What's the good word for 2021?

Happy New Year! Those who have been following these moodlings for a while probably remember that every New Year, rather than making a bunch of New Year's Resolutions, I choose a word to focus on for the 365 days ahead. 

I have to chuckle a little when I look back at the word for 2020. One year ago, I picked the word COMMUNITY, because certain struggles and challenges in 2019 made me withdraw too much from some of the people I love, and I needed to reach out and include them more fully in my life rather than quietly indulging in my own pity party. I also wrote that

if we want to continue as a human race, we need to put our divisions behind us and become COMMUNITY when it comes to world peace, caring for our environment, eliminating poverty, working for the rights of the marginalized, and the list goes on... There are so many issues that have to be tackled by good people who care, and though we all have different pet concerns, perhaps we can agree that the common good of ALL, no matter the stripe, is what we need to work toward. Because really, our divisions are just our fears being given too much credit.

Dog walking view, January 2, 2021

I launched myself into 2020 with optimism and the desire to connect with others. I set up a full schedule for ecumenical prayer in different churches in the city, put together some lovely recipes for baking with my friends at L'Arche, and found a wonderful job with some marvelous people involving a lot of really great music (one of my passions). But after only 8 shifts at the Winspear Centre for Music, COVID shut everything down. Concerts, baking, ecumenical prayer. Everything except my daily dog-walking routine, a community of me and Shadow-dog! (Thank heavens for my husband and daughter being here, too, or I probably wouldn't be laughing at my 2020 choice for word of the year. They were a pretty great little community, most days!)

Community has also been something a lot of us find at a certain physical distance or online if we are fortunate. After the initial lockdown was eased somewhat, in person opportunities (with masks) became a possibility. I managed to join the Sunday Community of Emmanuel at the Bissell Centre, and felt like I had come home in so many ways, even though physical distancing and COVID protocols (taking temperatures, hand sanitizing, providing bagged snacks instead of lunch, masking, and wiping everything down with bleach) were in play... until November/December, when case numbers took off and doors closed again.

I suppose I could try a do over with COMMUNITY as the word of the year. But in this time where we must stay apart for the sake of our health system and the vulnerable people in our midst, I've decided that instead of physically distanced community, I want to use 2021 to focus simply on UNITY, especially after the storming of the Capitol Building in Washington DC yesterday.

In my understanding, UNITY doesn't mean that we all need to think the same, act the same, love the same, have the same skin tone, believe in God the same, or hold the same political views. Rather, it means that we are conscious that, although there are many things we disagree on, we can work together for the good of all. Unity asks us to set down our hurt and anger and outrage and try to understand others in a way that invites them to work with us toward the beauty, goodness, and truth that we are all created equal, and the reality that really, we are all one family that needs to come together, not just for our own personal good, but for the good of our earth, especially post-COVID, whenever that time comes.

So my word of 2021, my meditation mantra, is UNITY. In my morning prayer, I am asking God of many names to unite our hearts daily. And I hereby vow to unite with others who desire to make the world a better place in whatever way I can. Maybe by writing letters. Signing petitions. Telling jokes. Smiling at other dog-walkers from that physical distance. Participating in Zoom meetings. Planning for a positive future even in the midst of this strange time. Wearing my mask for the sake of the vulnerable. You get the drift.

What's your word of the year?

Laudato Si Sunday reflection: Protecting what we hold in common

This week's reflection is brought to you by
Ephesians 5:8-14.

You call us,
O God,
to live as your children,
children of light.

Our light --
our goodness and truth --
needs to shine for the world to see,
especially in these darker than usual days.

If we do what is pleasing to you,
avoid darkness
and bring everything into your light,
that light will drive out darkness.

You call us to awake
from the sleep of unconcern for others,
to rise from darkness and death
and you shine on us!

Help us to reach out
with your love and light
as we are able.

Let us do your will
and share your joy
even as we do all we can to
"flatten the curve."

Remind us often
that we are all in this together,
that we hold our health in common
at this time.

May our smiles
rather than our anxieties
shine
for all those
who need reassurance.

Be with us,
O God.

