“Giving drink to the thirsty.” This act of mercy had a special resonance in Mother Teresa’s life. Jesus’s words from the Cross, “I thirst” (Jn 19:28), succinctly summed up her call to quench the infinite thirst of Jesus on the Cross for love and souls. Encounter with the thirsty was then a reminder of that call and an always fresh invitation to respond first to the immediate need of the poor person in front of her, but also in a mystical way to satiate the thirst of Jesus, who was through this person—in the “distressing disguise of the poor”—asking her to “give me to drink” (Jn 4:7).

Always attentive to the needs of the poor, especially their basic physical needs, Mother Teresa took practical and necessary steps to help them. Supplying drinking water with the help of civic authorities or charitable associations wherever there was a shortage was one of her many efforts among the poor.

Yet she did not remain focused only there. She took the experience of thirst a step further, realizing that many people were thirsting “for kindness, for compassion, for delicate love.” She endeavored to offer some tangible expression of kindness, compassion, and love to meet this basic human need and encouraged her followers to do the same.

Whatever the concrete reason that someone experiences either real physical thirst (a lack of water, the scarcity of means to reach it, an inability to take it, or the destitution of those dying on the streets) or the human thirst for love, giving drink to the thirsty, as a work of mercy, definitely demands our attention. Following Mother Teresa’s example, we are challenged to recognize the thirsty around us, and to do all in our power to satiate their thirst, endeavoring like her to give drink to those who thirst for water but “not only for water, but for knowledge, peace, truth, justice, and love.”

HER WORDS

Jesus Is Thirsting for Our Love

When Jesus was dying on the Cross, He cried, “I thirst.” [We are] to quench the thirst of Jesus for souls, for love, for kindness, for compassion, for delicate love. By each action done to the sick and the dying, I quench the thirst of Jesus for love of that person—by my giving God’s love in me to that particular person, by caring for the unwanted, the unloved, [the] lonely, and…all the poor people. This is how I quench the thirst of Jesus for others by giving His love in action to them.1

When He was dying on the Cross, Jesus said, “I thirst.” Jesus is thirsting for our love, and this is the test of everyone, poor and rich alike. We all thirst for the love of others—that they go out of their way to avoid harming us and do good to us. This is the meaning of true love—to give until it hurts.2

When He said, “I thirst,” they thought that He was thirsty for water. So they gave Him vinegar and He didn’t take it. But His thirst was there…His thirst for love, for souls. And today He’s saying the same thing to you and to me: “I thirst” for love, for souls. And how will we satiate that thirst of Jesus? Now, right here, each one of us, by working for the salvation and sanctification of souls. That is His thirst, that terrible thirst of Jesus, that was so painful for Him on the Cross, that He knew He was going through so much suffering and yet so many will not accept Him.3

We must be able to choose to be poor even in little things. Thousands of people are without light. In prison, people are dying. They get one bucket of water to wash and drink from it. I choose to use one bucket of water, not because I have to, but because I love to. You will be a true MC when you know poverty and how to share. This is the simple way that Our Lady and Our Lord used when on earth.4

What Does He Thirst For?

He sends us to the poor in particular. The cup of water you give to the poor, to the sick, the way you lift a dying man, the way you feed a baby, the way in which you teach an ignorant child, the way you give medicine to a leper…your attitude and manners toward them—all this is God’s love in the world today. “God still loves the world!” I want this to be imprinted in your minds: God still loves through you and through me today. Let me see this love of God in your eyes, in your actions, in the way you move about.5

I have seen terrible bodily suffering, terrible, and to see those people in Ethiopia, just when you open the gate in the morning, they’re just in front of our gate, just gasping for a glass of water; they have not touched food; they come all the way just to get a little bit of tender love and care and some food.6

Where Are We?

Many people in the street…unwanted, unloved, uncared for, people hungry for love. They had three, four bottles near them but they drink that because there is nobody to give them something else. Where are you? Where am I?…We have so many people like that right in New York, right in London, in these big European cities. Just a piece of newspaper, lying there. Our sisters go at night from 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. in the streets of Rome and they bring sandwiches, they bring something hot to drink. In London, I’ve seen people standing against the factory wall to warm themselves. How? Why? Where are we?7

Thirst for Understanding

Not only hungry for bread and rice but hungry for love, to be wanted, to be known that I’m somebody to you, to be called by name, to have that deep compassion, hunger. Today in the world there is a tremendous hunger for that love. Thirsting for understanding.8

He is saying: “I am hungry. I am thirsty. I have no place. I have nobody. You did it unto Me.” I am always saying that we are not social workers, but contemplatives in the heart of the world. In the heart of the world we are feeding Jesus who is hungry. We are giving the water of mercy and joy to our people, to Jesus.9

HER EXAMPLE: THE TESTIMONIES

Ethiopia—an Open Calvary

After the visit to Alamata, Ethiopia, Sister called Mother and informed her of what she had seen. Mother said in anguish, “Sister, do something before they die.” Sister said, “Mother we need food, medicine, clothing, and most of all water.” Mother said, “I will call you back.”…Mother [phoned] President [Reagan]: “I had a call from Ethiopia just now saying thousands are dying of hunger and thirst. Please do something. They need food, water, clothing, and medicines.” The president was moved and said to Mother that he would call her back.

