MEMORIAL OF THE GUARDIAN ANGELS
80 countries now have water shortages that threaten health and economies while 40 percent of the world — more than 2 billion people — have no access to clean water or sanitation. —The World Bank; Arizona Water Source, Nov-Dec 1999
WHY is our water evaporating? Part of the reason is consumption, the other part is dramatic changes in climate. Whatever the reasons are, I believe it is a sign of the times…
WATER: SOURCE OF ETERNAL LIFE
Jesus said to Nicodemus,
"Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. (John 3:5)
Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, not because He needed to be, but as a sign, a symbol for us. Salvation comes to us through the waters of rebirth. Just as Moses and the Hebrews passed through the Red Sea toward the Promised Land, so too we must pass through the waters of Baptism toward Eternal Life.
So what do the waters symbolize? Quite simply, God, and more precisely, Jesus Christ. Jesus stood in the waters of the Jordan as if to say, "You must pass through Me to enter eternal life".
Amen, Amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. (John 10:7)
SOURCE OF ALL LIFE — GOD
While meditating on the First Luminous Mystery (The Baptism of Jesus), the word "H2O" came to me.
H2O is the chemical formula for water: two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen. Because all of God’s creation is a kind of language pointing to Him and speaking about Him, we might consider the Trinity symbolically in this way:
H = God the Father
H = God the Son
O = God the Spirit
The two "H’s" are defined as the first two members of the Godhead because Jesus said,
…whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. (John 12:45)
Hydrogen is the simplest of all elements, and believed to be the root of all elements. God is the Creator of all. The word "spirit" comes from the Greek pneuma, which means "wind" or "breath". Oxygen is the air by which we live and breath. Lastly, when hydrogen and oxygen burn together, the byproduct is water. The Trinity are a living flame of love, which produces the waters of Salvation.
A SIGN OF THE TIMES
I believe the extraordinary convulsions we see in nature today are in proportion to the sins of mankind (Rom 8:19-23). The world is rapidly working to remove God from the national conscience (ie. laws), from the workplace, from schools, and at last, the family. The fruit of this is a great, unquenched thirst for love.
The corollary of this in nature is the growing shortage of water, H2O, evaporating, leaving the world, and thus many people thirsting for that life giving source.
Yes, days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will send famine upon the land: Not a famine of bread, or thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the Lord. (Amos 8:11)
If men turn to God again and ask for this "living water," their thirst will be quenched. For God is love… an overflowing, never-ending stream of love.
