The first kind is horizontal thirst. We thirst for the good things of this earth: food, clothing, shelter, friendship, a good income, etc. It’s part of our nature to desire these things, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

But we also have a vertical thirst. This is a deeper thirst for meaning and purpose. This desire is also built into our nature. There’s nothing we can do to destroy it, just as there’s nothing we can do to destroy our natural thirst for food and water.

But unlike horizontal thirst, our vertical thirst can’t be satisfied by our own efforts; only God can satisfy it. He created us that way on purpose. It’s like he put a homing device in our souls that constantly draws us to intimate, personal contact with him. That’s why when all our horizontal thirsts are satisfied, when we’re rich and successful and physically satisfied, we’re still thirsty for something more.

True meaning and purpose for our lives comes only from friendship with God, not worldly success, pleasures and human relationships. When we forget this, when try to satisfy our vertical thirst with horizontal stuff, we put ourselves on the dead-end road to frustration, tragedy and disappointment.

Deep down we all know this; that’s why we’re here today. But the world around us is always trying to convince us that the vertical thirst for God is just an illusion; that we really can satisfy all our longings with just earthly treasures and pleasures. This is one of the devil’s favorite lies, by the way. If he can convince us that our vertical thirst is just a part of our horizontal thirst, then we won’t bother trying to get closer to God.

 

Our Lord’s Frustration

The Lord is frustrated because he has all these riches he wants to give us—but we don’t always thirst for them. God is longing to fill our hearts with his grace even more than we are longing for meaning and happiness! God created us with a thirst for his friendship and love, not to torture us, but to lead us to himself and to his eternal paradise. But when we let ourselves be seduced by the plastic paradise that this world offers, his treasures go undiscovered, and our desires go unsatisfied.

Number 27 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it quite plainly: The desire for God is written in the human heart, because we are created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw us to himself. Only in God will we find the truth and happiness we never stop searching for.

 

The Genius of Almsgiving

When the Lord’s disciples return with the supplies, the Samaritan woman rushes back into town. The disciples start unpacking their grocery bags and offered some lunch to Jesus. But he looks at them and says, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” The disciples are puzzled. They wonder if the woman may have already given him some food. So Jesus explains, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to finish his work.”

Jesus teaches us that our vertical thirst is far more important than our horizontal thirst. If we make it our first priority to satisfy that vertical thirst, to love God and to love our neighbor, then the horizontal thirst will also be taken care of. As long as we strive to follow God’s plan for our lives, he will take care of us. God’s will for us is that we love one another, that we care as much about the needs of others as we do about our own, that we think and speak well of others. That’s what almsgiving is all about. Jesus will teaches us this lesson by his own example when he gives us his very self in Holy Communion today: His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. When he does, ask him to show you how to follow his example for the rest of your Lenten journey and on into Easter.