Laudato Si: Sunday Reflection #30... Respect for home

I have to hand it to Pope Francis and his writing team. I can't think of much that they've missed in addressing concerns related to the health of Mother Earth in Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home. This week we even get into the importance of public transportation rather than personal vehicles...

We're looking at paragraphs 152-155 of the Pope's encyclical, which can be accessed by clicking here and scrolling down. This week's reading is the continuation and conclusion of the section we began last week, Ecology of Daily Life.

Paragraph 152 attempts to address the lack of housing we know exists in many parts of the world. Immediately I found myself thinking of the favelas in Rio de Janeiro... But why did my mind go so far afield? Especially when I walk past homeless camps in our Edmonton river valley more often than I'd like to admit...

The Pope and friends are trying to address the difficulties many people have in affording or even finding a reasonable place to live, and encouraging humanity to find answers because "Having a home has much to do with a sense of personal dignity and the growth of families. This is a major issue for human ecology." The encyclical underlines the point that no matter our good intentions, we can't just demolish slums without making those who live in them part of the rebuilding process, offering them information about how they can participate in changing their living situations and decent housing choices.

While we don't exactly have slums in Edmonton, our inner city is a place with poor housing choices and many homeless people. Housing First is one organization that is working toward putting roofs over people's heads before tackling addictions and mental health issues. EndPovertyEdmonton is a local task force that names the problems faced by the poor in our city, and is working together to eliminate poverty in Edmonton within a generation. Does that sound like pie in the sky to you? With the economic downturn in Alberta's economy, it's definitely a challenge, but we have to move forward in hope. What do you know about poverty reduction strategies where you live? Do you offer support in this task?

I smiled when I read where the Pope gently shakes his finger at how we human beings get around:

The quality of life in cities has much to do with systems of transport, which are often a source of much suffering to those who use them. Many cars, used by one or more people, circulate in cities, causing traffic congestion, raising the level of pollution, and consuming enormous quantities of non-renewable energy. This makes it necessary to build more roads and parking areas which spoil the urban landscape.... (paragraph 153).

He's right... and his further comments regarding "the need to give priority to public transportation" make me wonder how long it will take for human beings to understand that if we want to mitigate the effects of climate change, we need to decrease our dependence on SOVs (single occupant vehicles) and opt for public transportation which creates fewer fossil fuel emissions.

Here in Edmonton, people love to complain about the inefficiencies of our transit system, but if we all suddenly started taking transit daily, increasing the need for it and insisting our municipal leaders improve the way it works, I suspect it might become more efficient in a hurry. Of course, we are too infatuated with convenience and our own vehicles for that to happen. Or are we? How do you get around? Do you ride-share? Carpool? Find ways to avoid driving an SOV?

It's not just urban populations that struggle to maintain an ecology of daily life -- paragraph 154 notes that our concern with highly populated cities "should not make us overlook the abandonment and neglect also experienced by some rural populations which lack access to essential services and where some workers are reduced to conditions of servitude, without rights or the hope of a more dignified life." I think of many First Nations communities in Canada that lack potable water, well-made homes, and health services, especially to deal with the sense of abandonment, isolation and addiction that springs from the fact that their communities lack these basic things. How can we help them? Can we write our elected officials on their behalf?

The last paragraph of this section discusses "another profound reality: the relationship between human life and the moral law..." and continues to explain that "our body itself establishes us in a direct relationship with the environment and with other living beings." According to Pope Francis, "The acceptance of our bodies as God's gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world... Learning to accept our body, to care for it, and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element in any genuine human ecology" (paragraph 155).

I suggest you read paragraph 155 for yourself. It's one that leaves me wondering if the Church's understanding of human life and human sexuality isn't too narrow sometimes. I know that The Bible tells us that "God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27) ... but I can't help feeling that the Church pounds too hard on sexual morality, the differences between the sexes and total insistence on heterosexual love and family life. I know too many beautiful people with beautiful relationships that don't fit that model, and who is the Church to say that those people are wrong to love a partner of the same sex? Or when they don't feel at home in their body because they have never felt like they belonged to the gender with which they are born? It seems to me that God created our spirits with a wider spectrum than male and female.

The thing is, God made us, and we grow in our love for ourselves and each other, and in the understanding that God loves us. Love that gives life, literally and figuratively, is never wrong. So if the fullest meaning of our bodies doesn't fit exactly with the Church's prescribed rules about human sexuality, but we can love ourselves and see God's love present in the relationships that bless us, isn't that enough?

The ecology of daily life is about belonging, caring, sharing, respecting one another, and loving God and creation. At least that's how I'm reading it. How can we create a sense of belonging and care for city dwellers and those living in isolated communities all over the world? How can we offer acceptance and love to the poor? To those in the LGBTQ community?

Feel free to share ideas by clicking on  the link for "comments" below.

*******

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)

Up next: #31... It's all about the common good

Sticking with the prophets

For every new dollar generated in Canada since 1999, 66 cents of that dollar has gone to the wealthiest 20% of families. For every new dollar in real wealth generated in Canada since 1999, the upper middle class captured 23 cents, while the bottom 60 percent of families had to settle for the last dime.

-- David McDonald in Outrageous Fortune: Documenting Canada's Wealth Gap, p.5. 

(Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, April 2014)

I woke up this morning to my usual radio show announcing that the wealthiest 86 individuals and families in Canada have the same net worth as the poorest 34% of Canadians -- and it was enough to make me want to cover my head with a pillow. But I got up and looked up the report above (click on its title and you can see it for yourself) because I wanted to know how it was possible. After reading bar graphs compiled from Stats Canada information and skimming the rest of the report, my heart was heavier than ever. Knowing that those wealthy 86 could buy all of the privately held assets of several Atlantic Provinces and still have billions to spare (p.10-11) isn't something to brag about in my books. Basically, it means that too many people are living below the poverty line while too few are living the high life. What about solidarity and equity?

The report goes on to recommend closing loopholes that allow the very wealthy to avoid paying taxes on capital gains and increasing income tax in the higher tax brackets. But my recommendation would be that every one of those top 86 wealthiest families and individuals could meet and hang out with someone like Maria, a client who came into the Clothing Room when I was volunteering there last week.

Maria and I hit it off right away because, of course, we both have the same name. She hadn't been into SSVP's clothing room for over a year, and she came because she and her man had defaulted on rent and been kicked out of their apartment. Because all their possessions had been left behind, she stopped at Sobey's to get a few grocery bags to bring to SSVP to fill with clothes... and while at Sobey's, she spotted five gorgeous roses that she "just had to buy." As I helped her find things she needed, I noticed the floral package and commented on it, and she said, "I just needed something pretty today, so I bought them." She opened the package so I could see her roses: white, yellow, coral, pink and red, and I oohed and ahhed appropriately, and called another volunteer to have a look. 

That's when Maria decided to give the flowers to me. "No one appreciates them at my rooming house. They all judge me for buying flowers. They don't understand how I need beauty. So you have them." I protested that they were hers, that her rooming house needed beauty too, but she was insistent... and how long does a person protest a gift before insulting the giver? I gave her a hug and found a vase for the roses, setting them out on the registration desk for everyone to enjoy. "They look nice there," she said, stopping to smell them before taking her bags of clothes and heading out the door. "Be sure to enjoy them."

The top 86 wealthiest Canadians could use some people like Maria in their lives. Her generosity even in her poverty is a sign that we shouldn't hoard what we have, but share it to the best of our ability. She reminded me that relationship is more important than possessions, and that though wealth is often a wedge that divides people, solidarity and love are the glue that hold us together as a human family.