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Whether we’re discussing the people of the tribes of Israel
wandering through the Desert of Sin for forty years, the Samaritan
woman at the town’s well speaking with Jesus, or ourselves, there is
no doubt that, in order to sustain life, water is a necessity.
Without adequate hydration, all of us will die. No doubt about it.
Yet, as important as bodily thirst is in reminding us about what we
need to survive in this world, today’s scripture seizes upon this
physical need to raise a more fundamental, spiritual question: “What
is it you really thirst for?”
To
focus upon what this more substantive need, I’d like to share with
you the stories of two Egyptians, Ahmed Muhammad Sayyid and Liala
Ashour, both of whom I read about in last Sunday’s New York Times.
Several years
back, Ahmed had a decent job and a chance to marry. In Egyptian
culture, an engagement lasts for two years during which the male
“proves” himself capable of providing for a wife and family.
Ahmed’s fiancée’s family canceled the engagement because after two
years, Ahmed’s low-paying job made it impossible for him to raise
enough money to buy an apartment and furniture. Ahmed soon spun
into depression and he then lost nearly 40 pounds because, in Egypt,
failure in an engagement results in social ostracization which, in
turn, makes it extremely difficult and unlikely—if not impossible—to
ever marry. Now, at 28 years of age and possessing a diploma in
tourism, Ahmed is living with his mother, Sabah, who was divorced
shortly after Ahmed was born, and working as a taxi driver for less
than $100 a month.
With these
disappointments and indignities, Ahmed has drawn closer to his
religion, Islam, and Ahmed spends most of his day seated behind the
wheel of his Volkswagen Golf searching for passengers and listening
to the Koran. When he’s not in his taxi, Ahmed is at home where the
radio is always on, broadcasting the Koran. Two worn and tattered
books are placed on a small white night stand beside Ahmed’s bed, a
large Koran and a small Koran.
“What do you
think? Of course I am bored,” Ahmed says, trying not to let go of
the forced smile he always wears when he talks about his stalled
life. “When I get closer to God, I feel things are good in my
life….By being religious, God prevents you from doing wrong things,”
Ahmed remarks, revealing his central fear and motivation, namely,
with lots of time, nothing to do, and bored with his life, all of
this will lead Ahmed to sin. “This whole atmosphere we live in is
wrong, wrong.”
Liala Ashour
is 22 years old, a university graduate with a degree in
communications. There was a time she dressed and acted just like
her friends, covering her head with a scarf but wearing blue jeans
and bright shirts. She flirted with young men on the street, and
dreamed of being a television producer. Today, Liala dresses in a
loose black gown called an abaya, and covers her head, all
but her eyes, with a black piece of clothing over her face called a
niqab. When she goes outside, Liala wears black gloves as
well. She has all the looks of a strict, religious fundamentalist.
What Liala
is, is hurt. “I realized that people don’t help you,” she said.
“It is only God that helps you.”
Liala was
engaged to a young man named Mustafa, for more than two years. The
plan was for Mustafa and his family to take a year or two to
construct and furnish an apartment. But, Mustafa’s father had no
money left after setting up two older sons, and the young man was
unable to raise enough money to finish the construction. Liala
wanted to help, secretly, but has been unable to find a paying job.
When her mother finally told Liala to end the engagement, something
snapped, and Liala sought solace in increasingly the strict Islamic
practice.
“Everything
is God’s will,” Liala said, explaining why she decided to take on
the niqab. “Everything is a test.”
Liala now
volunteers in a clinic run by the Islamic Preaching Organization.
Originally, the clinic aimed to provide medical services to the
poor. But, it quickly expanded and now also helps poor young
couples who currently find themselves in the position Liala was in
with her fiancé, Mustafa, providing the furniture, appliances, and
kitchenware they need to start their lives together.
Realizing
their thirst for happiness in this world will not be slaked due to
educational, political, social, economic, and cultural forces beyond
their power to control, Ahmed and Liala turned to religion—to God—to
slake something else, a deep and abiding spiritual thirst brought to
the fore by those forces that, it seems, have conspired to ruin the
lives of Ahmed and Liala.
One of the
things that intrigued me when I read the stories of Ahmed and Liala
is how they are learning one of life’s most difficult lessons,
namely, all of those things we believe will make us happy—earning a
degree, landing a decent job, getting marriage, having all the
latest and greatest toys and gadgets we desire—oftentimes don’t
materialize or, if they do, don’t bring the happiness we
envisioned. They only make us thirstier!
