One Could Lose His Soul…

I have not made it very far into Mother Teresa’s Come Be My Light during my Adoration hour.  I think I will try to purchase it (unless someone wants to loan it to me) and read it on our long summer road trip.  However, my children are learning a lot about prayer, proper behavior in church and most importantly, the real presence of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

That said, as I read today, Mother Teresa reiterated over and over that the driving force behind her religious order was to quench Christ’s thirst.  One of the last things Christ said before, “He let go of His spirit” was “’I thirst.’”  She said that since Christ is infinite His thirst is also infinite and unquenchable.  Her charge was to try to quench that thirst with love and compassion.  She committed herself to Him and vowed to deny nothing to the Lord, and she had faith that nothing would be denied to her.

When I read that “Christ’s thirst is unquenchable,” I nearly lost my faith.  I was sitting before the Eucharist, screaming in my heart saying, “Something is amiss here! How can this be?”  I knew full well that Christ said, “I thirst.”  I thought I knew what it meant.  But, after reading about Mother Teresa’s drive to quench the unquenchable thirst I questioned the logic.  I know that in God all things are infinite.  I pondered deeply, “Then how could God the Son thirst infinitely?  How could He have a depravity in Him?”  I wrestled for only a few more moments and then turned to my study Bible. 

“I thirst.”  Sure enough there was a note.  Someone has asked this question before me and the elders wanted to be sure faith is unshaken. It said, “God the Son, through the Incarnation, has fully assumed our weakness in order that we may be delivered from thirst by partaking of His salvation.”  A couple of things came to mind: this explains the lack; but, does the thirst not end with the death and resurrection of Christ.  Does the old covenant not end and the new covenant begin?  How can Mother Teresa say that Christ continues to thirst?  After all, before Christ gave up His spirit He said, “It is finished.”  The thirst, rightly understood, should be in us until we partake in Christ’s salvific grace.  I understand her and what she tried to accomplish by saying this.  I have a hard time accepting that there is a lack in the Infinite. If this were true, the Infinite would not be infinite.  One could lose his soul over such a thing.