Chapter 2: The Gospel of Creation

Chapter 2:  The Gospel of Creation

By Mary Jane Oakland

As I begin to write this I am reminded of the words of our dearly loved priest, The Rev. Dr. Barbara Schlachter and the work she did in retirement to organize and take action for the good of the environment:  “I have always seen creation as a gift from God and where God is revealed… I believe we are called to be partners in the ongoing care and use of creation. Teaching my grandchildren to be caretakers of creation and to live in harmony with it and in community with people the world around is part of my call, and so is taking action to protect the planet I will leave behind."  

The title of the chapter is notable, calling attention to the Good News of Creation. It opens with acknowledging that many reject “the rich contributions which religions can make toward an integral ecology and the development of humanity….Nonetheless, science and religion, with their distinctive approaches to understanding reality, can enter into an intense dialogue fruitful for both.”

Section 1:  The Light Offered by Faith

Perhaps this section can be summed up in this quote:  “If we are truly concerned to develop an ecology capable of remedying the damage we have done, no branch of the sciences and no form of wisdom can be left out, and that includes religion and the language particular of it.”  

Section 2:  The Wisdom of the Biblical Accounts

This section begins with the creation accounts in Genesis describing the braiding of the relationship with God, with our neighbors, and the earth. And there is a lengthy discussion of Genesis 1:28, “have dominion over the earth” and contrasting the misunderstanding of that phrase with Genesis 2:15 to “till and keep.” To cultivate and work the earth garden while caring, protecting and preserving. Our responsibility is to God’s earth and “we are not God.”  This section moves from Creation to Cain and Abel, the descriptions of Sabbath in Deuteronomy including Sabbath for the land, the laws in Leviticus about sharing the produce of the land, and ending with sections from the Psalms and the prophets.  This section ends with these summary sentences: “A spirituality which forgets God as all-powerful and Creator is not acceptable.”

Section 3:  The Mystery of the Universe

“In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the word ‘creation’ has a broader meaning than ‘nature’ for it has to do with God’s loving plan in which every creature has its own significance.”  This section begins the work of looking at how the scientific study of nature and the work of the church must work together to care for nature and protect humans from self-destruction.  

Section 4:  The Message of Each Creature in the Harmony of Creation

This section can be summarized in this quote from the Bishops of Japan, “To sense each creature singing the hymn of its existence is to live joyfully in God’s love and hope." And it comes to an end with the hymn of St. Francis of Assisi: 

Praise to you, my Lord, with all your creatures,

especially Sir Brother Sun,

who is the day and through whom you give us light….

Section 5:  A Universal Communion

The issues discussed in this section are underlined with these words from Pope Francis, “Everything is connected. Concern for the environment thus needs to be joined to a sincere love for our fellow human beings and an unwavering commitment to resolving the problems of society.”

Section 6:  The Common Destination of Goods

This section argues that the natural environment is a collective good, and the support for the right to private property must be balanced so that the goods may serve all. The section ends with a question posed by the New Zealand bishops in 2006; “What does the commandment ‘Thou shall not kill’ mean when twenty percent of the world’s population consumes resources at a rate that robs the poor nations and future generation of what they need to survive?”

Section 7:  The Gaze of Jesus

Jesus was attuned to the beauty of creation (the wild flowers, the birds) as he taught the people. Jesus was not extreme ascetic, but came eating and drinking (Matthew 11:19). He did not despise the body or the things of the world. Jesus spent most of his life as a craftsman affirming the work and toil in everyday life. In the incarnation we see the continuous arc of God’s work begun in creation.  

I found this chapter to be an important one as we continue to develop our understanding and our language as we bring our faith together with the knowledge from a broad range of disciplines to “care for our common home.” This chapter puts together an understanding of creation with our faith in Jesus that I believe will be useful for all of us. I especially commend this to all working with children and youth. For those of us who preach, this chapter is basic as we shape our language and thoughts in our proclamation of the Gospel. As you plan for rogation and care of creation services this spring, I think this chapter may be helpful. 

Reading and reflecting on Laudato Si during Lent in Swaziland is a deep experience, as the people here are coping with the aftermath of severe drought. And the worst is yet to come as the maize harvest over the next weeks will be very small in relation to need. 

I am writing to you from Swaziland on a day when there is no water in our taps, as part of the “water shedding” program in the city of Mbabane. The rhythm seems to be two-to-three days off followed by two-to-three days with running water. David and I visited St. Francis primary and high schools (with over 1300 students) today and their water is turned off, too.  They do have water tanks so they are managing. The Diocese of Swaziland has identified two schools in this city that have sent the children home, because they do not have water tanks. As I am writing, water tanks are being installed and treated water will fill the tanks, so those schools can again open and children can learn. The poorest will continue to bear the brunt as more and more people become food insecure following the harvest (over the next weeks). I can only encourage us  all to “read, mark and inwardly digest” to become more faithful stewards and heralds of our “Common Home.”

Chapter One: What is happening to our common home?

Chapter One: What is happening to our common home?

It is almost as though we cannot catch up with ourselves in the intensified pace of life. The Pope contrasts the “rapidification” of change occurring among the human race with the naturally slow pace of biological evolution. Change is something desirable and yet not all change good change. The impact of all of this is evidenced in several major areas.

We are a “throwaway culture.” We quickly reduce things to rubbish and make a great deal of waste. Unlike nature’s recycling job, “our industrial system, at the end of its cycle of production and consumption, has not developed the capacity to absorb and reuse waste and by-products.”  When we add this to the pollution that comes from transporting our goods and selves around the globe, from industrial fumes and agricultural enhancements, the overall picture is not a pretty one.

“A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system.” These are not stunning words in themselves except for their power as an endorsement from an unexpected source. We have come a long way from the reactivity of a Church that attacked Galileo, or responded to the rise of the scientific revolution of the nineteenth century by declaring the Doctrine of Infallibility. The gift of the Pope’s engagement among the scientists is his ability to address more deeply the ethical value implications of climate change.

After referring to things we are now sadly too familiar with – excessive carbon footprint, its warming influence, the rising of the seas, its impact on drinking water and the losing of biodiversity and the consequential imbalance created in nature which then affects food supply, in turn giving rise to increased migration and a propensity for war as we wrestle for safe boundaries between us – the Pope laments the indifference to human suffering at an international level. Of course, the migrations in Europe had barely begun at the time of writing, nor was much of the escalation of warring noises across the Middle East, Ukraine and now SE Asia in North Korea and the South China Seas. The very hawkish tone of current Presidential candidates underscores the Pope’s point. Climate change does not only impact weather patterns and create natural extremes; it puts increasing pressure on human behavior with each other and encourages our instinct to self protection at all costs.

“Many of those who possess more resources and economic or political power seem mostly to be concerned with masking the problems or concealing their symptoms, simply making efforts to reduce some negative impacts of climate change.”  While many of us are numb to the realities around us- “distraction constantly dulls our consciousness of just how limited and finite our world really is. - Financial interests prove most resistant (to address the realities and the impact of the “deified market”), and political planning lacks breadth of vision.”

The pope gives some treatment to each problem cited above, providing the occasional zinger – for example on the eradication of bio-diversity. He writes “we seem to think that we can substitute an irreplaceable and irretrievable beauty with something we have created ourselves.” He protests that “we were not meant to be inundated by cement, asphalt, glass and metal, and deprived of physical contact with nature,” noting at the same time that “frequently we find beautiful and manicured green spaces in so called safer areas of cities but not in the more hidden areas where the disposable of society live.” 

This chapter is a hard read as the Pope lays out the issues. He does not write without hope and faith in God’s image in humanity. He believes in the true wisdom of self examination, dialogue and generous encounters among people; and he urges us to real relationships beyond internet communication that may shield us from real pain of our neighbor, or consequence of our actions.

“The lack of physical contact and encounter, encouraged at times by the disintegration of our cities, can lead to a numbing of conscience and to tendentious analyses which neglects parts of reality. At times this attitude exists side by side with a “green” rhetoric. Today however we have to see that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor”.

+Alan   

A Welcome to the 2016 Lenten book study from our Bishop

In inviting us to study the Pope’s encyclical  On Care for Our Common Home. Laudato Si, I want us among whatever elsewhere have decided to assume during this time of Holy Lent to take the opportunity to look around us. Pope Francis reminds us that “we have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth; our very bodies are made up of (earth’s) elements, we breath her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.” To me this is as significant a response to the Lenten invitation to self-examination and repentance as anything else.

I am grateful to those who will share their reflections each week. The encyclical can be ordered from the US Conference of Bishops, or downloaded.

In the short introduction, the Pope acknowledges that many share his concerns, most notably Patriarch Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch. Bartholomew refers to the ethical issues of human behavior alongside the technological response. He asks us to "replace consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing, an asceticism which entails learning to give and not simply to give up."

It is this broader appeal moving beyond the mere technological – essential as that is – that drew me to my choice. We share our Christian lives as companions across the world where the impact of global warming hits very vulnerable populations whose resources are limited at the best of times. There are economic inequalities questions to be answered and desperate people will always find it hard not to respond to scarcity and fear in violent, self protective ways. 

The Pope’s cites his inspiration in the life and witness of Francis of Assisi. “Francis helps us to see that an integral ecology calls for openness to categories which transcend the language of mathematics and biology, and takes us to the heart of what it is to be human.” This is a call to a new and universal solidarity, one which will require “everyone’s talents and involvement are needed to redress the damage caused by human abuse of God’s creation. All of us cam cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation, each according to his or her own culture, experience, involvements and talents.”

There is our invitation, our motivation and our inspiration. Please join us in these weeks of Lent.

+Alan  

2016 Lenten Book Study

On Care for Our Common Home, (Laudato Si') - Pope Francis Encyclical Letter is the title of the book for the Diocese of Iowa's 2016 Lenten book study.   Each chapter in the book will be the topic of this blog, beginning February 10 and ending March 15, just before we enter Holy Week. 

We hope you will visit the weekly blog posts while you read the book this Lent.  

On Care for Our Common Home (Laudato Si') is the new appeal from Pope Francis addressed to "every person living on this planet" for an inclusive dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. Pope Francis calls the Church and the world to acknowledge the urgency of our environmental challenges and to join him in embarking on a new path. This encyclical is written with both hope and resolve, looking to our common future with candor and humility.

CLICK HERE to view the book on Amazon.com, available in new and used paperback.