I went into the desert with Alvaro, and his helpers. For some eleven years, he has been making painted wooden crosses to mark spots in the desert where someone died. The Pima County Coroner has the GPS coordinates of the location of remains (of some 4,000 people) which sometimes they can identify, but often they cannot. Riding in Toyota 4-Runners through desert washes, we climbed through barbed wire, avoiding cacti of all sorts, into what had been a river channel.

They found a place above the water line near the coordinates where they could dig a hole, pour in concrete mix and water, place the cross, and cover the concrete with dirt and rocks. Peter, one of the helpers, placed a rosary on it and sprinkled some holy water, crossing himself. I didn’t expect it, but I felt quite emotional. Moved to tears, I told Alvaro that I wanted to pray. He nodded positively, calling the others together. Weeping, my prayer was entrusting the person we were remembering to God’s loving care, and asking God to change the hearts of those with decision making power to improve the border situation, so many do not have to die in the desert. We were witnesses standing in for families of this person, to acknowledge the heartbreak of their dying in the midst of this brutal wilderness and inhumane policy.

On the way back to the car, Di, the other driver, wanted to pass by a tree where she had left two large water bottles and a can of Vienna sausages. She found them: the bottle half full and the can empty. “My heart is pounding” she said, knowing that the food she left had been eaten and the water drunk. The words just came out of my mouth: “your water was ‘living water’ for those who drank it.” She didn’t know the story of Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman, which I then told her.

What is living water? “The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life”(John 4:14). Living water gives life, keeps people alive in the desert; yes, keeps us all alive. It is not stagnant, but flowing. At a spiritual level it is the gift of love that energizes us to connect with others we don’t know, who are different from us, whom we may label as undeserving, but who are in need. Our neighbors. This water comes from the spring, the heart of Jesus, and it gushes up into the Kingdom of God, which is among us. Our experiences of the Kingdom come in as many shapes and forms as there are people: healing in body or spirit, connection or re-connection with someone, moments of peace and beauty, the answer to a discernment process, an undeserved gift. Our deepest thirst is for wholeness and for unity. We will find this in eternal life but we can also find it here and now—maybe only in glimpses, but nevertheless real. It is the emptiness which is beyond ego, the place where we can meet God.

As with the crosses in the desert, we can have daily experiences in which we connect with others who suffer, and we can recognize that we are a part of the “cloud of witnesses,” acknowledging that there is evil in the world and suffering is all around us. But also that death in all its forms, is not the last word, and our deepest connections incarnate new life: resurrection!

St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church

PO Box 2166, Breckenridge, CO 80424-2166

970-453-4264  / stjohnsbreck@gmail.com / https://www.stjohnsbreck.org

Parish Administrator: Natalie Boyer 

In the Church Office: Tuesdays & Thursdays 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.