"I Thirst"

“I thirst.”

These are the only two words that make sense of my life right now.  They come from Jesus on the Cross and they were spoken to me today at Mass.  “I want you to feel how I thirst.”

Sometimes I feel awfully crazy when these types of experiences happen.  Was that just my imagination?  Or was that really Jesus speaking to me?  Not even speaking as in vocally.  But like the words just manifested themselves in my soul.  I don’t know.  I don’t understand.

But they make perfect sense.  It’s like the moment I perceive them I understand.  My suffering right now isn’t pointless.  Or at least it’s not meant to be; I can make it pointless if I dwell endlessly upon it and pity myself, of course.

No, my suffering, two-fold as it is, has a purpose.  Jesus is allowing me to feel his thirst for souls in my thirst for him.  He is allowing to me feel his loneliness on the Cross in my own loneliness here at home.

What I must do, then, is not to dwell on these sufferings in and of themselves.  But to direct that suffering at the same object Jesus directed his suffering… the salvation of souls.  Since I feel his thirst for souls in my own soul, let me offer my suffering for especially the souls I serve at St. Rita’s.  Let me work to quench Jesus’ thirst by bringing these souls to him.