Laudato Si: Sunday Reflection #4... The immense and urgent challenge

sidewalk chalk art

The fact that Pope Francis has penned an encyclical letter about the ecological crises facing our planet is good news to all those who have been fighting long and hard for the environment -- and not such great news for those who are getting rich by exploiting its resources -- though the fact that Francis is finally speaking up is good news for all living beings, whether or not they understand how important clean air, soil, and water is for our existence. My husband came home from work last week saying, "Some of our big corporations are concerned that Francis could affect their bottom line." But if the real bottom line is an environment that supports life, I'm not so worried about those big corporations' profits as long as their employees receive a living wage.

Paragraphs 13-16 of Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home (the full text of which can be accessed by clicking here) are Francis' call to everyone on earth to recognize "the appeal, immensity and urgency of the challenge we face." Indeed, it's no small thing to slow climate change, clean the oceans, or regrow a rain forest. In fact, it's going to require us all to get involved.

In late 2006, my own uneasiness about the direction our planet was headed pushed me to attend a weekend retreat on Simplicity and Non-violence, led by Mark A. Burch, an author, educator and group facilitator of courses on Voluntary Simplicity. During the retreat, we spent a lot of time discussing the violence that is found beyond domestic abuse, anarchy, or warfare -- the violence that comes from our lives as consumers.

I already knew that species were facing extinction, people were starving, glaciers were melting, and our planet was in trouble, but the retreat made it clear that things were worse than I realized and that my own lifestyle was a contributing factor. My eyes were opened to the injustice and violence that is built into the consumer culture within which my society exists.

For example, I had no idea that my morning coffee was being produced by a large corporation that employed poor farming practices (violence to the soil) including the use of toxic chemical pesticides (violence to air, water, and small beings) and that said corporation kept its workers living below the poverty line (violence to human beings). And that was only one example. By the end of the second day of the retreat, I felt as though I was carrying twin bowling balls of guilt and worry in my lungs.

Wise woman and activist Vandana Shiva says, "Whenever we engage in consumption or production patterns which take more than we need, we are engaging in violence." Now there's something to think about. Over-consumption is pretty much built into our way of life in North America and pits us against the well-being of our sister, Mother Earth.

When I told Mark about the bowling balls in my lungs, he explained that the way to get rid of them was to do the right things -- to become more aware of the impacts my life is having on the earth and all its inhabitants, and to become mindful of the ways a change in my behaviour can make a difference. I can buy fair trade coffee, or give up coffee altogether and drink mint tea that is grown in my own garden. In other words, I can live simply, so that others can simply live. I can opt out of consumerism, and opt into care for the planet and its creatures. Of course, this can mean sacrificing personal comfort and convenience for the good of all, but the common good has to be the bottom line of every choice I make in my life.

And this is what Pope Francis is calling us to in these last few paragraphs of the introduction and the rest of his letter. He sees that our young people "wonder how anyone can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environmental crisis and the sufferings of the excluded." And he calls EVERYONE (not just papal encyclical readers) to join in dialogue and action because we all rely on the earth's environment, and we are all part of the problem -- and its solution.

Francis' appeal to us is clear: "Obstructionist attitudes, even on the part of believers, can range from denial of the problem to indifference, nonchalant resignation or blind confidence in technical solutions. We require a new and universal solidarity. (my emphasis) ... All of us can cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture, experience, involvements and talents."

It reminds me of how my friend Mark shared with retreat participants his understanding of the purpose of life. The bumper sticker adage, "He who has the most toys, wins" is about as far off the mark as the Sun is from Neptune. Rather, the purpose of life, its true meaning, is found where a person's passion and her or his abilities intersect with the needs of the world. Such meaning is rooted in unselfishness rather than personal ego trips. And it is this that Pope Francis is calling us toward with Laudato Si. The ecological and social challenges of our planet can seem overwhelming, but if we all work together out of love for our common home and each other, there is hope.

