Jesus, the Bread who came from heaven, saves from the thirst that kills the soul!

John 7: 27 – 39 - On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice,   “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”    By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

The feast of Shavuot, or feast of Weeks, did not only remember God’s care while the Israelites were wandering through the desert for 40 years - the manna, the waters from the rock, the fiery pillar by night – but also gave thanks for God’s blessings during the harvest at the end of summer, and prayed for those important winter rains during the months that follow.

At the feast, in the words quoted in the text above, Jesus declared that he is the answer to their prayer for water and that he answers their prayers for water.  He ultimately would give his followers the Holy Spirit, the source of life, of divine energy and strength -  living waters!

He, the Bread who came from heaven, he alone can quench our thirst!  Jesus makes us vessels of the rivers of his living waters to save his Church, to save us all from the thirst that kills the soul!