Toward the end of one of the most intriguing narratives in the gospel of John, Jesus speaks some curious words. Although exhausted, he has been talking with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well at Sychar while his disciples go into town to buy some food. This shopping trip takes a while, so the disciples expect Jesus to be as famished as they are when they return to the well:
. . . . . . the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something."
So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?"
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.”
Jn 4:31-34
Now, even though Jesus confuses the disciples, John makes it obvious to us that the Father must have filled Jesus with some sort of spiritual food. This idea of “spiritual filling” makes us think about the words from Jesus’ sermon:
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” - Mt 5:6
Consider the wisdom of Gregory of Nyssa as he explains these words of Jesus. Hear how the virtue that makes up righteousness can satisfy us:
To me, this saying seems to mean that none of the things pursued for the sake of pleasure in this life satisfies those who pursue them . . . Are not all pleasures that are accomplished through the body fleeting, since they do not remain for long with those who have attained them? . . . Only the pursuit of virtue that is planted with us is firm and lasting. For a person who aims his life straight at the higher things—such as prudence, temperance, [or] piety toward the divine—does not in those virtuous actions obtain transitory and unstable enjoyment but enjoyment that is firm, enduring, and extends to all of one’s life.
Why is this so? Because one can always do these things and there is no time throughout our lives that produces a satiety of doing good. For prudence, purity, unchangeableness in every good, and avoidance of the bad can be done at all times. As long as one longs for virtue, one’s enjoyment grow through its practice. For those who give themselves over to improper desires, even if their soul is always attentive to licentiousness, the pleasure does not last indefinitely. Satiety puts a stop to the gluttonous enjoyment of food and when thirst is quenched, so is the pleasure of drink. It is the same with other things; once the desire for please has been quenched by its satisfaction, a certain interval of time must pass before the desire for pleasure is again called forth.
On the other hand, when the possession of virtue is firmly established within someone, it is not limited by time or satiety. It always provides those who live by it a pure, ever-new, and flourishing experience of its own good things. . . . The possession of virtue follows the desire for virtue, and this ingrained goodness brings unceasing enjoyment to the soul. . . . Virtue is both the work of those who live uprightly and the reward for virtuous deeds.
On the Beatitudes, 4
To hunger or thirst after righteousness is to desire virtue. To desire a particular virtue is to value it, which is the first step toward possessing it. The practice of a specific connected discipline begins to develop the virtue in us. Such practice requires us to displace the opposing vice, as well as the connected fears. After we practice the virtue long enough for it to become a habit, we acquire a taste for it, a taste that can be satisfied by more of the same. Gregory explains this to us, and Jesus demonstrates.
If, for example, we desire the virtue of peacemaking (Mt 6:10), then not only must we give up anger (or sarcasm, impatience, or incaution), we must also put aside our fear and avoidance of conflict in order to come close enough to bring reconciliation. When God uses us to make peace enough times, he fills us with the joy of knowing that we are truly behaving like children of God. That joy will overflow into the lives of other people. Remember the woman at the well? Jesus told her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." Jn 4:13-15
Ron