Next week, we'll be getting into the nitty gritty of chapter one. In the meantime, a few questions to ponder:

Where am I in denial about how my living standards affect creation/my brothers and sisters across the globe?
How can I face up to my part in my planet's ecological and social struggles rather than living in resignation or indifference?
In what ways am I willing to sacrifice my comfort and convenience if it helps the earth and all its inhabitants?
What is one small thing I can do to make a difference today?

*******

A prayer for our earth

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,
so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts
of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,
to be filled with awe and contemplation,
to recognize that we are profoundly united
with every creature
as we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle
for justice, love and peace.

+AMEN.

(A prayer for our earth and all quotations from Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Next up: #5... What's under the carpet?

Laudato Si: Sunday reflection #3... Becoming ecology-minded

Cameron Lake, near Waterton, Alberta

Do you remember a time when our earth's beauty bowled you over? When nature left you exultant, and/or speechless?

I suspect that St. Francis, after he became aware of his littleness in creation, spent much of his life in awareness of the incredible world God made and its many creatures (his Canticle of the Sun is just one example of his delight). And I'm guessing that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is cut from the same cloth.

Today I'm moodling about paragraphs 7-12 of Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home, which can be accessed by clicking here. Pope Francis' latest encyclical letter includes both Patriarch Bartholomew and St. Francis in its introduction.

I hadn't run into Patriarch Bartholomew until reading Laudato Si, but what I read in paragraphs 8 and 9 makes me think he's probably an unheralded wise man who has a lot to tell us. He's the bishop of Constantinople, and as such, is considered the humble leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians. He speaks strongly about humanity's actions against creation: "For human beings... to destroy the biological diversity of God's creation; for human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the earth of its natural forests or destroying its wetlands; for human beings to contaminate the earth's waters, its land, its air, and its life -- these are sins."

But being one of those people who likes to take a positive approach to dealing with issues, I prefer it when he uses powerful words to call us to change by replacing "consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing, an asceticism which "entails learning to give and not simply to give up... a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God's world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed, and compulsion."" (paragraph 9)

Bartholomew's words fit with how St. Francis actually lived. I've gone on at length about St. Francis in several of my moodlings (click here to read one of my first posts about him). He's my favourite saint because I think he really understood and lived the way Jesus invites us all to live -- humbly, lovingly, and in harmony with creation. When the present pope was elected and it was announced to the multitudes in St. Peter's Square and over media across the globe that he had chosen the name Francis, I cried tears of joy because anyone who would model himself after Francis of Assisi would be following the direction that Jesus intended us to go before we started using our brains instead of our hearts, distracting ourselves from the love of God and neighbour with arguments over heady doctrines and dogmas.

Looking to St. Francis and Bartholomew for examples is easy. I only wish the encyclical also included wise words from the likes of Thich Nhat Hanh or the Dalai Lama. I can easily imagine them, along with St. Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew, heads together, nodding in agreement over the peaceful and prayerful directions humanity needs to take to save the earth. Who was it who said, "Life is fragile -- handle with prayer"? To that, they would add, handle with justice, with compassion, with respect and love for all creatures...

These are the kinds of people (along with many women who have focused on Creation Spirituality) who really show humanity the way when it comes to living within and loving creation, but they get pretty short shrift in our media these days. Of course, people in Assisi thought Francis was a bit off his rocker because he preached to the birds and the flowers and called inanimate things his brothers and sisters. But he was really the wisest of fools, because rather than taking things for granted as we tend to do in this new millennium, he insisted on treating all of creation as utterly important, not just human beings, and most especially the lowliest of the lowly. (Our media this week spent time on the break-up of Kermit and Miss Piggy. Even in a slow news week, aren't there more important things?)

I'd like to positively paraphrase the last ideas of paragraph 11 because I can imagine St. Francis using words like this, too: If we approach nature and the environment with openness, awe and wonder, if we speak the language of community and beauty in our relationship with the world, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then care will well up spontaneously, and we will never turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled. And that's how the world becomes a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise instead of a problem to be solved.

