Eternal Joys
Adapted from a sermon by Fr Samuel Fanous
Whenever I’ve had a big meal before I sleep, I tend to have a reoccurring dream that night where I’m drinking a lot of water because I’m so thirsty that I’m half asleep, half awake. Funnily enough, the more I drink the less satisfied I am.
This is similar to what Christ is talking about to the Samaritan woman at the well. He speaks to her about living water rather than the water within the well. This seems to be a metaphor for something so much more profound than simple H2O. I think this is a metaphor for the restlessness of the human soul and its constant search for satisfaction. And I don’t think it is a bad thing that humans are never satisfied, it is, in fact, a beautiful thing that leads to the success of the human race. This woman worked hard to come to the well every day, knowing that the water wouldn’t satisfy her for very long. So, this offer of living water from Christ makes her recognise the need in her soul for something that would satisfy her for longer than 5-10 minutes. And the whole purpose of this restlessness of the soul is for us to find God.
Eating, drinking, lust, success, and all else are all temporary satisfactions. That doesn’t mean they are bad things in and of itself but rather they are hints from God that there is something beyond the here and the now. He lays the seeds for us to recognise that if this temporary satisfaction is so good, how much better is the eternal satisfaction of God. The joys and satisfaction of foods or praise of the world are only to whet our appetite for the eternal joys of above. When you finally move into a new house and you finally feel at home and are satisfied, that is only a foretaste of the rest we will feel in our eternal home when our souls rest in God. All these things should increase our desire for the One that can be the fulfillment of all of these joys and needs.
Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, we take the good that God has given us, and we do it to death until it is not good anymore. We take food for gluttony, we take our nice cozy houses and we turn them into an obsession with mansions, our praise from others becomes an obsession and a desire to always be the best, even the intimacy between our spouses becomes an uncontrollable drive that is never satisfied. We tend to want to stay in these temporary joys forgetting that there are eternal joys waiting for us if we just continue to the source of all peace.
St Augustine famously prays;
“Lord, You have made us for Yourself and our heart in restless until it finds rest in You.”
God has given all these good and simple things, let us go to the source of that goodness. Our hearts will never be restless and ever searching until it finds rest in God. It is good to be restless and always want more, but every good feeling on earth exists to remind us that God who gives these feelings can give us so much more.
C.S. Lewis says a very beautiful quote;
“if we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
If you find you are never satisfied, it is a reminder that this place is just temporary and is only a foretaste of the glory to come. Let us not mistake God for something much less than He is. Let’s not mistake Him for our success, comfort, happiness, and family; let’s not make these things our God as He is much greater than these.
Even when we find God we should not be satisfied; we should continue searching as God is like an infinite sea and the more, we search in him the more we find. When God is found by us, He fills us completely but there is still more, and we can search for more. This is how we utilise our restlessness. God satisfies us completely but leaves us panting for more.
Psalm 42 says, “As the dear pants for the water, as so my soul pants after You Oh God.”
The aching in our hearts that is always there is God telling us is that all of these joys can be found in Him. So, I think this is the call for us to not look for satisfaction in these temporary joys, so let’s try to start to go deeper into God to taste the living waters that all these things point to.
? Full sermon ?