The Saturday After the Ascension, June 4, 2022

The following Gospel reading is for use in the Vigil Mass of Pentecost.  The Gospel reading for the Mass of the day is John 21, 20-25.

John 7, 37–39

On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. As Scripture says: Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.” He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive. There was, of course, no Spirit yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

The feast spoken of here is the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles, an ancient Hebrew harvest feast.  It occurs in the Fall, and this year it begins on the evening of October 9 and ends on the evening of October 16.  Prior to the Lord coming to Jerusalem for this feast, he had fed the five thousand and preached on himself as the Bread of Life.  This took place near Capernaum in Galilee.  The Gospel tells us that at this time the Lord kept to Galilee because prior to his feeding of the crowd, he had healed the paralytic in Jerusalem on the Sabbath and the Jewish leaders had sought to kill him.  So now, some months later, he returns to Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths.  Not long after his arrival, his preaching again brings down the wrath of the Jewish leaders, who accuse him, seemingly only a man, despite his miracles, of making himself equal to God.  The present reading takes places on the ultimate day of the feast.

“Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink.”  This has echoes of his conversation with the Samaritan Woman at the well and also his preaching to the five thousand after he had fed them, teaching them about their need to drink his Blood in order to live eternally.  It also brings to mind the words of Wisdom, from Proverbs 9, 5: “Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you.”  Wisdom invites the unlearned to come and learn from her, for wisdom is as necessary for life as it is to eat and drink.  Here, Divine Wisdom cries out to the people and invites them to learn from him so that they might have everlasting life.

“As Scripture says: Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.”  In fact, this quote is not found in the Old Testament.  A couple of possibilities exist for what we hear in this passage.  First, it could be a translation problem, and that it should read: “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink, as Scripture says.”  We could then understand the Lord as paraphrasing the verse from Proverbs referred to above.  We would also understand, “Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me”, as a comment by St. John.  This is not far-fetched because John offers comments on the Lord’s words throughout his Gospel.  A second possibility is that the Lord is quoting from a work not included in what we today call “The Old Testament”.  At that time, there was no canon of the Scriptures.  In his Epistle, St. Jude actually quotes from two books later deemed not be included in the Bible.  A third possibility is that the Lord was paraphrasing some verse from the Scriptures.  It is not easy to see which verse he would have had in mind.  Following are three suggestions.  Even if they were not the source of the Lord’s words, they help us to have a richer idea of what he meant.

1. “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken

 cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2, 13).  God, through the Prophet, calls himself a “fountain of living water”.  By “living water” is meant flowing water, not stagnant pond water.  Living water is pure and can be used for cleansing as well as for drinking.  When God calls himself such a fountain in this passage, he is saying that although he provided plenty of easily accessible fresh water, people went and dug their own wells that were no good.  That is, God offers life freely, but people reject it for following their own perverse wills.  God is truly life-giving and offers us not only our lives here on earth but life in heaven.  The Christian can understand this as teaching that this “living water” is divine grace.

2. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem: half of them to the east sea, and half of them to the last sea: they shall be in summer and in winter” (Zechariah 14, 8).  God, speaking through his Prophet, tells of the last days of the world.  The wicked Jerusalem is destroyed and from a new Jerusalem comes this living water, flowing out to the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.  That is, this new Jerusalem will be the source of grace to the earth.  These seas are salty, but the water gushing from Jerusalem is fresh and will transform the seas into freshwater seas.  In the words of St. Mark, “But they [the Apostles] going forth [from Jerusalem] preached every where: the Lord working withal, and confirming the word with signs that followed” (Mark 16, 20).

3. “Then the lame will leap like a deer and the mute tongue will shout for joy. For waters will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert” (Isaiah 35, 6).  This is part of a prophesy of the Messiah.  He himself is “the waters” that will gush forth in the “barren wilderness” of this world, a world without grace.  The sign of the lame leaping like deer tells us of the surprise and even shock of the Messiah’s arrival and of his power. 

“Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.”  Thus, the grace and power of God, even God himself, will flow from within the believer, nourishing his spiritual organs, providing him with a supernatural life that no one can take away.  This comes to us particularly through the Sacraments, most especially through the Blessed Sacrament.  It also comes to us through the Holy Spirit, who is always present when we receive a Sacrament.  For this reason, St. John adds, “He said this in reference to the Spirit whom those who came to believe in him were to receive.”  The Apostles would receive him at Pentecost, and subsequent believers have received him ever since, particularly in Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders.

“There was, of course, no Spirit yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.”  Meaning, the Spirit had not yet come into the world because Jesus had not yet risen from the dead.  As Mary Magdalene clung to the feet of Jesus and the Apostles would have clung to him if he had remained after his Resurrection, let us cling to the Holy Spirit, who provides us the means to grow in holiness so that we may reign with Jesus forever.