I thirst (Notes)

Saint John - Chapter 19

I thirst. J-J Tissot

[28] Postea sciens Jesus quia omnia consummata sunt, ut consummaretur Scriptura, dixit : Sitio.
Afterwards, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said: I thirst.

[29] Vas ergo erat positum aceto plenum. Illi autem spongiam plenam aceto, hyssopo circumponentes, obtulerunt ori ejus.
Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar. And they, putting a sponge full of vinegar and hyssop, put it to his mouth.

After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. After about three hours. It was at the beginning of the crucifixion that He commended His mother to S. John. The scripture was Ps. 69:22. He said this that He might suffer the further torment of being offered the vinegar. As S. Augustine says, “Ye have not yet done this. Give Me that which ye are yourselves—for ye are full of acidity and bitterness; give Me vinegar, and not wine.”

Christ thirsted, because He had neither eaten nor drunken since His supper the night before, and He had moreover poured forth all the moisture and blood in His body, by His scourging and crucifixion. And His most bitter pains also caused Him great thirst; for, as S. Cyril says, “Sorrows enkindle the heat within us, dry up our moisture from its very depths, and burn us up with fiery heat.” Hence our jaws are dried up, and are parched with thirst. The words of the Psalmist (22:6) were fulfilled in Christ’s person. The Chancellor of Louvain, when he was dying forty years ago, said in my presence, that he never fully understood those words, as he did when be was himself suffering from like drought and thirst, and thence learned how great the thirst of Christ was. 

Mystically, Christ thirsted for the salvation of souls. 

See Bellarmine on “The seven words of Christ on the cross.” “God thirsteth to be thirsted for,” says Nazianzen in Tetrastichisis, in order that we may insatiably love and desire Him, and say with the Psalmist, “My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God: when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?” Ps. 42:2.

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)

Almost at the same moment as He made His touching appeal to His Father, Jesus utter that other cry recorded: "I thirst!" "Now", says Saint John, "there was set a vessel full of vinegar".  This vinegar or acidulated drink, was called posca by the Romans.  Sometimes it was merely wine which had turned sour, often called vinegar in Greek, but sometimes it was really vinegar mixed with water, and it was customary for soldiers to take some with them with which to quench their thirst when they were on guard for any length of time.  Some man standing by then, moved to compassion by the touching complaint of Jesus, ran and soaked a sponge in the vinegar and offered it to him to drink.  The sponge thus used had no doubt been brought with them by the executioners to wipe off the blood with which they were covered after the crucifixion.  The man put this sponge, saturated with the vinegar, upon a branch of hyssop.  It is Saint John, who was an eye-witness of all that occurred, who mentions what kind of branch was used; the other Evangelists merely say reed.  Now the stem of the hyssop, though it resembles a reed in general appearance, is really not nearly so strong. The very thickest that could possibly be found would not be able to bear the weight of a sponge of liquid.  On the other hand, the stem in question forms a perfect tube, in every way suitable for sucking up liquid or for rejecting it.  In our engraving therefore, we have represented the sponge alluded to in the Gospel narrative as having been placed, not at the top but at the lower end of the stem of hyssop, in such a manner that the liquid with which it was saturated could be made to ascend the hollow tube by the pressing of the sponge, whilst Jesus sucked the vinegar through the upper opening.  Any other plan than that he is suggested, however small and round the sponge may have been, could have achieved nothing but the smearing of the face of the Sufferer, which, under pretence of soothing Hissufferings, would really only have added to them, for His body was everywhere covered with wounds.  The cheeks, the nose and lips of the Sufferer must have been grazed in His many falls,.  Now it was no doubt a compassionate man who ran to give the divine Master drink when He cried: "I thirst!" And we feel that we are justified in supposing him to have acted in the manner represented in our engraving.  Saint John goes on to say that Jesus accepted the proffered beverage: Cum ergo accepisset Jesus acetum.  As we have already remarked, He had refused the narcotic offered to Him at the beginning of His martyrdom on the Cross, but He was willing to receive the refreshment offered two Him at the end by the compassionate soldier.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam