Finding Joy in Creation
The difficult thing about talking about environmental issues is that, unfortunately, it has become politicized. One’s views on environmental issues tend to be influenced by where you land in the political spectrum. Pope Francis reminds us in Laudato Si of some fundamental truths that transcend the politics of these issues. (To be honest, you cannot completely escape it.) First, he reminds us that the planet is our common home and our common legacy. No matter our political differences, we all breathe air, we all need water to survive. And we all hope to leave breathable air and clean water for our children, our grandchildren and beyond. (For me, that would be spiritual children.) Once again, the symbol of a physical house or building or church works well here. I do not want to live in filth, and I don’t want to pass a mess to the next generation.
The second fundamental truth that the Pope wants to share with us is to see that our connection with nature and the environment is also about our connection to God. Talking about St. Francis of Assisi he writes: Just as happens when we fall in love with someone, whenever he would gaze at the sun, the moon or the smallest of animals, he burst into song, drawing all other creatures into his praise. He communed with all creation, even preaching to the flowers, inviting them “to praise the Lord, just as if they were endowed with reason.”
He continues:
If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs. By contrast, if we feel intimate-ly united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously. The poverty and austerity of Saint Francis were no mere veneer of asceticism, but something much more radical: a refusal to turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled.
On this Third Sunday of Advent, a time when we focus on joy, may we find that joy in all of God’s wondrous Creation.
Father Kevin