Of course, simple positive thinking isn't enough to solve all our problems, to make humanity ecology-minded and turn us from our present course of destruction. The positive thinking has to be translated into action. The challenge is to stop acting as masters, consumers and ruthless exploiters of the earth, trying to satisfy our limitless wants through taking everything.

So today... I want to put on my ecological mind. It's time to look around my life a little. Where am I overdoing it with my consumption of the earth's resources? Where am I failing to appreciate creation? Where do I need to care more and exploit less? It could be something as simple as remembering to turn off a light, or compost an apple core. To avoid buying something I don't need. To think less of myself, whose needs are satisfied, and offer my resources to do more for those whose basic needs aren't being met.

The point is to start thinking like St. Francis, who followed closer in Christ's steps than most of us ever will. Let's consider how we are using (or abusing?) our water, air, earth, and the lives of other creatures with whom we share our world.

It's just a small start back towards the speechless wonder we need to cultivate as members of God's creation. And making it a daily habit to be aware of our consumption of resources and to pray for our earth might also help us to restore the balance it has lost on our account. That's what I am committing to today:

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,
so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts
of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,
to be filled with awe and contemplation,
to recognize that we are profoundly united
with every creature
as we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle
for justice, love and peace.

+AMEN.

(A prayer for our earth and all quotations from Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Next up: #4... The immense and urgent challenge

Laudato Si: Sunday reflection #2... Turn that ship around!

Some of the fruits of Mother Earth, grown in our garden.

Il Cantico del Sole (The Canticle of the Sun), written by St. Francis of Assisi, has always been my favourite prayer poem. I kept a copy of the Italian version above my desk during my university years, well before I ever set foot in St. Francis' homeland, where I fell in love with all things Italian.

I'm guessing Pope Francis and friends love the Canticle too, because the newest encyclical takes its name from the Canticle's verse about our sister, Mother Earth:

Laudato si mi signore per sora nostra matre terra. la quale ne sustenta et gouerna. et produce diuersi fructi con coloriti fiore et herba.

It translates, "Praise be to you, God, for our sister, mother earth, who sustains and governs us, and produces different fruits with coloured flowers and herbs." And of course, our life on our sister, mother earth, is the whole point of  the encyclical, which can be accessed by clicking here. Today I'll be looking at sections 1-6, and offering my own summary/reflections about them.

Pope Francis reminds us that "our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us", but it's pretty clear that we haven't been treating the earth as lovingly as we would treat such close family members. Rather, we've failed to respect Mother Earth, allowing her air, soil, and water (though we depend on those same elements!) to become polluted to the point that she "is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she "groans in travail" (Rom 8:22) (paragraph 2).

Popes have been fretting about our planet for quite some time. Laudato Si tells us that John XXIII wrote a letter about Peace on Earth (Pacem in Terris) at the height of the nuclear arms crisis in 1963, and Paul VI spoke to the UN about humanity's exploitation of nature in 1971 (the same year Dr. Seuss published his eco-parable, The Lorax). John Paul II was the first to mention the necessity of an ecological conversion, commenting on it at different times in his papacy, but mostly out of concern for the "human environment" rather than for nature itself, it seems. Of all the popes, it's Benedict XVI who probably spoke the strongest words, urging humanity to see that creation is hurt "where we ourselves have the final word, where everything is simply our property, and we use it for ourselves alone. The misuse of creation begins when we no longer recognize any higher instance than ourselves, when we see nothing else but ourselves."

It seems that the introduction of Laudato Si is focused on establishing that the Catholic Church has a track record with environmental awareness, but clearly, that awareness has come rather late in the game in many ways. The Church's environmental mystics like Francis of Assisi, Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich and Meister Eckhart, whose words have been with us for centuries, have been too often ignored in favour of great theological minds closer to the papal chair who were counting angels on the heads of pins rather than seeing God in creation. More recently, Creation Spirituality and folks like Matthew Fox were treated as New Ageish and dismissed (or excommunicated).