Within a day the USA was involved, and through CRS (Catholic Relief Services) [large] amounts of food were arranged for the MCs in Ethiopia. After sending cargo planes and ships loaded with food, clothing, and medicines, Mother reached Ethiopia with four sisters. She carried with her blankets, biscuits, and clothing. Everyone was waiting to meet Mother. She met a pop singer in the airport. He [greeted] Mother and exclaimed, “Ethiopia is an open hell.” Mother looked into his eyes and said, “Ethiopia is an open Calvary, not an open hell. You and I can do our little part and then life will be saved.”

The next day, with a burning fever, she was ready to fly to the relief places. The president of Ethiopia gave her his plane for the trips. She saw hundreds of dying skeleton patients, eyes deep down, the stomach stuck into the spines, with a fearful look in their faces; thousands sitting patiently waiting for the cooked food, which was served from seven a.m. to seven p.m. The sisters also managed to give a glass of water to each person. Mother went around and blessed everyone, feeling his or her pain. She took a bucket of water and went around giving it to them to drink. With a big smile she said to the sisters, “I envy all of you because Jesus said if you give a cup of cold water, you will receive the reward in heaven. You are privileged because you are quenching the thirst of Jesus in the poor. Jesus said, ‘You did it to Me.’ Jesus is true and Jesus cannot cheat us.” Seeing the joy of the sisters, Mother said to the regional [superior], “Look at them. So little they have and yet they are so happy and healthy. Yes, we can live without many things. The secret of joy is our poverty and wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor.” And Mother blessed us and left for Makale….

We went straight from the airport to the camps where the famine victims were kept. The very sick were lying in the tents. Suddenly Mother noticed a little shed made with the jungle wood, and there were many corpses waiting for their turn to be buried….The people said, “Lack of water is killing thousands, Mother. Give us water.” Though Mother went to bed early, she did not sleep much….She was waiting for the dawn to return to Addis Ababa. From time to time the sisters could hear Mother say, “How terrible it is to live without water, the terrible thirst.” She tossed and turned in her bed.10

During the big famine, there was no water at all [in Alamata, Ethiopia]. Mother came to visit. There was no water at all, even to drink. At lunchtime we all had one glass of water. But Mother did not drink her water; it was very hot on that day and we all were thirsty. Mother took her water and gave it to a dying lady.11

Practical and Concrete

Toward the sick, the suffering, Mother showed an extraordinary love. It was as much an evangelization to see her at Kalighat (a hospice Mother Teresa founded in 1952, also known as Nirmal Hriday), see her go from bed to bed, see her touch the people, see her practical concern, because Mother expressed love. She was a practical woman and she expressed it in a concrete way, whether it was water for the thirsty or chocolates for the fathers, and that was always more of a revelation of love than if she gave us an exhortation….And she would always invite us to sacrifice, then get a move on because of their needs. It was always directly or indirectly to give that wholehearted service, and if she found someone needed something, she would almost divide a sister in half to try to attend to both these needs. That love she showed to them was extraordinary.12

Jesus Is Thirsty in the Most Distressing Disguise

One of the main characteristics of Mother’s spirituality was seeing Christ in the poorest of the poor, in the most distressing disguise. This expression “distressing disguise” is something very special. It was not just the poorest of the poor, but seeing Jesus in distressing disguise in the form that was very difficult, very hard to discover, but believing that Jesus is there, that Jesus is thirsty, trying to be with Him. You cannot enter into that faith in the distressing disguise unless you have contact through meditation, through prayer, especially through the Eucharist. And then she would say, “The Jesus whom I receive in the Eucharist is the same Jesus whom I serve. It is not a different Jesus.”…I think the whole spirituality in the Missionaries of Charity is centered on that presence….“I want to serve and love Jesus in the poor. I want to live like Saint Francis of Assisi, a poor life, and serve Him.”13

REFLECTION

“I was thirsty and you gave Me drink.” (Mt 25:35)

“Were you there to give Him the water of compassion, of forgiveness, in His Thirst, through your sister [or brother]?”14

“Thirsty for kindness He begs of you….Will you be that ‘one’ to Him?”15

Are there small acts of charity that we could practice without drawing attention to them and that would satisfy not only the thirst for water, but the thirst for love and attention of those nearest to us? Can I render some small service to my family or community member, in an effort to be the first one to serve, rather than to expect to be served? Can I help in a project that provides water for those who do not have it? How can I avoid wasting water, in solidarity with those who suffer a shortage of it?

PRAYER

Mary, Mother of Jesus, you were the first one to hear

Jesus cry, “I thirst.” You know how real, how deep

is His longing for me and for the poor. I am yours––

Teach me, bring me face-to-face with the love in the

Heart of Jesus Crucified.

With your help, Mother Mary, I will listen to

Jesus’s thirst and it will be for me a WORD OF LIFE.

Standing near you, I will give Him my love, and I

will give Him the chance to love me and so be the

cause of your joy. And so I will satiate the thirst of Jesus.

Amen.

—Mother Teresa