+Amen

* * * * * * *

I'm finding it challenging to connect our little encyclical study with this world pandemic that has suddenly arrived almost everywhere. But I think that this week's piece of Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home connects with things we need to do to protect our 'global commons' -- which is our earth's global health in the face of Covid-19 and climate change. We're looking at paragraphs 173 to 177, which can be accessed by clicking here and scrolling down.

I'd like to begin by highlighting most of paragraph 173, where Pope Francis and the encyclical team say

Enforceable international agreements are urgently needed, since local authorities are not always capable of effective intervention. Relations between states must be respectful of each other's sovereignty, but must also lay down mutually agreed means of averting regional disasters which would eventually affect everyone. Global regulatory norms are needed to impose obligations and prevent unacceptable actions...

These words are referring to caring for the environment, but if there is any good news to be had right now, it seems that many (though not all) world leaders are taking this pandemic seriously and implementing necessary restrictions to slow the virus' spread. I am hopeful that, once we get through this health crisis, our leaders will have learned something about how to work together as a world community to implement necessary restrictions on things that harm Mother Earth. Perhaps our politicians will come to understand that the economy isn't the only bottom line of which we must take care. Our environments and all its living beings must become the priority! Pray with me for that awareness in leaders who are willing to stand for necessary changes to the way the dollar has been more important than creation!

In paragraph 174 Pope Francis makes note of the fact that international and regional conventions on ocean governance come up short due to "fragmentation and the lack of strict mechanisms of regulation, control and penalization..." He can't be more right when he says at the end of paragraph 174 that "What is needed, in effect, is an agreement on systems of governance for the whole range of so-called "global commons."

At the moment, we are learning from one another about ways to effectively reduce the rates of Corona Virus infection. Many scientists and healthcare professionals from around the globe are working together toward something that is necessary for the health we hold in common. Just imagine if we could use similar methods to involve the entire planet in caring for our common home!

In paragraph 175, we hear that we need to make more radical decisions about reducing pollution and eliminating poverty. It seems we human beings are stuck in a rut when it comes to handling our problems, the Pope says, because "the economic and financial sectors, being transnational, tends to prevail over the political."

As I watch our economic and financial sectors fluctuate and tumble, as I see our political leaders offer financial supports to those who are suddenly unemployed and unable to make ends meet because of job losses or health issues, and as I watch neighbours reaching out to neighbours, I can't help but hope that this global economic shake-up will be the wake up call our world needs to help it regain equilibrium for the sake of all creation, that people will understand that true wealth only exists when ALL BEINGS are well together.

So maybe it's time to think outside our previous boxes, "to devise stronger and more efficiently organized international institutions" with leaders who work together for justice, peace, and equity for all (paragraph 175). If you had to come up with "a true world political authority" (Pope Francis is quoting his predecessor, Pope Benedict, at the end of paragraph 175), how would you do it? Wouldn't it be great to have a wise world governing body that can look after humanity as a whole in times of crisis, work for disarmament and peace, ensure an end to poverty, disease and hunger, and protect the web of life that we call creation?

I sure don't know how to create a world governing body that will make a difference, but I'd like to nominate people like our female chief medical officers, who are offering wisdom and calm in this very difficult time. Drs. Deena Hinshaw, Bonnie Henry and Theresa Tam have been amazing in all their efforts. If we can support organizations that dream and brainstorm and train similar wise and calm leaders who can tell it like it is and inspire us to take these difficult steps like these women have in order to "flatten the curve" of the Corona virus, perhaps we could one day have similar leaders to save our 'global commons.'

But we need to start looking for these leaders now, and supporting their environmental efforts. If you find yourself with time on your hands this week, I'd encourage you to do a bit of research into environmental leaders and organizations that are making a difference for the sake of Mother Earth. And if there's a way for you to support their growth, even with just a note of appreciation for their efforts, go for it!

We hold so many things in common -- air, earth, water, our health and the health of this beautiful sphere we call home. Every one of us can do something to leave our home better than we find it right now. We arise from the sleep of unawareness of all those with whom we share our earth, and begin to shine God's light around us. Even just by offering a smile (though I challenge us all to do more than that)!

