I Thirst for you! Come home once again!
Fr. Joseph Langford MC, who worked with St. Teresa of Calcutta for decades and embraced her spirituality of “I thirst“, so movingly expresses Jesus’ intimate knowledge of the deep longing of our hearts to be loved, and His reciprocal yearning for us. In fact, Jesus’ longing for us is greater than that of ours to be loved.
“I know what is in your heart, I know your loneliness and all your wounds, the rejections, the judgments, the humiliations, I carried it all before you… I know, above all, your need for love, how much you are thirsting for love and tenderness. Yet, how many times have you desired to satisfy your thirst in vain, seeking that love with selfishness, trying to fill the void within you with passing pleasures, with the even greater emptiness of sin.
Do you thirst for love?
‘Come to Me all you who thirst…’ (John 7:37). I will satisfy you and fill you. Do you thirst to be loved? I love you more than you can imagine… to the point of dying on a cross for you…
All that you have sought outside of Me has only left you more empty, so do not tie yourself to the things of this world; above all, do not run from Me when you fall… No matter how far you have strayed without a destination, no matter how often you have forgotten Me, no matter how many crosses you bear in this life; I want you to always remember one thing that will never change. I THIRST FOR YOU – just you, as you are.”
Here’s what we can do to begin our journey Home:
- Have an honest conversation with God about what’s really been keeping you away.
- Offer these up to Him – even your fears and hesitations.
- Make a good confession to a priest.
- Embrace Lent, the providential opportunity for us to run home as the prodigal son did to his father – Our Father.
