By: Deacon Renée Beyea (MDiv)
I have been reading an interesting book of late, an apocalypse written by Michael O’Brien (Father Elijah, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1996). The following exchange, between a Catholic priest and an agnostic woman, a lawyer, struck me. The priest begins:
“A man is what he loves. A man is what he will live for and die for.”
“What do you love? What is real for you?”
“I love God. He is real.”
“Theology isn’t logical.”
“Logic doesn’t contain theology: theology contains logic.”
“That’s debatable. Oh, damn, there we go; now we’re sliding into the world of abstractions, where this sort of conversation always ends.”
“The love God pours out on the world is effective in our lives to the degree that we open ourselves to it. Until we do, we presume it is just an abstraction.”
Jesus speaks in the boldest of terms, which, if taken at face value, lead precisely away from abstraction, directly into the realm of practical reality. Certainly this is the case with Jesus’ words concerning living water. Those who come to Him, who believe in Him, will be given the Holy Spirit, which will be as a river of living water flowing from his or her heart. Living water is not for the intellectually curious or the philosophically minded or the religious seeker, but for the thirsty. Abstractions cannot satisfy the thirsty, our own or the world’s, nor can arguments bring the dead to life. Only living water can do that.