Are we ready always to receive, to drink of ‘life-giving waters’?

Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor.

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

+ There are lots of expressions that say it so well, like, “putting a Band-Aid on a broken leg,” or “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” or “putting lipstick on a pig.”

The biblical version might read: “They have dug cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water.”

And the really sad thing is that they dug them; they did the work, but it was worthless because these cisterns could not and would not hold any water.

+ In the desert, especially, one needs water. Without water we cannot live for very long — maybe a week or so. Water quenches our thirst. Water keeps us from dehydrating. We need to be hydrated.

So the really sad thing about these cisterns that God speaks about through the prophet Jeremiah is God’s evaluation of the faith response of Israel.

“They have forsaken me,” says God, “the source of living waters.”

Living waters! Life-giving waters! Waters that quench the deepest thirsts — the spiritual thirsts — the thirsts within our souls.

Why would anyone go to idols of stone, wood or metal when they could go to the Lord of life? Why would anyone seek man-made gods rather than the God who has made everything and holds it all in existence?

We are talking about the God of the universe. The God of all creation. The God who is timeless and limitless. The God who always was, is, and always will be. The God who is so “out there” and at the same time so “totally in here.” The God who actually does satisfy our deepest hungers and our deepest thirsts.

+ And so, Jesus, why don’t you tell it like it is! He speaks: “You shall indeed hear but not understand, you shall indeed look but never see. Gross is the heart of this people.”

+ Imagine being a people who can “taste and see the goodness of the Lord.”

Imagine being a people who can “see, hear, feel the kingdom of God” in ordinary things and people around them. Do we “long to see and hear”? Do we have hearts that are humble and open, ready always to receive, ready always to drink of “life-giving waters”?

+ Lord, give me that life, I pray! Open my eyes and my ears and most of all, my heart, to you!

Amen.

Father Perry D. Leiker is the 14th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at perry.leiker@gmail.com. Follow Father Perry on Twitter: @MrDeano76.