Let us pray for a just and sustainable management of water, a vital resource, so that everyone may have equal access to it.
This month Pope Leo asks us to care for water. This is a practical intention – we all need water to live and many wealthy businesses compete with local farmers to use water for industry. Water is political. For human beings, however, water is more than a commodity. It also belongs to the spirit. Some of the loveliest passages in the Scriptures have to do with God’s promise of well-watered lands, flowing streams and green fields. Water also played a central part in the events through which God touched human beings in Jesus’ ministry. It begins with his baptism in the Jordan; He asks a woman at a well for water to quench his thirst and promises water that will fully satisfy. He calls many of his disciples by the lake and shows his power by stilling storms. After his Resurrection he appears to his disciples by the seaside and eats the fish they caught for breakfast. Water is a symbol of plenty. Many poets, too, choose images of water to reflect on the beauty of our world.
Water is a symbol of life. A natural and not an arbitrary symbol. It is essential for living – for drinking, washing, growing crops and supporting herds. Without water human beings and animals die and vegetation yields to desert. Every living being relies on water to live. In just societies it belongs to everyone, not just to the few.
Pope Leo describes water as a vital resource to which everyone should have access. In today’s world that is not guaranteed. Many wars have broken out over water when one nation deprives another of water by damming rivers to support agriculture, mining, and soon to provide AI in their own nations. For Jesus, the sign of a good society was seen when people offer strangers a cup of water in his name. That gesture recognises that water is a vital resource and is a gift that belongs to everyone.
In his Pope Leo does not speak of us as owning water. We manage it. It is a gift that we must share. For that reason we pray that water will be shared justly and sustainably. In managing water we must make sure that it is freely available to the poorest of people in our society. It may not be owned as a private commodity that is available only to those who can pay.
Pope Leo also prays that water will be managed sustainably. We must use water in such a way that it is available for future generations. for coming generations. In our management of the world entrusted to us we are responsible for preserving for our descendants, the watercourses, forests and grasslands of the natural world, and for responding effectively to climate change.
We must also ensure that water is available to people by conserving ground water and not making it undrinkable by draining it or allowing it to be salted.
Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ writes for Jesuit Communications and Jesuit Social Services.
