My good friend Alaisa Kingston Emmens is a personal trainer. She talks a lot about water’s importance in our lives, especially our bodies’ health. It can be daunting, though, to try to get in enough water. I think it’s essential to incorporate the spiritual aspect of it in our lives as Catholics, making it easier for me. Instead of seeing it as a “chore” or a “hoop to jump through,” I am going to try and instead see it as a moment to “pray at all times” without ceasing.
In Isaiah 43:2, the Lord reminds us to have faith, even when times are tough. “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sleep over you…” Water in our faith is a symbol of life and death. One can go a long time without food. Water, though, it doesn’t take long for someone to dehydrate enough to kill them.
That’s a good focus, to remember that God provides and creates water, so to drink it is to receive life from God. Good, prayerful thoughts.
A little further, though, if we start to think of our lives in not just biblical thoughts, but Eucharistic views. In the Mass, when the priest or deacon mingles the water and wine (mixes them together), he prays: “By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” We place one drop of water in the chalice with all the wine, and the wine doesn’t change; the water does. The wine is rich and vibrant, something that enhances and changes our experience. The water, which was plain and a created thing, is now changed into the wine, something divine and enjoyable.
Humanity. The drop of water represents the humanity of Christ, which did not add anything to God’s divinity. God didn’t need humanity, but took that humanity and made it a part of Him. Just as that drop of water is now a part of the wine. God is reminding us that though we are water, something He created, He plans to make us more like Him if we just let Him. Eternal. That drop of water is so mixed with the wine that it would be nearly impossible to take them back apart. Once we are united with God, once we have been given a share in the inheritance, the only thing that can separate us from the love of Christ is our own free will.
Imagine how much different our lives would be if every time we took a drink of water, we didn’t think of it as a chore but as a moment to reflect on the reality of the Eucharist and God’s love for us?