Laudato Si Sunday Reflection: Wearing God's glasses on the Third Sunday of Advent

Today's reflection is brought to you by
Isaiah 35: 1-6a, 10.

O God,
the prophet Isaiah explains
that your Master Plan
for our earth
is better
than anything
we humans can ever envision or create.

He says you will make the wild lands glad
and the deserts rejoice,
and your glory and majesty
will cover everything.

He insists you will strengthen the weak
and encourage the frightened,
and tell us all
Be strong, do not fear!

He promises you will come and save us.

He tells us you will open the eyes of the blind,
unstop the ears of the deaf,
make the lame and the mute
dance and sing for joy --
and unending joy
will belong to us all.

When will you come,
O God,
and make it so?

Ahh,
but you have already come!

And all these things Isaiah tells us you will do
are also what we must do in your name!

You come again
each time we speak and act
for justice,
peace,
truth,
goodness
and beauty.

As we wait for you,
empower us to act as you would
in every situation.

Let us see the world as you see it,
and love all of creation
the way you love it.

+Amen

* * * * * * *

This week's paragraphs of Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home (130-136, which can be accessed by clicking here) almost make me wish we hadn't progressed in technology for changing biology in particular as far as we have. Paragraph 30 quotes section 2417 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church when it notes, "While human intervention on plants and animals is permissible when it pertains to the necessities of human life... experimentation on animals is morally acceptable only "if it remains within reasonable limits [and] contributes to care for or saving human lives"" (paragraph 130).

Pope Francis and his writing team also underline the words of St. Pope John Paul on the 1990 World Day of Peace when he said that it is part of our vocation as human beings to "participate responsibly in God's creative action" while paying close attention to how human interference affects the all-important links between ecosystems and their species. Human experimentation involves considerable risks, as many sci-fi movies and novels (like the ones my husband reads) have had fun pointing out in rather horrific ways. This is exactly why we must constantly "rethink the goals, effects, overall context and ethical limits" of the biological experimentation that technology affords us (paragraph 131).

Paragraph 132 is where I really wish we could wear God's glasses. It is all very well and good to say that we need to be careful and to experiment on nature only in such a way as "to favour its development in its own line, that of creation, as intended by God," as St. Pope John Paul told the World Medical Association in 1983. The problem is that no one can really envision what God intends, as we can't begin to know the mind of God. 

Does God really want us to play with human DNA to the point that we thereby rid the world of Trisomy 21 and the gorgeous and loving people who have Down Syndrome? Is our experimentation using animals really something that God appreciates even if it saves people from medical problems? If God had really wanted us to have corn that has built in pesticide to kill corn weevils (not to mention other insect life as "collateral damage"), wouldn't God have come up with it?

Paragraphs 133 and 134 try to address the issues of genetic modification, but it seems a pretty wishy-washy effort that only manages to warn us against corporations who are running small producers into the ground through control of genetically modified seed and fertilizers that have been patented by said corporations. But the infertile seeds mentioned at the end of paragraph 134 already exist; surely the Pope and friends are aware of that and could have used stronger words!

The ethical implications of biological technology and genetic modification are topics about which a lot of the world's population is oblivious, and I suppose a papal encyclical isn't going to be the thing to wake us all up and impress upon us the need to call our scientists and the corporations involved to accounts. There are many activists who try to make us aware; unfortunately they don't have Pope Francis's star power, and even his fame isn't enough. 

The best the Pope can do, it seems, is to say that "Discussions are needed in which all those directly or indirectly affected... can make known their problems and concerns, and have access to adequate and reliable information in order to make decisions for the common good, present and future" (paragraph 135). It seems that no one is able to definitively state what is right and what is wrong when it comes to genetic modification because we are unable to see what the future holds. And we still don't know how to communicate with animals well enough to find out what they really think.

There's mention of the common good, at least. As we complete the reading of this chapter about the human roots of the ecological crises we are facing on so many different fronts, Pope Francis and friends remind us that "the inalienable worth of a human being transcends his or her degree of development," pointing out the importance of protecting human life in all its ages and stages (paragraph 136). Would that we could feel that way about all life on earth – that environmentalists and medical ethicists and scientists could all see through the same lens, through God's glasses, to what is the common good for all life.