In fact, so much of the Church's energy over the past 50 years has been spent preaching about morality, sexuality, and preserving the Church and its own traditions that it has nearly missed the boat when it comes to encouraging humanity to "turn the ship around" before reaching the tipping point toward environmental catastrophe. But here is Pope Francis, finally standing up for our sister, Mother Earth, not a moment too soon -- and hopefully, not a moment too late.

If I could sit down and have a chat with the man, I'd encourage him even further -- not only to do whatever he can to bring the world to further awareness of our need for ecological conversion, but also, to change the Church's prayers to reflect environmental and social concerns even more, to pray not only "for our good and the good of all his holy church," but "for the good of all creation." (I change those words every Sunday, pagan Catholic that I am.) Prayers that remind us of creation's beauty and goodness and our role in the world's ecological conversion need to be lived and prayed in our churches, homes and daily lives until they convert the way we think about and treat the gifts of creation all around us, always and all ways...

Which is why I'll end each of these Sunday reflections with A prayer for our earth, taken from the end of Laudato Si:

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,
so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts
of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,
to be filled with awe and contemplation,
to recognize that we are profoundly united
with every creature
as we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle
for justice, love and peace.

+AMEN.

(A prayer for our earth and all quotations from Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Next up: #3... Becoming ecology-minded

Laudato Si: Sunday reflection #1... A prayer for our earth

I did it! This week, I finally finished reading Laudato Si, Pope Francis' recent encyclical letter, On Care for Our Common Home. If you haven't read it yet, the entire text can be found by clicking here.

I'll go out on a limb and say that Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home is the most important and relevant letter to the world ever written by a pope, and that everyone on the planet should read it. You don't have to be Catholic, or even Christian, for heaven's sake!

Of course, I know that not everyone will read it. Encyclical letters aren't everyone's cup of tea. Even the word encyclical can be intimidating. But really, it's probably the most readable encyclical ever written. No Papal "we" here. Not much flowery language. Francis made sure it was written in non church-ese so it would be accessible to everyone, because care for the earth has to be everyone's cup of tea -- we all live here.

So here's my proposal -- for the next 52 Sundays, I am going to offer some moodlings on Laudato Si, 5 paragraphs each week, for a couple of reasons. One, its ideas are important and imperative for the survival of our planet. Two, it is coming from a man who has both science and religion in his personal history, and who has taken his name and mission from the patron saint of ecology, simplicity, and nature, St. Francis of Assisi. And three, maybe the reflections and practical response of an ordinary lay person who has actually read Laudato Si might encourage more people to read it, think about our environmental and social crises, and find ways to act together to handle these crises before they become more than the earth can handle (there are already warning signs that we're reaching that point). I don't expect miracles very often, but it might be worth a try.

Originally, I was just planning to share a brief review of Laudato Si, but it deserves WAY more attention than that. So bear with me as I write, if you will, and please, feel free to share your own comments, questions, or arguments in the comments section below if you so desire. All respectful comments are worth discussing.

I'm going to start today at the very end of Laudato Si, with A prayer for our earth. I have one little bone to pick with Francis right here. The encyclical is addressed "to all people" and spends some time encouraging us not to engage in dualistic thinking when it comes to ourselves as separate from nature or one another, yet what do Francis and his writing team do? They divide readers at the very end by including two prayers, the first to be prayed by all believers, and the second, by Christians. In my mind, the first is enough! Why must Christians be separate? God is God, and probably doesn't care whether we use a trinitarian formula or not as long as we pray! So I will conclude all my Laudato Si Sunday reflections with the first prayer because I love to imagine standing with people of all faiths, and praying these words:

A prayer for our earth

All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,
so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts
of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,
to be filled with awe and contemplation,
to recognize that we are profoundly united
with every creature
as we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle
for justice, love and peace.

+AMEN.

(A prayer for our earth from Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home © Libreria Editrice Vaticana)

Next up: #2... Turn that ship around!