giving drink to the thirsty

The issue of water and thirst is so paramount at a global level, that, “Reduction of the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by half has been mentioned as part of the seventh Millennium Development Goal. Polluted and contaminated water undermines the safety and the nutritional well-being of individuals. Studies have shown that water and sanitation accounts for a substantial portion of the difference in infant and child mortality rates experienced by the rich and the poor (Leipziger, et al. 2003). Clean and safe water supply is an essential element for achieving food security and good nutrition. Though India has taken huge strides in terms of provision of safe drinking water since Independence, the fact remains that more people in India lack this basic minimum necessity now than 50 years ago. This is besides the fact that more people are vulnerable to water-borne diseases (Gujja & Shaik, 2005). Empirical studies have shown that water quality is a big problem in rural areas (Krishnan, et al. 2003). Almost two million children die each year because of lack of clean water and lack of sanitation (UNICEF, 2007c).[2]

In his encyclical,”Laudato Si”, Pope Francis echoes this reality: 

“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. This debt can be paid partly by an increase in funding to provide clean water and sanitary services among the poor. But water continues to be wasted, not only in the developed world but also in developing countries which possess it in abundance. This shows that the problem of water is partly an educational and cultural issue, since there is little awareness of the seriousness of such behaviour within a context of great inequality…”[3]

"After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), ‘I thirst’ (Jn 19:28). His thirst, was an argent desire to return to the Father according to the invocation of the psalmist: “O God … my soul thirsts for you” (Ps 63:11); “My soul thirst for God” (Ps 42:2). These resonate with the emphatic request, “Give me a drink!” (Jn 4:7), spoken to the Samaritan woman by Jesus. 

In the Bible, water also contains a symbolic meaning. Water not only signifies God’s gift to His chosen people (Ex 17:1-17; Nm 20:1-13), but also God himself (Psalm 42:2). The prophetic text of Jeremiah 2:13 also touches on this: “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters” (see also, Is 12:2-3; Jer 17:13). It is important that the symbolism of water finds it fulfillment in Christian baptism as “the water of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit” (Ti 3:5; see also Jn 3:5). According to Lumen Gentium 3, drawing on St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, “the inauguration and the growth of the Church are both symbolized by the blood and water which flowed from the open side of a crucified Jesus.”(Jn. 19:34)[1]

The B.O.L. foundation would work on to address the three dimension of the water crisis to the indigent, by taking measures to provide water availability, accessibility and absorption. The foundation will work closely to fund provide clean water and educate people. Finally, like the Samaritan woman at the well, humanity today needs to hear the words of Jesus: "If you knew the gift of God" (Jn 4:10), because these words elicit the deep desire for salvation which lies in everyone: "Lord, give me this water, that I may not thirst" (Jn 4:15). Hence the B.O.L. foundation therefore understands, “how every one of the Church's actions has an essential evangelizing character and must never be separated from the duty to help others encounter Christ in faith, the primary goal of evangelization.”[4]

[1] The Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy (Pastoral Resources for Living the Jubilee) by Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, Chapter 2.

[2] United Nation, WFP, Food Security Atlas of RURAL MAHARASHTRA 2010, Chapter 3.2.3.

[3] Laudato Si, 30. Read more: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html 

[4] THE NEW EVANGELIZATION FOR THE TRANSMISSION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, INSTRUMENTUM LABORIS, 34