What can we learn from the early Church Fathers’ experiences in drinking from this spring of which the Lord Christ spoke when He described Himself as the Fountain that quenches the thirsty?

First: the Lord is referred to as the river that overflows with His grace to quench the thirst of humanity. As the psalmist says, “They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasure. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light” (Ps. 36:8–9). And again, “Behold, I will turn to them like a river of peace and like a brook, to flood them with the glory of the Gentiles” (Isa. 66:12 LXX). Whoever believes in Him will have the Holy Spirit who overflows with Life dwell in his heart. Thus, he will become a spring overflowing with the fruits of the Spirit, such as love, joy, peace, freedom, and enlightenment. The Jews used symbols of the work of

the Holy Spirit such as the early and late rain, springs, wells, rivers, etc. (see Ps. 36:8–9; Isa. 44:3–4; Joel 2:23).

The phrase “ If anyone thirsts ” (John 7:37) refers to any person who feels that his righteousness is impoverished, or that he needs spiritual blessings, or is empty on the inside. “ Let him come to Me and drink ” means he need not stand by the high priest anymore, admiring the golden vessel from which he pours a little water from the pool of Siloam; nor does he need to seek out the many conflicting varieties of pagan philosophy whose attractions can be deceptive. Rather, he can come to the Lord Christ who is revealed in the two Testaments of the Holy Bible.

St. Cyril the Great says, “he who does not disbelieve shall revel in richest graces from God. For he shall be so replete with the gifts through the Spirit, as not only to fatten his own mind, but even to be able to overflow into others’ hearts, like the river stream gushing forth the God-given good upon his neighbour too.”⁷⁹⁶

Moreover, St. Augustine says, “What is the fountain, and what the river that flows from the belly of the inner man? Benevolence, whereby a man will care for the interest of his neighbor. For if he imagines that what he drinks ought to be only for his own satisfying, there is no flowing of living water from his belly; but if he is quick to care for the good of his neighbor, then he does not become dry, because there is a flowing.”⁷⁹⁷

In the Church, those who are truly faithful are invigorated by the wine of divine Love, filled with joy and gladness, and so well irrigated that they do not thirst for the fountains of earthly desires. In the Savior, they discover the mystery of their true joy, their happiness, and their contentment.

St. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa , says, “To be drunken in this manner is, as the prophecy says, for those who drink the fatness of God’s house and water themselves at the stream of delight (cf. Ps. 35:9). The great David too was drunken in this way on one occasion, when, having gone out of himself and entered into ecstasy [ ekstasis ], he saw the invisible Beauty and cried out that famous word, ‘Every human being is a liar’ (Ps. 115:2), and so committed to speech an account of inexpressible things.”⁷⁹⁸

Second: St. Jerome invites us to take drinking from this fountain most seriously , saying, “He does not say, you must drink … but whoever is willing and able to run and to drink , he shall conquer, he shall be satisfied.”⁷⁹⁹ Caesarius, Bishop of Arles , says, “What

796 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Volume 1 5.1 on John 7:38 (LFHCC 43:544).

797 St. Augustine of Hippo, Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 32.4 (NPNF I/7:194) amended.

798 Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on The Song of Songs , eds., Brian E. Daley S.J. and John T. Fitzgerald; trans., Richard A. Norris Jr. (Society of Biblical Literature, 2012) 10: p. 325.

799 St. Jerome, Against Jovinianus 1.12 (NPNF II/6:355).

is this fountain, except our Lord Jesus Christ … It is a good fountain which cools us after the heat of this life, and with its flood tempers the aridity of our heart.”⁸⁰⁰

Third: St. Augustine invites us to move towards the spring with love : “If we thirst, let us come; and not by our feet, but by our affections; let us come, not by removing from our place, but by loving.”⁸⁰¹

Fourth: St. Cyril the Great calls us to drink from Him with joy : “one ought to take everything out of the brook, and again to therefore rejoice; we said that our Lord Jesus Christ was compared to a brook, in Whom we shall find all delight and enjoyment in hope, and in Him He shall delight us Divinely and spiritually.”⁸⁰²

Fifth: St. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa , says that the believer’s soul or spirit yearns to drink from the spring of her heavenly Bridegroom, with joy and unceasingly, as he says: “And just as now the soul that is joined to God is not satiated by her enjoyment of him, so too the more abundantly she is filled up with his beauty, the more vehemently her longings abound. For since the words of the Bridegroom are ‘spirit and life’ (John 6:63) and everyone who is joined to the Spirit becomes spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), while everyone who is attached to life ‘passes from death to life’ (John 5:24), according to the Lord’s word, it follows that the virgin soul longs to approach the fount of the spiritual life. And that fount is the mouth of the Bridegroom, whence ‘the words of eternal life’ (John 6:68) as they gush forth fill the mouth that is drawn to it, just as the prophet does when drawing spirit through his mouth (cf. Ps. 118:131 LXX). Since, then, it is necessary for the one who draws drink from the fount to fix mouth to mouth and the fount is the Lord who says, ‘If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink’ (John 7:37), it follows that the soul, thirsty as she is, wills to bring her own mouth to the mouth that pours out life, saying Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth (Song 1:2).”⁸⁰³

He also says, “it is time to set out our understanding of the divine oracles: Come away from frankincense, my bride, come away from frankincense. Come and pass through from the beginning of faith, from the peak of Sanir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards . What meaning, then, did we detect in these words? The wellspring of good things always draws the thirsty to itself … For in using these words, he sets no limit, whether to thirst, or to the urge to come to him , or to the enjoyment of the drinking … the tasting becomes, as it were, an invitation to partake of yet more. On this account the

800 Caesarius of Arles, Sermons: Volume II (81-186) 170.3 (FOTC 47:421).

801 St. Augustine of Hippo, Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 32.1 (NPNF I/7:193). 802

St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John, Volume 1 5.1 on John 7:37 (LFHCC 43:543) amended.

803

Gregory of Nyssa: Homilies on The Song of Songs , eds., Brian E. Daley S. J. and John T. Fitzgerald; trans., Richard A. Norris Jr. (Society of Biblical Literature, 2012) Homily 1: p. 34–35.

invitation to come to him that has been offered, and that ever and again draws us to better things, is never lacking to the person who is journeying upwards.”⁸⁰⁴

And, “The Word with his praises brings the Bride to her greatest height by calling her a spring of water that is living and that flows from frankincense . As to these things, we know from the Scriptures that they pertain to the life-giving Nature, since on the one hand the prophecy says, in the very person of God, ‘They have deserted me, the fountain of living waters’ (Jer. 2:13); and then, on the other hand, the Lord says to the Samaritan woman, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you would ask him, and he would give you living water’ (John 4:10)—not to mention, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink; for those who believe in me, as the Scripture says, “Rivers of water shall flow from their hearts.” Now this he said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believe in him were going to receive ’ (John 7:37–38). Everywhere, then, it is the divine Nature that is understood when living water is mentioned, and here in our text the truthful witness of the Word constitutes the Bride a well of living water … And the most unbelievable thing of all is this … she contains the inflow within the well of her soul and so becomes the storehouse of that living water that flows from frankincense —or rather gushes, as the Word has phrased it. And may we too, having taken possession of that well, become participants in that water, so that in accordance with Wisdom’s injunction, we may drink not of strange water but of the water that is ours (cf. Prov. 5:15) in Christ Jesus our Lord, To whom glory belongs to the ages of ages. Amen.”⁸⁰⁵