Water - Source of Life
Isaiah 41:13-20 - Thursday, December 14, 2023
Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church
Isaiah continues to encourage his people to hope for a new exodus. The powerful nation that defeated them would soon be no more. The Babylonian Empire did not last long. It was defeated by Cyrus, the Persian king in 539 BC. The prophet uses the images from the first exodus from Egypt to renew people's trust. As the Lord provided water during Israel's journey through the Sinai desert, the Lord would provide water for the exiles returning from Babylon. The image of turning desert into ponds and arid land into springs of water (Is 41:18) brings to mind the second story of creation (Gen 2:4-25). The biblical author begins that account with a statement that nothing was growing yet on the land because "the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land" (Gen 2:5).
Water is life. The scientists tell us that life began in a water environment. Ancient Palestinian agriculture relied heavily on the cyclic occurrence of spring and autumn rains, which were vital for nurturing the growth of seeds and sustaining crops. The Jewish liturgy of the Feast of the Tabernacles in autumn included a prayer for rain. In Church liturgy water is a symbol of new life given to us in the sacrament of baptism and also a symbol of the Holy Spirit that alone can satisfy the longings of the human heart. Access to drinking water is recognised as a basic human right and so to deny individual persons or groups of people this access is a crime.
The image of God transforming the desert into ponds reminds us of the scarcity of water that affects various regions of the world and the efforts being undertaken by many organisations to solve this crisis. According to UNICEF, as of the year 2023, 2.2 billion people still do not have access to safe drinking water which means they do not have water at home, whenever needed, and it is not free from contamination. Moreover, 8 out of 10 people who lack even basic drinking water live in rural areas. That was the situation during my stay in East Timor in the years 1999-2002. We are also facing the crisis of deteriorating water quality in rivers, lakes, and groundwater reserves in places where water is still accessible.
The tragedy of our times is the fact that water has become a commodity that is used for profit, a tool to subjugate people, and a reason for tensions and conflicts in many parts of the world. Such conflicts are already known to the biblical authors. The Bible includes stories where water was the cause of conflicts between the family of Abraham and Isaac and the local population (see Gen 26:1-33). In 1995, former World Bank vice president Dr Ismail Serageldin said that the future wars will be fought not over oil but over water - "unless we change our approach to managing this precious and vital resource".
In the vision of Isaiah the Lord turns the desert into a new garden of Eden by opening rivers in the peaks and wellsprings in the valleys (see Is 41:18). Let us imitate Him by changing our approach to managing this precious and vital resource. Let us cherish it, share it with those in need, stop polluting it, and most of all make it available to everyone for free.