But no one has actually found God's glasses yet, so the best we can do is be vigilant – to see where human activity is overstepping its bounds and refuse to support those projects, even to protest if necessary, while encouraging more positive choices. My husband and I know that supporting the development of alternate forms of energy rather than fossil fuel pipelines is better for our earth, so we've put up solar panels, and encourage friends and family to buy green power whenever possible. We're always looking for the healthiest options for our planet. It takes work, and I'll admit that we're not always successful.

While I don’t much like the biological manipulation of anything, preferring to trust that things will unfold as they should in God's loving hands, I'm also pretty aware that "when technology disregards the great ethical principals, it ends up considering any practice whatsoever as licit... [and] will not easily be able to limit its own power" (paragraph 136).

But facing facts, if it wasn't for biological manipulation, I wouldn't be here. For ten years, I lived thanks to pork and beef insulin. Now I take five injections of synthetic, human-made insulin each day. And I have to thank God that Banting and Best and other scientists have figured out medications that keep me and others alive, that medicine has evolved to the point that it has perhaps saved my dad from his particular cancers, that we human beings have developed ways to live in cold climates like mine, and that we can transport the things we need from one place to another, to name just a few of the ways technology has made life better. I bet we could come up with thousands more.

Life must be lived with a sense of balance if we are to truly create a common good that works for all of creation. Sometimes that work involves incredible contradictions. So for this week, perhaps we can reflect on how human creativity and manipulation of our planet and its resources has made the good things in our lives possible. What do we most appreciate that we have received through the work of human hands? What are the positive technological options that we can support to enable life on earth for future generations? And have we thanked God enough for those things lately? 

Wearing God's glasses, seeing the way God does, requires a combination of vigilance, action in support of positive options, a lot of prayer, and abundant gratitude for all that is. It's a tall order, but there's nothing lost in trying!

I'll close with my little Advent reflection in our parish bulletin for this week:

Instead of store-bought presents, consider:

-charitable gifts – a donation to a local charity that may be of interest to the recipient (eg. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Ronald McDonald House, Hope Mission, etc.) or that benefits brothers and sisters in the developing world through fair trade (Ten Thousand Villages) or social/ecological justice (Caritas Canada).

-food gifts – a basket of all the ingredients for a simple but delicious meal to make the cook’s life easier.

-the gift of a family story – a treasured tale, written and illustrated, perhaps with a few photos.

Help us to care for our planet, the poor, and those near to us this Christmas.

+Amen.

All we need is radical love

After listening to the reading of the Gospel (Matthew 5:38-48) this morning, my mind went off on its own homily. I couldn't help but reflect on how Christianity is failing. And I think the reason for its failure is that too many of its churches have turned into tribal councils or morality police more concerned with ensuring that their "own flocks" follow the rules than with how we need to work together for the common good of all.

Of course, it's not Christ's fault, he who said that we need to live non-violently, go the extra mile for our sisters and brothers on the margins, love our enemies, be perfect as God is perfect and a few dozen other basic things that we seem to have forgotten in our relatively comfy, privileged pews. It's a rough, raw, radical love that Jesus expects of us, one that takes a hit without hitting back and still moves forward in humility, generosity, patience and compassion. It's how he lived -- his kind of radical love reaches through the centuries -- otherwise we never even would have heard of a small town preacher and healer from a backwater town in the middle East.

The word radical comes from the Latin word for root. Radical love roots our lives in the important things in life so that we can ignore the inconsequential ones and live simply, out of love. The only way our world will survive is if we return to radical love for our planet, for others, for creation, and for ourselves. We need to work for the common good, to turn the other cheek, to give our life energies to goodness, to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us and do all the other radical things that Jesus himself chose to do right to the end.

A tall order. But we're seeing far too much radical hatred these days, and it's clearly not the way our world needs to go.

What acts of radical love will you engage in this week? They don't have to be anything heroic, just rooted in love.