April 7: I Thirst
♫ Music:
Day 34 - Monday, April 7
Title: I THIRST
Scripture #1: John 19:28–29 (NKJV)
After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth.
Scripture #2: Psalm 69:21 (NKJV)
They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Poetry & Poet:
“A Well Runs Out of Thirst”
by Jane Hirshfield
A well runs out of thirst
the way time runs out of a week,
the way a country runs out of its alphabet
or a tree runs out of its height.
The way a brown pelican
runs out of anchovy-glitter at darkfall.
A strange collusion,
the way a year runs out of its days
but turns into another,
the way a cotton towel’s compact
with pot and plate seems to run out of dryness
but in a few minutes finds more.
A person comes into the kitchen
to dry the hands, the face,
to stand on the lip of a question.
Around the face, the hands,
behind the shoulders,
yeasts, mountains, mosses multiply answers.
There are questions that never run out of questions,
answers that don’t exhaust answer.
Take this question the person stands asking:
a gate rusting open.
Yes stands on its left, no on its right,
two big planets of unpainted silence.
I THIRST
“I thirst.” It is such a simple statement, the expression of a fundamental human need. It is the first need infants urgently demand their mothers satisfy, the first want of nascent self-awareness. When infants feel the first tingle of thirst, they experience it as a direct threat to their existence. We all experience thirst, because we are all human. But what does it mean when Jesus, the Lord of all, says “I thirst”? Christ’s words seem simple, but they are multi-facetted, encompassing both need and fulfillment.
In today’s musical selection, the choir expresses the words “I thirst” as a monastic chant, the layers of dissonant droning voices echoing the tiers of meaning in the primal statement. Likewise, Christ’s two words, “I thirst,” contain layers of meaning. First, they emphasize Christ’s humanity. When Jesus said these words, he illustrates that he is truly one of us, subject to the same basic physical needs that we all experience. He knows us intimately through his experience of the same fundamental requirements of bodily existence. But underpinning Christ’s words is an echo, one that connects Jesus with the deep past, with prophecy fulfilled, a plan come to fruition. The Gospel of John explains that Jesus said “I thirst,” while “knowing that all things were now accomplished, that Scripture might be fulfilled.” In his moment of excruciating want and discomfort, Jesus signals to us that he is the one we have waited and yearned for, that all things are now complete in him.
But what does this fulfillment and accomplishment mean? How can the expression of desire and need connect to something that is finished and complete? The words “I thirst” point to Christ as the one who seeks to fill us when we thirst. His sacrifice offers us fulfillment and completeness. It is Christ’s want that makes us whole. Today’s artwork highlights this hope by juxtaposing Christ’s wretched followers removing Him from the cross in the background with pure, life-giving water in the foreground. The words “I thirst” mean that all was fulfilled and accomplished, but Christ’s followers could not see his triumph in their moment of utter sadness. Their faces show their thirst for Christ and their inability to see beyond an arid, muted existence deprived of the only one they needed. The dark, mournful style of the old masters contrasts with the fresh, clean water. The most human moment of deprivation shared by the God-man and his disciples coincides with the most Divine moment of fulfillment. Christ’s thirst paradoxically quenches the thirst of all who long for Him.
Christ’s thirst is fathomless. It is not merely a human thirst of absence and scarcity, but a Divine thirst that yearns to offer the plentitude of His presence to believers. Today’s poem can help us meditate on the ungraspable nature of a thirst that seeks to fill. It asks us to contemplate “questions that never run out of questions, answers that don’t exhaust answers” When Jesus says, “I thirst,” He offers us Himself, an inexhaustible answer to our inexhaustible questions.
Prayer:
“Merciful God, good Lord, I wish that you would unite me to that fountain, that there I may drink of the living spring of the water of life with those others who thirst after you. There in that heavenly region may I ever dwell, delighted with abundant sweetness, and say, ‘How sweet is the fountain of living water which never fails, the water welling up to eternal life.’”
Amen
––––Columbanus (543-615 AD)
Anna Thompson
Adjunct Professor
Torrey Honors College
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Art:
Water with Descent
Ron Richmond
Oil on canvas
47 x 76 in.
Artist Ron Richmond uses symbolic forms to invite meditation about Christ's redemptive mission and its implications for each of us. His images do not depict things so much as the space in and around things and the attributes symbolized by them. Not the least of the attributes of Richmond’s remarkable oil paintings is their pervasive, intense spirituality. His unique paintings are often reductive, even minimalist in form, yet rich in spiritual and metaphysical content. In Water with Descent, Richmond places a glass of fresh water on a table before a background painting of the descent of Christ from the cross, symbolizing one of His final words, “I thirst.”
