Good Friday Reflection & Action on Water

Today we ponder Jesus' words from the cross, "I thirst."

There is a sense in which water is being crucified as humanity pollutes it with chemicals from fracking, pesticides, herbicides, animal waste and toxic household cleaning agents. Oceans are filling with plastics and destroying ocean life. Flooding and drought are more common due to climate change.

Pope Francis emphasizes the importance of water in paragraph 30 of Laudato Si': Even as the quality of available water is constantly diminishing, in some places there is a growing tendency, despite its scarcity, to privatize this resource, turning it into a commodity subject to the laws of the market. Yet access to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival and, as such, is a condition for the exercise of other human rights. Our world has a grave social debt towards the poor who lack access to drinking water, because they are denied the right to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity.

On this sacred day we pray for millions of people without available, safe water. Sometimes issues seem beyond our ability to help in a local way; however, refusing to drink bottled water is one way to act on this issue. Help your families and friends to participate in "fasting" from bottled water today and every day.

(Ideas for this reflection are taken from Eco-Preacher's Reflection for Good Friday.)