The earth as blessing

We hear it in the popular question: Are you saved? Many modern “theories of redemption” are really navel-gazing: it is always about “me”, feeling good about “myself ”, helping “me” to move on.

This is not to say the self vis-a-vis redemption is not important, but we must never stop at the self but move beyond it, to others and the wider creation.

And so often we don’t.

Pope Francis tried to shift our consciousness in this regard with the publication of Laudato Si.

In the 125 years since the inception of encyclicals under Pope Peo XIII, not one has focused on the wider created order until the publication of this one. Building on antecedent green movements, Pope Francis brings our attention to the “garden”, the context which is prior to us and in which everything began.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus use nature words to explain his teaching - “light” , “dark”, “sparrows”.

He does so on many other occasions with words like “lilies of the field”, “wheat”, “darnel”, “vine”, “branches”, “loaves”, “fishes” etc. Jesus could not tell his stories (parables) without the use of images from nature. Our liturgies, especially the Mass, are also a celebration of nature - wax, oil, water, branches, bread, wine, incense etc. We need to remember the earth with its resources is a gift to us. If we bless the earth by our practices, the earth will bless us in return.

At the moment we are in the rainy season. So often when it rains we curse it instead of blessing it. It frustrates us. We have to use umbrellas; our feet get wet; it slows traffic; it causes flooding. Yet it also renews our water supply, refreshes the land, enable crops to grow, and provides recreation as in Harry’s Water Park. In these times of international economic stagnation and decline we need to see how we can partner with the earth to move beyond our oil-gas fixation.

The developments in the chocolate industry are a fine example. Gillian Goddard, one of the founders of the Alliance of Rural Communities and who has worked with the Brasso Seco Chocolate Company observes: “Now that the communities are making chocolate, they have an opportunity to be involved in something which requires communication, co-operation and attention to detail close to home.” The earth therefore teaches us: we enhance human communication and cooperation.

We also have a moral responsibility to defend the earth which may put us in conflict with state departments and private sector organisations, as it did with the proposed aluminium smelter in Chatham a few years ago. The oil spills in the Gulf, for which no one has claimed clear responsibility — with the energy czars being notoriously silent — is a phenomenon we must monitor, especially since rural communities are the ones invariably and adversely affected. Francis has done his part; we must do ours. Parish catechetical departments must build on the Pope’s lead especially through Sunday school, First Communion and Confirmation programmes with multimedia capabilities.

Let us learn to bless the earth so that the earth in turn will bless us.