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MAY 1
LIBERATING CONFESSION
“Jesus said to her (the Samaritan woman), ‘Every one who drinks of this
water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give
him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a
spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give
me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.’ Jesus said to her,
‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have
no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;
for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your
husband; this you said truly.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I perceive that
you are a prophet…” (Jn 4: 13-19)
Our Lord is drawing the woman out of herself, letting her tell Him things
He already knows,–first, about her “thirst“ for His kind of “water,“ and
second, ...about that other thing. It is that thing in her life, that repeating,
troublesome pattern, which needs to be said aloud and addressed,
so that a real conversation with Christ can begin. And so that she can
receive “living water“ that will become in her “a spring of water welling
up to eternal life.“ She can’t quite say it herself, so He helps her out, and
says it for her, like an experienced, skilful father-confessor: You have had
five husbands... You’ve been trying to quench that “thirst“ in the wrong
place. After this, we see her eyes and heart begin to open, and she starts
asking Him the right questions.
Today let me not fear a conversation like this one; a confession that
liberates me from “that thing“ in my life that may be blocking me from
truly quenching my “thirst.“ My Lord can and will give me more than I
can give myself, or that any human being can give me. He gives me water
that becomes in me “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.“ So let
me open up to Him today. “Give me this water,“ I say to Him this morning,
“that I may not thirst,“ nor come to draw in the wrong places.
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