The major theme of today's readings is thirst. Almost without fail, our focus tends to be on how much or how little we thirst for God. If you're not as thirsty as the world's most interesting man says you should be, then something is wrong. This is, of course is true. Who doesn't long for more? But it's also something you can't fix on your own.
If one takes the lovely Preface for the Eucharistic Prayer specfic to this passage from Saint John's Gospel, which is geared toward Christian initiation, what it tells you is that Christ thirsts for you. Not only is the liturgy the primary place for encountering Sacred Scripture, it is also prima theologia.
Let's step back, or rather, step forward, moving from the fourth chapter of Saint John's Gospel to the nineteenth. It is here that Jesus says, as He hangs dying on the cross, "I thirst" (John 19:28). This phrase was adopted by Saint Teresa of Calcutta as much more than a motto. These words constitute the foundation for the mission of the Missionaries of Charity. "I thirst" is also the Fifth of the Lord's Seven Last Words.
You can't "get" faith. No one can give you faith. You can't give faith to anyone. As a theological virtue, faith is a gift from God.
This Preface notes that prior to His encounter with this woman at Jacob's well, Jesus "had already created the gift of faith within her." Continuing, we hear that "so ardently did he thirst for her faith, that he kindled in her the fire of divine of love." To ardently thirst for her faith, which created in her, is a way of saying He ardently thirsted for her.
How the Lord kindled the fire of divine love in this Samaritan woman unfolds over the thirty-eight verses from the fourth chapter of the Gospel According to Saint John that comprise our Gospel for today. He lit this flame by gently pointing out how unsuccessful she had been at finding love. The fact she was then with someone, even if in an illicit arrangement, shows she still hadn't given up.
There is no shame in wanting to be loved and to love. This desire constitutes our humanity. This is why, at some point or another, love makes fools of nearly all of us.
At its deepest level, the Good News is that you are always already loved with an unquenchable, unfathomable love. "God," after all, "is love" (1 John 4:8.16). "In this is love," we read elsewhere in the Johannine corpus, "not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). God loves you and there's nothing you can do about it!
So, before you ever thirst for Him, the Lord thirsts for you. Without His thirst for you, you couldn't thirst for Him. And He can't help but thirst for you.
To quote the usually neglected first part of the sentence that contains Saint Augustine's massively overused phrase, found near the beginning his Confessions: "You have stirred in us the desire to praise you, for you have made us for yourself. . ." (Book I, Chapter 1).
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