Through our Spirituality “Looking
on Him Whom We have Pierced.” (Jn 19:27)
Sister Maria Teresita, a second year novice, shares about her experience being on mission.
“Give
Me a drink... If you only knew the gift of God and Who it is that is saying to
you, ‘Give Me a drink’, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you
living water.” Jesus repeats His longing on the Cross, “I thirst.” This is what Jesus kept telling me during my 5
months on Mission. What is He thirsty for? He thirsts to love, forgive,
strengthen, and fill us – Jesus thirsts to satisfy our thirst, for that is what
we thirst for too. But how do we let Him do that? Jesus said “If any man is
thirsty, let Him come to Me”, so that is exactly what I did; I went to the foot
of the Cross, and “looked upon Him, whom I have pierced.” I fixed my gaze on
Him, whom I’ve wounded, and I was filled with hope, for as I looked into His
merciful eyes, I only saw love, compassion, and forgiveness. Remaining in His loving
gaze, He filled me with overflowing graces in the form of Blood and Water
coming from His pierced Heart. What beautiful mystery; as I quenched His
thirst, He quenched mine… if we only truly knew the gift…
It
was a privilege to work and take care of the chapel, God’s house, for the first
2 months, like Mary did. Every time I cleaned something, or ironed linen, I did
it with love, with and for Him, to quench His thirst. And most beautiful and
breathtaking, was to set up for Mass, which is the source and center of our
life, and having the privilege to literally give the Most Precious Blood of our
Lord (that flows from His side) to my co-sisters.
At
the daycare, from the moment I walked in, I was bombarded with silent cries of
thirst from babies, toddlers, pre-schoolers, and the staff! Except when the babies
cried for a bottle, or toddlers said the only word they knew, “more!”, while
waving their cups, no one told me “I thirst”, or even “I need love”, for love
is what we all thirst for. It was a silent
cry. I received the grace to “hear” it in their moodiness, complaints,
naughtiness, or disobedience. Since I had received the love they thirsted for, by
gazing on Him (in the Eucharist), I became a simple channel of His love! I was
able to make it visible to others and quench their thirst by lending a
listening ear, giving a smile or a hug, or doing an act of service. Sometimes, the same way that Jesus died for me
to quench my thirst, I sometimes had to die to myself to quench other’s thirst;
when I was exhausted, for example, that was the moment when a child wanted me
to run after him and catch him, which would later turn to them running after
me!
Now,
I miss being at the daycare, and I think that the greatest reason is because I
can’t quench their thirst. But I can!
It is not my love that they were
receiving but Christ’s. I was only a little channel and I can still
be one by offering my prayers and sacrifices for them. And it really is to
Jesus that I return this love, that I give a drink, for it is His silent cry that I heard in others.
- Sister Maria Teresita, FSGM
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