"I Thirst": A Window on the Heart of God

These thoughts on God's thirst from Mother Teresa's Secret Fire (discussed here) proved to be surprisingly enlightening during this advent, especially when we consider that we are waiting for God to come into the world in the person of Jesus. Here's a nugget to give you an idea of what hit me.

First of all, what does the thirst of Jesus tell us about God? The symbol of thirst is neither complicated nor hard to understand: As the burning desert yearns for water, so God yearns for our love. As a thirsty man longs for water, so God longs for each of us. As a thirsty man seeks after water, so God seeks after us. As a thirsty man thinks only of water, so God thinks constantly of us: "Even thehairs of your head are all numbered" (Lk 12:7). As a thirsty man will give anything in exchange for water, so God gladly gives all he has, and all he is, in exchange for us: his divinity for our humanity, his holiness for our sin, his paradise in exchange for our pain. ...

Since it would be impossible to give an adequate sense of the infinite longing in the heart of God in mere words, or theological descriptions, God chose to communicate this mystery in metaphor -- that of a burning, relentless, divine "thirst."

Mother Teresa was given a symbol to lift up before the poor that was entirely simple, yet many-faceted; simple enough to touch the hearts of the poor, yet deep enough to engage the intellect of scholars. The Holy spirit portrays God's longing in the most accessible language possible -- that of human experience.