“Water from the side of Christ, wash me.”
This line from the Anima Christi stuck out to me, so I wrote it on a bright yellow index card and taped it to the wall right outside my shower. I wanted to remind myself in routine daily life to think always of Christ, to turn everything into a prayer, and to remember the healing and renewal only He can bring. I wanted little things to speak of bigger things.
Even in daily life, it is clear how something as simple as water affects nearly everything. If I don’t drink enough water, I’m going to cramp up during that run. If I don’t drink enough water, I’m going to look (and feel) even more tired at work. I remember when my pipes froze during a snow storm a few years ago. Needless to say, I missed running water, despite the novelty of melting snow from outside my window to make tea.
“As a deer longs for running streams, so longs my soul for You, O God” (Psalm 42:2). When I recognize how much I need water for the health of my body, it helps properly contextualize this psalm. Our souls need God — for everything. And He longs for us, too. “I thirst,” He says from the cross (John 19:28). He thirsts for us and our love.
The act of giving drink to the thirsty offers an opportunity to reflect on Christ’s desire for us and our need for Him. I recently returned from a year-long tour in Bahrain, where the summer temperatures and humidity can be nearly unbearable. Through a stroke of luck, I found a volunteer group started by a Pakistani family to provide meals to migrant workers. I joined the “Saturday Biryani Party” every weekend and met volunteers from all over the world to feed and provide drink to workers who were living on only a few dinars a month. It was a small effort on my part, but in disheartening conditions like that I realized one bottle of water or box of juice led to genuine smiles and gratitude. These signs of relief and connection with my fellow pilgrim were small reflections of the joy brought by Christ’s love.
I also remember riding back to base with a friend on a cold winter night. After we showed our IDs, he reached over and handed the gate guard a take-away cup of hot chocolate. “This is for you,” he said. The guard’s surprise and happiness were obvious, and I learned yet another simple way to practice this corporal work of mercy in everyday life.
Water really does sustain us in many ways. However, as much as we may yearn for the comfort and wellness which water provides, our souls require the love and mercy of Christ in a much more profound way. We can experience and extend this love and mercy by quenching the thirst we see all around us as best we can.
