When was the last time you had a drink… of water that is? We drink water to satisfy our thirst, knowing full well that we will be thirsty again, sooner or later. Then, there are those who in some way are addicted to alcohol or drugs or sex or whatever else it might be. We often speak about those who thirst for knowledge or who thirst for just the right answer.

We can easily relate to the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel: “whoever drinks this water (meaning the water in the well) will get thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.” Listen to what some of the Old Testament writers have said. Psalm 42: “As a deer longs for a stream of cool water, so I thirst for you, the living God.” Isaiah: “Come, everyone who is thirsty … come to me.” Jeremiah compares God to a spring of fresh water. The great Father of the Church, St. Augustine, added: “Our hearts are made for God, and they will not rest, until they rest in God.” A more modern author has said: “Our hearts have a God-shaped hole in them, that only God can fill.”

Our great tragedy is that we have tried to fill that thirst with so many replacements. Unfortunately, so many people, including ourselves on occasion, are trying to fill that God-shaped hole in our hearts with something other than God.

When a baby starts crying, we often try to distract the baby with a gadget or toy to amuse the child to assist him to stop crying. We sometimes treat our spiritual thirst in the same way. We try to satisfy that thirst with distractions.

Trying to satisfy a spiritual thirst with material things is like trying to satisfy thirst with salt water. The more we drink, the thirstier we get.

We have all heard stories about successful people never satisfied, always looking for more. Often those successes were not in the spiritual realm but were rather material successes. In the human heart there is a restlessness that no success can satisfy; there is a void that no material object can fill.

Jesus makes is eminently clear in today’s Gospel that only he can satisfy the thirst in our hearts. In speaking to the Samaritan woman, he says: “Whoever drinks the water that I will give will never be thirsty again.”

I know that this sounds so simple… It is simple but so very profound. Looking for happiness and success is very natural. The danger comes in when we replace true spiritual satisfaction with material satisfactions, when we take temporary pleasure to replace permanent pleasure.

This search for pleasure in life is not bad in itself. The search becomes bad when these momentary pleasures take the place of the living water, take the place of Christ.

This little prayer expresses today’s teaching and our response: “Lord Jesus, you are the life-giving water for which we thirst. You are the happiness and success for which we strive. You are the peace and joy for which we search. Lord Jesus, our hearts were made for you, and they will not rest until they rest in you.”