Encountering Intimacy With Jesus This Lent
Introducing CWIB’s Lenten Theme:
“I Thirst”: Using Our Gifts to Quench Christ’s Thirst
In a message by Pope St. John Paul II for Lent 1993, the great pope called the Church to reflect on Jesus’ words, “I thirst” (John 19:28) and “Give me a drink” (John 4:7). In these words, he wrote, ‘we hear a cry from the poor, especially those who did not have access to clean water’. In a subsequent letter to the Missionaries of Charity, St. Teresa of Calcutta (then simply known as Mother Teresa) elaborated on this message:
“‘I thirst’ is something much deeper than Jesus just saying ‘I love you.’ Until you know deep inside that Jesus thirsts for you — you can’t begin to know who He wants to be [for] you. Or who He wants you to be for Him.”
This Lent, Catholic Women in Business invites you to reflect with us on how Jesus thirsts for each one of us and how we can quench His thirst — through prayer, through sacrifice, through loving His children who are most in need (and there are so many this Lent in particular!). In our content this season, we’ll be exploring how, as Catholic professionals, we can begin to understand “who He wants to be” for us, “who He wants [us] to be for Him,” and how we can share His great love for us all with everyone we encounter.
We all crave intimacy. If there is one thing that the pandemic has shown us, it is the truth that The Second Vatican proclaimed: Man can only find himself through a sincere gift of self. As men and women, we were made for relationship. God does not intend for us to exist in a vacuum of self-reliance. Instead, we were created in His likeness and image, which is one that intrinsically exists in the relationship of the Holy Trinity.
As a Catholic woman in business, I’ve talked to countless peers who are struggling right now, feeling like they are giving too much of themselves: to their families, their co-workers, their spouses, their community. They feel drained and like they have nothing left in them to give. I think we have all experienced this depletion at some point over the last year.
I like to consider myself a strong, independent woman, and yet sometimes, that mantra hinders me from connecting with others. My pride bubbles up, and I hesitate to ask for help or easily slip into a facade that I have it all together. Throughout the last eight months of my pregnancy and the pandemic, I’ve had no choice but to let this falsity drop. Throughout months of nausea, sickness, and physical limitations, I’ve had to rely on my husband, family, and team members more heavily than I ever would have wanted to a year ago. It has required a big dose of humility and vulnerability. It was the first time in my life that I had to truly surrender control over my body, my schedule, and my goals.
A few months into the pandemic and pregnancy, I realized that I had a choice: I could either meet this new reality with a joyful abandonment to Jesus Christ, or I could hold on to the belief that I could “do it all” and harden my heart in the process.
This Lent, our CWIB Leadership Team has chosen to reflect on Jesus’ words on the Cross, “I thirst.” In Pope St. John Paul II’s and Saint Mother Teresa’s letters, they reflect on Jesus’ abiding desire to be united with not only His Bride, the Church, but with each of us as individuals.
In the words “I thirst,” Jesus reveals to us perfect humility and vulnerability. The moment when Jesus expresses His yearning for us through the words “I thirst” is not a sanitized, graceful one; it is extremely messy. Through the Incarnation, God fully embraced our humanity. On the Cross, He shows us the depth of that humanity. Jesus is bloody, His body is broken, He has absolutely nothing left in Himself to give. He is emptied.
And in this moment, what leaps from our Savior’s mouth? A statement of astounding vulnerability: “I thirst.”
This Lent, let us take Jesus’ words as our own:
Jesus, I thirst for you.
Jesus, I am emptied.
Jesus, unite my thirst to your own.
Throughout Lent, we will be providing articles that reflect on entering into a deeper intimacy with Jesus. Lent is a time for us to embrace our littleness and allow our own weakness and vulnerability to act as an opportunity to fall more deeply in love with our Creator and Savior. In our work, virtual or in person, we are given the opportunity to build bridges to others, built on our vulnerability. These opportunities may be as simple as being observant in team calls, really looking at our co-workers’ faces, or reaching out to check in outside of meetings.
Join us as we walk these 40 days together and encounter Jesus in a new way.
Elise Crawford Gallagher is the founder and CEO of RINGLET, a digital marketing and brand management agency that works with women business owners in the Washington DC area. She is also the Co-Founder and President of Catholic Women in Business. Elise graduated from The Catholic University in 2013 with a B.A. in Philosophy and received a Masters in Communication from Johns Hopkins University in 2015. Elise currently lives in Maryland with her college-sweetheart-turned-husband who is a high school theology teacher and law student. They are expecting their first child at the end of March 2021.