About the Artist:
Ron Richmond (b. 1963) is a contemporary American painter who focuses on spiritual still lifes. Almost entirely devoid of the human figure, Richmond’s paintings speak a symbolic language that offers layers of meaning through allegory and metaphor. According to Richmond, his paintings are designed to “evoke a feeling of what should come next in the human experience.” Richmond has exhibited his paintings in galleries and museums in major cities throughout the United States, such as New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and San Francisco, and also in London. His work is collected by museums; corporations such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Continental Airlines, Credit Suisse and Omni Hotels; as well as by many private individuals. He was awarded second place in the still life category in the 2006 Art Renewal Center Salon, a prestigious international online exhibition. https://www.snow.edu/academics/fineart/art/ron_richmond.html
https://www.ronrichmond.com/old-masters/
https://themarshallgallery.com/artist/ron-richmond
About the Music: “I Thirst” from the album 7 Last Words from the Cross
The Seven Last Words of Christ refers to the seven short phrases uttered by Jesus on the cross, as gathered from the four Christian gospels. The crucifixion of Jesus has served as inspiration to a great many visual artists and composers over the centuries. In particular, at least sixteen composers have written musical settings of the Seven Last Words, for various combinations of voice and/or instruments.
Lyrics:
I thirst.
I gave you to drink of life-giving water from the rock:
and you gave me to drink of gall and vinegar
(From the Good Friday Reproaches)
In MacMillan’s composition, the two words “I thirst” are set to static and slow-moving harmonic music which is deliberately bare and desolate. The interpolated text from the Good Friday Reproaches is heard whispered and distantly chanted.
About the Composer:
Sir James MacMillan (b. 1959) is a Scottish classical music composer and conductor. He studied composition at the University of Edinburgh and at Durham University, where he earned a Ph.D. degree in 1987. MacMillan's music is infused with the spiritual and the political. His Roman Catholic faith has inspired many of his sacred works, including his Magnificat (1999) and several masses. MacMillan has collaborated with Michael Symmons Roberts, a Catholic poet, and also Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury. After his formal studies, MacMillan returned to Scotland, composed prolifically, and became the associate composer of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, often working on educational projects. MacMillan was composer and conductor with the BBC Philharmonic from 2000 to 2009, after which he took a position as the principal guest conductor with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic.
https://www.boosey.com/composer/james+macmillan
About the Performers: The Spiritus Chamber Choir, Timothy Shantz, conductor
The Spiritus Chamber Choir, Calgary's award-winning chamber choir, is committed to providing high-quality concerts to choral music lovers in Calgary, Alberta, and surroundings. Their members are accomplished performers who delight in sharing their love for music and the art of singing. The choir sings in a wide array of musical styles, from Renaissance motets to full-fledged choral-orchestral masterworks.
https://www.spirituschamberchoir.ca/
Dr. Timothy Shantz is active as conductor, collaborator, tenor soloist, and teacher. He is director of choral activities at the University of Alberta’s department of music. His other choral activities in Calgary included chorus master for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and artistic director of Spiritus Chamber Choir. As a conductor, Tim is recognized for the breadth of his work, from early music to contemporary, virtuoso unaccompanied pieces to large-scale choral-orchestral works. Timothy holds a Ph.D. in choral conducting from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music with a dissertation analyzing the unaccompanied choral work Sun-Dogs by composer James MacMillan. https://luminousvoices.com/artistic-director
About the Poetry and Poet:
Jane Hirshfield (b. 1953) is an American poet, essayist, and translator. She received her bachelor's degree from Princeton University in the school's first graduating class to include women. Hirshfield's eight books of poetry have received numerous awards. Her fifth book, Given Sugar, Given Salt, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She has edited four books collecting the work of poets from the past, and is noted as being "part of a wave of important scholarship then seeking to recover the forgotten history of women writers." Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1985, the Academy of American Poets’ 2004 Fellowship for Distinguished Achievement, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 2005, and the Donald Hall-Jane Kenyon Award in American Poetry in 2012. Never a full-time academic, Hirshfield has taught at the University of California at Berkeley, University of San Francisco, and as the Elliston Visiting Poet at the University of Cincinnati.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jane-hirshfield
https://poets.org/poet/jane-hirshfield
About the Devotion Writer:
Anna Thompson
Adjunct Professor
Torrey Honors College
Biola University
Anna Thompson is an adjunct professor in the Torrey Honors College at Biola University. She studied medieval history at the University of Cambridge, focusing on medieval commentaries on the Song of Songs. She resides in Southern California, where she enjoys reading, music, hiking, and visiting amusement parks with her husband and two children.