The Scope of Things - A World in Crisis

It has only taken five years for Pope Francis’ encyclical on caring for our home to really dawn on me, and that is mostly because of the images the meteorologists have been showing this week for Earth Day.  It seems that the stay-at-home orders have made an impact environmentally, albeit small.

Personally, we have always tried to be careful and do what we are supposed to do.  From recycling/reusing and trying not to be wasteful, we have done our small part.

But it really isn’t much, in the scope of things; and we really could have been doing much, much better all along.

The meteorologists produced good news in their reports, tapered with not-so-good news.  We would have to do this all the time, they said, for like ever, to really make a significant difference.

The problem is, for many of us, the viral attack we are making on our environment isn’t always in our face as we go through our daily lives.  But what if we started paying more attention to those people who have been trying to get us to pay more attention?  What if we worked harder and seriously considered what changes we could make?

You may have noticed, as I have, that some conscientious companies have made changes over the years to reduce product packaging and so forth, but I really think far too many of us do not realize the big footprint our own practices leave behind.

The Church has always promoted the beauty of God’s creation and our need to care for it, but in 2015, Pope Francis put out an encyclical that is really quite beautiful.  It is called On Care for our Common Home.  I have sprinkled a few excerpts from it in this blog, but you can read it for yourself at this link from the Vatican.

Pope Francis starts the encyclical using a reference to St. Francis of Assisi’ Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon.

“This sister [the earth] now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her.” (¶ 2)

This is interesting, too.  It speaks of our need to see caring for the world as the responsibility of each of us, collectively:

“He [Benedict XVI] observed that the world cannot be analyzed by isolating only one of its aspects, since “the book of nature is one and indivisible”, and includes the environment, life, sexuality, the family, social relations, and so forth. It follows that “the deterioration of nature is closely connected to the culture which shapes human coexistence”.” (¶ 6)

Here is Pope Francis’ desperate appeal:

“The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change.” (¶ 13)

In this encyclical he talks about global warming, depletion of our natural resources and the problem of consumption and waste, just to name a few. We know fresh drinking water is a problem for many, as is pollution and the health of people in densely populated cities and poverty stricken areas.

We must explore ways to sustain the beauty of this creation that we have been given stewardship over.  Pope Francis acknowledged in this encyclical that there is no easy answer:

“Given the complexity of the ecological crisis and its multiple causes, we need to realize that the solutions will not emerge from just one way of interpreting and transforming reality. Respect must also be shown for the various cultural riches of different peoples, their art and poetry, their interior life and spirituality. If we are truly concerned to develop an ecology capable of remedying the damage we have done, no branch of the sciences and no form of wisdom can be left out, and that includes religion and the language particular to it.” (¶ 63)

 If only we could sense the desperation of our world and respond as if it were a pandemic closing in on us, maybe we could begin to make a difference and change at least some of the images on the meteorologists’ maps.

I invite you to share what you have been doing in your home or business so that you can encourage the rest of us to rethink our habits and maybe make some changes we haven’t before considered.

Janet Cassidy
janetcassidy.blogspot.com
janetcassidy.blubrry.net