So many times in Scripture water becomes a metaphor for what is life-giving: the Word of God, the grace that comes through Jesus, who offers "living water." In today's passage from Ezekiel, water is central to his vision of a profound transformation for those living in exile. Ezekiel describes a fertile riverbank where trees bear fruit and all manner of creatures can survive-a waterway that is a sanctuary.
So too for us. Water is both precious and scarce. Although it covers about 71 percent of our planet, only 2.5 percent of it is freshwater-and more than half the freshwater remains locked in polar ice! We are called to be good stewards of this resource. All too frequently we have failed. Consider just one recent example: the "cost-saving" measures that poisoned the drinking water of Flint, Michigan, with lead.
Pope Francis, in Laudato Si', writes: "Access to safe drink- able water is a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival" (29). And further, "It is we human beings above all who need to change. We lack an awareness of our common origin, of our mutual belonging, and of a future to be shared with everyone" (202).
The next time we run our tap, open the hose, or flush the toilet, let us recall that we are in the presence of "living water," entrusted to our care for future generations. Let us pray that our planet is ever "watered by the flow from the sanctuary."
Judith Valente
