complacent pride for the peace of the Holy Spirit? Have I called evil, good? Darkness, light? The inaction of delusion and sin, the grace of the Holy Spirit? Have I come to such blasphemy so easily?

Why don’t we thirst for Christ? He thirsts for us. On the Cross He said, “I thirst.” Yes, He thirsted physically. Yet, much greater was—is—His vehement and unquenchable thirst for our salvation and our reciprocal undying thirst of love for Him.

Do we not perceive this love of God? Do we not behold the Crucified and Resurrected Christ with spiritual thirst, which perceives that He is the Rock of Life Who has broken Himself upon the Cross to pour out the Living Water of the Holy Spirit into the depths of our souls? Do we gaze at Him casually? Do we gaze at Him indifferently?

Why are we still slumbering? Why are we so uncaring? How shall we begin to thirst for Christ? How shall we make a beginning to be filled with the Living Water of the Holy Spirit, this most precious Gift of God Himself? The Fathers teach: first pray for tears of repentance.

Yet, this too is a great grace which often evades us. Nonetheless we must seek it through prayer, yet with recognition of our extreme unworthiness. We must endure the dryness and burden of seemingly fruitless prayer, as the farmer endures the heat of the day, the clearing of the field, the tilling of the hard soil, the patient planting of seed, the daily watering and protection of his crop, until the day of harvest.

First, we will experience pain of heart, a sorrow deep inside, a gnawing agony of soul seeking to slake its thirst. Then we will experience an ever-increasing flame of thirst, a seemingly unhealable wound, an inconsolable anguish and contrition of soul. These are labor pains, the hard work of the interior man. We must endure them.

We must not yet seek to lay hold of consoling tears of compunction, because it is a great gift which bears within itself the bedewing grace of the Holy Spirit, the comfort of the Comforter, the slaking of our thirsting soul. We must not expect to lay hold of this too quickly, without much effort, pain, long-suffering patience, and crucifixion with Christ. We must seek these grace-filled tears through natural tears. More importantly, we must avoid impatient delusion which mistakes tears born from human action for tears born from divine action. The essence of delusion is to call that which is natural, or unnatural, or demonic, something truly spiritual, supernatural, God-produced.

Contrition is fire in the soul, an un-soothed pain, an affliction from the awareness of our wretchedness. Compunction is a cooling water, a refreshing breeze, a sweet pain of heart, a joy-producing sorrow, a thirst which quenches thirst—but continues to thirst, and is continually quenched. Compunction is the humiliation and brokenness of the sinful heart before God, but one which is swallowed up in an even greater consciousness of God’s mercy, love, care, and acceptance of our broken heart. It is a fountain of living water springing forth from our heart unto the everlasting life of God’s compassion.

What more pleasing sacrifice is there? What whole-burnt offering is better than the flaming heart which is afflicted by its sins? This is the fiery sacrifice which God seeks. The only one which is acceptable to Him. This is our two mites, our pitiful offering, our maimed and blemished sacrifice. This is that which we must seek to find: a broken heart. The Prophet Joel taught this thousands of years ago: “Rend your hearts, and not your garments!”

How? How to rend them? How to pierce them? How to sensitize them? How to inflame them? How to make them thirst, O Lord? By My name, He says. Pierce them with the Sword of the Spirit, Jesus Christ, the Crucified One, the Co-Sufferer of mankind, the Bridegroom of our soul, the Destroyer of sin, the Life-Giver:

“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner!”

“Lord Jesus Christ, help me to make a good beginning!”

“Lord Jesus Christ, grant me to love Thee as much as I love sin!”

“Lord Jesus Christ, make me thirst for Thee!”

“Lord Jesus Christ, wound my soul with Thy love!”

This is our humble path. This is our constant beginning. This is our hope for salvation. St. Paul declares: “The word of salvation is in your very mouth. If you call upon the Lord Jesus, believing Him to be alive, risen from the dead, you shall be saved. For all who continue to call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

All who call upon His name shall abide with Him. Though unclean, He shall cleanse them. Though paralyzed, He shall raise them. Though dead, He shall enliven them. Though sinfully leprous, He shall make them whole. Let us add to this prayerful calling upon His most sweet name the unceasing struggle against spiritual inaction, sin, and despair.

Let us increase our zeal. Let us begin to want to thirst more for Him. Let us rouse ourselves from the sleep of carelessness. Let us fall down and worship Him. Let us pour out our hearts to Him, continually, unfailingly, honestly, boldly, trusting in His mercy. For, this repentance is the proof of our genuine desire to truly love God. And, growing in this love, we will become more perfected in love for others, loving everyone like Christ, loving everyone as Christ, to the glory of Christ, together with His Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.