by Leela Ramdeen, Chair, CCSJ and Director, CREDI
“The ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion…Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience. (n 217, Laudato Si, On Care for our Common Home).
If we are committed to ecological conversion/healing our wounded creation, we must demonstrate that, as Pope Francis said, the effects of our encounter with Christ become evident in our relationship with the world around us.
CCSJ urges all parishes, schools, archdiocesan departments and ecclesial communities to prepare to observe World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and the Season of Creation.
On August 6, 2015, Pope Francis declared September 1, annually, as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation as has been the custom in the Orthodox Church since 1989. Over the years, many other Christian denominations have embraced this initiative.
Pope Francis asks that September 1 be “properly celebrated with the participation of the entire People of God: priests, men and women religious and the lay faithful…The annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation offers to individual believers and to the community a precious opportunity to renew our personal participation in this vocation as custodians of creation, raising to God our thanks for the marvelous works that He has entrusted to our care, invoking His help for the protection of creation and His mercy for the sins committed against the world in which we live.”
He hopes that this annual event “will become a significant occasion for prayer, reflection, conversion and the adoption of appropriate lifestyles”.
We are also urged to observe the Season of Creation which runs from September 1 and October 4—the Feast of St Francis of Assisi. Christian communities around the world will be organising events to observe this “season”.
The ecumenical website http://seasonofcreation.org and the Franciscan Action Network’s guided rosary, https://franciscanaction.org, with an emphasis on Caring for Creation are just two of the many websites that offer resources that can be used during this season. And see CCSJ’s draft framework towards an Environmental Policy for the Archdiocese of Port of Spain http://rcsocialjusticett.org/2.0/special-focus/environment/ .
Image source: www.focolare.org
In 2016, Pope Francis declared care for creation a new work of mercy. As Catholic News Agency reported: “He encouraged Christians to make an examination of conscience, evaluating the ways in they have contributed to ‘the disfigurement and destruction of creation,’ given that ‘we all generate small ecological damage.’
After doing a sincere examination of conscience, ‘we can confess our sins against the Creator, against creation, and against our brothers and sisters,’ he said, explaining that we confess sins against the environment because ‘we are penitent and desire to change.’
“The grace received from confession must then be put into action with concrete ways of thinking and acting that are more respectful of creation, he said, suggesting the reduction of water use, recycling, carpooling, turning off unused lights and limiting the amount of food cooked to only what will be consumed as ideas to start with.
“Care of creation should also contribute ‘to shaping the culture and society in which we live,’ Pope Francis said, adding that economics, politics, society and culture ‘cannot be dominated by thinking only of the short term and immediate financial or electoral gains. Instead, they urgently need to be redirected to the common good, which includes sustainability and care for creation’.”
Read the joint statement from Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew to mark last year’s World Day. As Crux reported, they said that “what’s happening in the world today reveals a ‘morally decaying scenario, where our attitude and behaviour towards creation obscures our calling as God’s co-operators.’ They call on those ‘in positions of social and economic, as well as political and cultural, responsibility to hear the cry of the earth, and to attend to the needs of the marginalised.’
“They stressed that care for the environment, and care for the poor, are inextricably linked. ‘The human environment and the natural environment are deteriorating together, and this deterioration of the planet weighs upon the most vulnerable of its people…The impact of climate change affects, first and foremost, those who live in poverty in every corner of the globe.”
If we truly love Christ, we will “find new ways forward” to respect the sacredness of creation. Let’s reconcile our relationship with God, creation and humanity.