A second
thing that intrigued me when I read those stories is how, in the
midst of their dashed hopes and depression, both Ahmed and Liala
came to realize something very important. In Ahmed’s words, “When I
get closer to God, I feel things are good in my life….By being
religious, God prevents you from doing wrong things.” In Liala’s
words, “Everything is God’s will….Everything is a test.”
I don’t know
what Ahmed means, in particular, by “doing wrong things.” I am
sure, however, that one of those wrong things would be to commit
suicide. Depression and the belief that one’s thirst for happiness
in this world will never be slaked has led many people over the
centuries to conclude that suicide provides an avenue to escape the
psychological pain and suffering they are experiencing. But, rather
than succumb to that temptation brought on by depression, Ahmed has
discovered true happiness—that “things are good in my life,” he
says—by being religious, that is, close to God.
I also don’t
know what Liala means, in particular, by “Everything is God’s
will….Everything is a test.” I am sure, however, that seeing
everything as God’s will and as a test is a way to avoid succumbing
to the temptation to believe that life is absurd, as Albert Camus
once described his godless vision of life and work in The Myth of
Sisyphus. The test, if I understand Liala correctly, is to
experience God’s presence, nowhere more so than in life’s
difficulties. She seems to have made this discovery and allowed it
to transform the anguish and pain of dashed dreams into a source of
strength.
For Ahmed and
Liala, God has provided nourishing spiritual water—the water of
hope—to confront and to overcome the difficulties and trials that
life has dealt both of them. The other option? That of many of
Ahmed and Leila’s peers: to embrace a radical ideology having
nothing to do with God; to become extremists who seek to rule as if
they were God; and, to condemn others to death in the name of God.
Yes, when we
have the world by the tail—when we’ve got everything under control,
when everything is going our way, when the future looks sunny and
bright, and when the world is our oyster—it’s easy to drink in,
absorb, and luxuriate in the water of material happiness. But, it’s
also very easy to forget about and even to neglect God as material
things increasingly become the water to slake our thirst. As Ahmed
and Liala are learning, it’s when the world has us by the tail—when
everything is spiraling out of control, when nothing is going our
way, when the future looks dark and bleak, and everything is
collapsing all around us—that it’s extremely difficult to be happy.
Parched and thirsting, we need something more than the water of
materialism to slake our deepest, spiritual thirst. And, the only
“something” that can slake our spiritual thirst is God.
Do you
remember that cold, dark December night in Iowa in 1999, when the
Republican Party primary debate was coming to an end? One of the
final questions Tim Russert posed to the six candidates was, “What
political philosopher or thinker do you most identify with and
why?” When then-Governor George W. Bush’s turn to respond came, he
answered, “Christ…because he changed my heart.” After a rather
weighty pause, Tim Russert said, “I think the viewers would like to
know more about how he’s changed your heart.” To which Bush
responded: “Well, if they don’t know, it’s going to be hard to
explain. When you turn your heart and your life over to Christ,
when you accept Christ as the Savior, it changes your heart. It
changes your life. And that’s what happened to me.”
Like Ahmed,
Liala, and President Bush, all of us have to deal with difficulties,
trials, and temptations. When we find ourselves trapped in the
middle of these troubles, today’s scripture asks: What is it you
really thirst for?
As we heard
in today’s first reading, yes, we could respond as the people of
Israel did at Meribah and Massah in the desert. Parched and
thirsty, they grumbled against Moses and demanded, “Is the Lord in
our midst or not?” They wanted God to prove Himself to them!
Lent is a
time for us to prove ourselves to God by allowing re-centering
ourselves in God and allowing God to slake our spiritual thirst as
we acquaint ourselves with the lessons taught by God’s only begotten
Son. Perhaps, like Ahmed, we might pick up the Word of God and read
it profitably rather than allow it to sit on the bookshelf or
bedside table. Perhaps, like Liala, we might offer our time in
service of the poor and needy. Or, perhaps like President Bush, we
might allow Christ to change our hearts and lives. No matter what
we do, Lent provides the time to allow the lessons God’s only
begotten Son teaches—the true water of life—to transform us so that
we will be well-prepared to celebrate Holy Week.
God sent His
only begotten Son to satisfy our spiritual thirst completely—to
bring us to that eternal place where true happiness is found—but we
first have to drink deeply of that water and allow it to transform
us into more spiritual and holy people. To achieve this
transformation, however, we need to leave behind slavery in
Egypt—like the tribe of Israel, all of those places where we’ve
falsely believed we would find true happiness—like the Samaritan
woman and her five husbands, and the immaturity and childish
behavior that throws our lives off course—like George W. Bush.
As Jesus told
the Samaritan woman at the well: “Everyone who drinks this water
will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I shall give
will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a
spring of water welling up to eternal life.” |
HOMILY
