The Lord commanded this Samaritan woman: “Give me a drink,” but He later seems to contradict himself by saying, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst.”
Saint Augustine comments concerning these seemingly contradictory statements: “Why did the Lord request a drink of the Samaritan woman who had come to fill her jar with water, when afterwards He Himself was going to say that He could give the gushing of a spiritual fountain to those asking? Well, obviously, the Lord was thirsty for the trust of that woman.”
It is here that I wish to highlight this word, “trust.” As seen written at the bottom of the image of the Divine Mercy, “Jesus I trust in you.” Do we truly trust in the Lord or are we instead caught up in the ways of this world? There was the occasion where the apostles were in a boat and it was beaten about by a storm. This gave them great fear and thus they went to wake the Lord from His slumber. He then calmed the sea and rebuked them saying: “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?
This trust that this woman came to place in the Lord would turn into faith and thus too she as well as others came to understand, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.” Hopefully each of us have this same trust and faith placed in the Lord, so that we too can come to believe and proclaim this same reality “that this is truly the savior of the world.”
I think this is an important lesson for us to learn for we often allow ourself to grow afraid and forget to place our trust in the Hands of the Lord. With that the media as well as social media leads many to so much anxiety. We sit around worrying about things that are out of our control. Instead of placing our trust in the Hands of the Lord we instead attempt to resolve things on our own. With roadblocks placed in our way it is easy for us to get caught up in mass hysteria.
With that I place my focus upon upon the recent Coronavirus pandemic. From this fear grocery stores have been wiped out of their surplus especially toilet paper. I reflect how different this world would be if the concern that we currently have for clean hands and avoiding contact (as important as that may be) were to transcend to our desire to avoid mortal sin at all costs. We place so much effort in the containment of this virus (not to discredit it), but don’t fear the loss of Heaven and the pains of hell. Hopefully we use this time to reflect on our own mortality and come to embrace the cross of the Lord. As the Lord reminds us: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
