Like our ancestors, we live near water. The Genesis story describes water welling up from the earth bringing a garden to life: plants, animals, human beings. From the garden four mighty rivers bring life to other parts of the earth (Genesis 2), even reaching New York, NY.

We bless water in our prayers,:  “All you waters above the heavens, bless the Lord…All you seas and rivers, bless the Lord.” (Daniel, 3, 57-58) The baptismal fount in our churches honors water. Some say it’s from the faraway Jordan River. We take it in our hand and bless ourselves with it as we go in and out of church. Water brings blessings from God.

We need “ to thank the Creator for the impressive and marvellous gift of the great waters and all that they contain (cf. Gen 1:20-21; Ps 146:6), and to praise him for covering the earth with the oceans (cf. Ps 104:6), “ Pope Francis says.

Unfortunately, we lose the blessings of water when drought dries up our lands and pollution poisons our rivers and oceans.

Now, wars and disputes over territorial waters increasingly threaten the waters uniting the peoples of the world, endangering the 90% of the world’s trade that takes place by sea– much of it food and necessities for life. We’re also seeing an increase in plunder of the seas as resources become scarce on the land. 

“We cannot allow our seas and oceans to be littered by endless fields of floating plastic”, Pope Francis says.  He calls for the ” development and application of international regulations on the seas in order to safeguard individuals, countries, goods, natural resources – I think, for example, of marine fauna and flora, and coral reefs or sea beds – and to guarantee an integral development in view of the common good of the entire human family and not particular interests.”

The map above shows the intricate water system that enables life on the land where I live, the United States of America.The waters near us here in New York are part of that intricate water system. They should bring life. Do they bring about a garden of life?

In my 91 years I’ve watched the waters of New York harbor suffer from massive industrialization during World War 11, unregulated real estate development afterwards along the Newark Bay, the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers. The waters have experienced human greed and neglect. I can remember, way back as a little boy, when you could fish and swim in those waterways. No more.

“Blessed be God for Seas and Rivers.” Pope Francis asks for more than words of a prayer. “Here too, our active commitment is needed to confront this emergency. We need to pray as if everything depended on God’s providence, and work as if everything depended on us.”

         

        

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