Today we celebrate the Fifth Sunday of Lent. Our symbolic path towards Easter is now drawing to a close, just as Jesus’ own journey towards his sacrifice of love for all of us.

In his final moments on this Earth, Christ seeks to encounter the compassion of his executioners, revealing himself in all his humanity.
“I am thirsty”, he says upon the cross, receiving in return only a sponge soaked in vinegar. This moment is deeply symbolic. Naked and vulnerable, Jesus shows that he is made of flesh just like us, and that he suffers in the same way.

On 22 March, we observe World Water Day. Even today, many regions of the world continue to suffer from an unequal distribution of the Earth’s resources and from the exploitation of life-giving sources, driven solely by profit and controlled by the wealthiest. In its appeal launched during the peace movement’s consultation for the Americas on 29 and 30 June 2021, Pax Christi International highlights how extractive industries use and contaminate vast quantities of water, depriving entire communities of access to a vital resource. In Lent, a time of conversion, this cry becomes an invitation to rethink our lifestyles and the systems we support, so that the right to water, and therefore to life, may be guaranteed for all.

Jesus, source of eternal life, died thirsty in order to quench the thirst of each one of us. In many cultures, as the Indigenous peoples of Latin America remind us, water is “the blood of the earth and a source of life” that connects every living being. This vision strongly resonates with the Christian understanding, which recognises creation as a gift to be cherished and protected.

At the moment when the soldier pierces his side, blood and water flow from Jesus’ body, a sign of life that ends and at the same time is renewed for eternity. May this Lenten season help each of us to rediscover the value of the gifts of Creation and to commit ourselves to preserving them and ensuring they are shared fairly across the whole earth.

To read the Call to the International Community to Support Communities Affected by Extractivism in the Americas in Their Striving for Their Right to Water, click here.