A Sunday Thought From Fulton Sheen About How God Thirsts For Us

You can't go wrong with just about anything Fulton Sheen has written, or with any of the many TV shows he presented in the 1950s. His communication skills are second to none.

I recall watching some of his shows when I was growing up. And since, have read a number of his books. (Reminds me to read more!) This passage represents his skills well. And on this Sunday after Pentecost, we've got something to chew on as we carve out a bit of extra time for Our Lord on this, His Day. 

    “Our Blessed Lord reaches the communion of His Mass when out of the depths of the Sacred Heart there wells the cry: ‘I thirst.’ This was certainly not a thirst for water, for the earth is His and the fullness thereof; it was not a thirst for any of the refreshing droughts of earth…When they offered Him a drink, He took it not. It was another kind of thirst which tortured Him. He was thirsty for the souls and hearts of men. The cry was for communion – the last in a long series of shepherding calls in the quest of God for men. The very fact that it was expressed in the most poignant of all human sufferings, namely, thirst, was the measure of its depth and intensity. Men may hunger for God, but God thirsts for men. He thirsted for man in Creation as He called him to fellowship with divinity in the garden of Paradise; He thirsted for man in Revelation, as He tried to win back man’s erring heart by telling the secrets of His love; He thirsted for man in the Incarnation when He became like the one He loved, and was found in the form and habit of man.
    “Now He was thirsting for man in Redemption, for greater love than this no man hath, that he lay down his life for his friends. It was the final appeal for communion before the curtain rang down on the Great Drama of His earthly life. All the myriad loves of parents for children, of spouse for spouse, if compacted into one great love, would have been the smallest fraction of God’s love for man in that cry of thirst. It signified at once, not only how much He thirsted for the little ones, for hungry hearts and empty souls, but also how intense was His desire to satisfy our deepest longing. Really, there should be nothing mysterious in our thirst for God, for does not the hart pant after the fountain, and the sunflower turn to the sun, and the rivers run into the sea? But that He should love us, consider our own unworthiness, and how little our love is worth – that is the mystery! And yet such is the meaning of God’s thirst for communion with us. He had already expressed it in the parable of the Lost Sheep, when He said He was not satisfied with the ninety-nine; only the lost sheep could give Him perfect joy. Now the truth was expressed again from the Cross: Nothing could adequately satisfy His thirst but the heart of every man, woman, and child, who were made for Him, and therefore could never be happy until they found their rest in Him.” (Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen) 

If you didn't find this astounding, I dare say you didn't read it or didn't read it with full attention. If that's so, do yourself a favor and go back right now and keep any distractions at bay. We're talking a few minutes of your Sunday here to possibly grab a jewel that you can add to your treasure chest of great Catholic spiritual writing. And with that addition, you may, with God's grace, draw just a step closer to uniting yourself with Him in a deeper, more permanent way - something we all should strive to do each day.

That's the benefit we're were hoping to provide by posting this Fulton Sheen jewel.

Happy Sunday!