Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters… Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread?”

—Isaiah 55:1–2

Thomas Merton once wrote, “In Christ, we die to the letter of the law so that our conscience can no longer see things in the dead light of formalism and exterior observance. Our hearts refused the dry husks of literal abstraction and hunger for the living bread and eternal waters of the Spirit, which spring up to life everlasting.”

What Merton calls “the dry husks of literal abstraction” are the things that once carried life but now only imitate it. The heart, he says, refuses such fare. It hungers for living bread and eternal waters.

Isaiah speaks directly to that hunger. God does not address the faithful as disciplined or accomplished, but as those who hunger and thirst. “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread?” God asks—not in judgment, but in compassion. Why exhaust yourself on what cannot give life? Why settle for substitutes when abundance is freely offered?

The invitation is simple and radical: Come. Come without money. Come without credentials. Come not because you have done everything right, but because you are hungry. The living Word of God is not earned through perfect observance or religious performance. It is received by those willing to admit their need.

“Listen carefully,” Isaiah says, “and eat what is good… and delight yourselves in rich food.”

As we move through this Lenten season, the living Word is still speaking. The table is still set. The only requirement is hunger—and the courage to come.

Let us pray: God of living water and daily bread, awaken our hunger for what truly gives life. Draw us away from what cannot satisfy and teach us to come—empty, trusting, and open. Feed us with your Word, and grant us new life.  Amen.

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