Let Him Come To Me And Drink
A Reflection On John 7:37-52; 8:12
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This is really the prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Christ is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this man!” The Pharisees answered them, “Are you led astray, you also? Have any of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed.” Nikodemos, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee.” Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
RSV John 7:37-52; 8:12
Today, on the Feast of Pentecost, the Church remembers the gift of the Holy Spirit, our Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who is everywhere present and fills all things, poured out upon all of us. The Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Holy Trinity, becomes our source of life, guiding us gently and reassuring us of God’s constant presence and love as we journey toward the Kingdom of our Heavenly Father.
We receive the Holy Spirit through the glorification of Christ by His saving Passion. Through the Incarnation, we see that God becomes man, sharing our human nature and lived experience. In sharing our nature, He transforms and elevates it to the loving and saving presence He always intended us to enjoy. When Christ offers His life for ours and enters into death, He triumphs over death, giving us hope and a path toward eternal life.
Christ reunites our nature with God’s, and the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives becomes clear after His glorification and Ascension to the Father. The Spirit of God animates us with gentle guidance and patience, leading us steadily toward the fullness of this new life in the eternal, loving presence of our Lord and God.
The Father sends us the Son to give us a path back to His loving and saving presence. He also sends us His Spirit to animate us, offering us His life while leading us to the fullness of life in His presence, as stated before. Since the Three are perfectly united, we see that all three are at work in each action, for all that God does, He does in unity.
A spirit, in general, is an animating force or a person, as we see them identified in Scripture. Yet a spirit is different from what we would conceptualize as a human person in that it is not embodied. Thus, God’s Spirit is a Person, distinct in His role while remaining fully united with the Father and the Son. It is His role to offer us the life and power of God, which actively nurtures our spiritual growth and helps us move toward the fullness of life in His heavenly Kingdom.
The Spirit of God is the foundation of our life, animating us in our struggle toward true life in the presence of our Lord and God. I repeat this point because it is vital to our understanding of what Christ means when He states:
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”
Water, as we have mentioned before, symbolizes life, for we all need it to survive. Yet we all thirst for true life, and that is the life Christ offers us when He calls us to come to Him and drink. What we drink of is the Holy Spirit, for once again He becomes the foundation of this new life as He animates us.
The Son reveals to us the saving power of the Spirit, as well as the saving presence of the Father. All three work in unity, for the Son and Spirit are sent by the Father. It is through the Spirit that the saving acts of God are accomplished, while all of this is revealed through our encounter with the Son. Yet it is also vital to note that it is impossible for us to cleanly define the lines between Father, Son, and Spirit, since all three are perfectly united in their work.
At the core of what Christ is telling us is that He offers us a new life, and it is through the Holy Spirit that we partake of this newness. God, as a whole, provides us with everything we need to love and serve Him, and it becomes our calling to receive His gifts while standing in the peace His saving presence exudes.
Yet we also hear that there is confusion among those who hear this message. Some say, “This is really the Prophet.” Others say, “This is the Christ.” Still others question, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that Christ is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” Some desired to arrest Christ, yet at this time no one laid hands on Him.
What this confusion speaks to is the confusion we all have about Christ when we fail to receive the gifts and peace He offers us. To help us in daily decision-making, the Holy Spirit guides us, and seeking peace becomes our compass. Remember, we are not called to be fortune tellers looking for signs of decisions; rather, we are called to discern God’s will through the peace the Spirit provides, which helps us navigate life with confidence.
We can see all the signs in the world of what we think we are “called to do,” yet if we do not experience peace when we follow or contemplate those signs, then chances are we are not yet ready to go the way we think we should in that moment.
The discomfort, or even the chaos, we feel when we are trying to discern what to do is not an indictment of our character. Remember, God offers us what we need when we need it most. This is why we cannot judge what is best for our lives based solely on external factors, such as “objective good” or others’ opinions of our lives.
We are the only ones who can fully discern what God is calling us to do because we are the only ones who truly know whether what we are doing is bringing us peace. It is thus in relation to our Prince of Peace, through the Holy Spirit, that we discern the right path forward for our lives. It is in His presence that we undertake this discernment both alone and with others. At the end of the day, the peace of the Holy Spirit is our greatest source of comfort and wisdom.
Without the peace that the Holy Spirit offers us, we can distort signs and misunderstand who Christ truly is. It is in the awe of recognizing Christ, as did the officials who questioned Him, that we too proclaim, “No man ever spoke like this man!” It is also in our misunderstanding of signs and in the tension of living for our ego alone that we, like the Pharisees, can reject His goodness and proclaim, “Are you led astray, you also? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed.”
Yet we can also be like Nicodemus, who sees the nuance of what is before him, leading him to question, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” Nicodemus does not fully understand who Christ is. Yet he has the peace to dig deeper, and it is this peaceful desire that, when the time is right, enables him to glorify Christ.
Following the peace the Holy Spirit offers us does not mean we can fully articulate the truth God is revealing to us. Yet it is through our faithful progression toward His presence that we become capable of recognizing the truth of the final words of our Lord from today’s reading:
“I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
We do not inherently know the path forward, yet by fostering the faith needed to follow the peace of the Holy Spirit, we begin to see how Christ truly illumines our lives as the Light of the world. We are not our own saviors, nor are we the ones who determine our salvation. All things, including our very life, are gifts from God, and the same is ultimately true of salvation. God offers us all these gifts to illuminate our way toward Him. Thus, it is our calling to cooperate with Him and put one foot in front of the other in faith as we seek His peace in our lives.
Let us take the pressure off ourselves by thinking we must be fully responsible for everything that happens in our lives. Even when we are the cause of sinful actions, we need to remember that the Holy Spirit is still there, offering us all we need to truly repent and continue having our lives transformed in His saving presence.
God is constantly transfiguring our lives and allowing us to offer up whatever may be incongruent with life in communion with Him and all that He is calling into His loving and saving presence. True self-love is receiving the gift of love that God is offering us. God offers us His love so that we may love ourselves, Him, and all those around us in the way that He values and loves us.
It is our calling to seek the peace and love toward which the Holy Spirit is guiding us. We will struggle, and we will miss the mark, yet in faith we continue to repent, orienting our lives toward the true life offered to us in the loving and saving presence of our Lord and God.
To carry out the discernment needed to live our lives in the eternal presence of our Lord and God, let us constantly seek the peace offered to us by the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, the true Spirit of Truth. He is truly everywhere present and fills all things, leading us to the eternal goodness of our Father. He is our treasury of blessings and Giver of Life, so it is our calling to ask Him constantly to dwell within us, cleanse us from every stain, and save our souls, for He is our gracious Lord.
Amen.
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