As in previous years, from September 1 to October 4, the Christian family unites again for a worldwide celebration of prayer and action to protect the Earth, our common home. Called the “Season of Creation,” this global celebration began back in 1989 when Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew proclaimed September 1 as a day of prayer for creation. Later, the celebration was embraced by other Christian churches. Pope Francis made the Roman Catholic Church’s warm welcoming of this season official in 2019. Responding to the present ecological crisis, the Argentine pope also wrote two insightful documents that speak of care for the environment: Laudato Si’ (2015) and Querida Amazonia (2020).
The rationale for this year’s theme for the Season of Creation states: “This year, our theme is ‘A Home for All? Renewing the Oikos (house) of God.’ In [the book of] Genesis, God set a dome over the Earth. The word ‘dome’ is where we get words such as ‘domicile’ and ‘domestic’ — in other words, God puts us all — all people, all life — under the same domed roof — we are all in the house, the oikos of God. God gave humans the ministry to take care of and cultivate this oikos of God.” It continues: “The oikos is a home for all, but it is now in danger because of greed, exploitation, disrespect, disconnection, and systematic degradation. The whole creation is still crying out. Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution [in the late 1700s], the geography where we recognize God’s creative power has continued to shrink. Today only scraps of the human consciousness recognize God acting to restore and heal the Earth.”
Last August 22, during our New City Day, we shared with you some points for reflection to help us in this time of pandemic. We started comparing our present situation to a championship basketball match in which there is a tie between two teams, and the game calls for an extension of 5 minutes. This extension period called “overtime” is crucial for the already tired players, having played for more than an hour. If a team manages to keep up their game, with strong team morale and efficient defense and offense tactics, it will be victorious. However, if a team is bogged down and becomes confused and demoralized, it will definitely lose.
The present pandemic is also a decisive moment for all of us. True enough, we are in a time of crisis. Just like for the players of two teams playing overtime, moments like this can make or break us. What is our attitude now in what we may call our “borrowed time”? Yes, the time on our hands is a gift and, sooner or later, our time here on earth will be over just as maybe a family member or friend who has reached his or her “hour” during this pandemic. We who are still alive and possess good health have still been given time to make our world a better place, especially for future generations. Now as we experience more and more the adverse effects of climate change in severe rains and floods, ever-powerful typhoons, searing droughts, and raging wildfires, science warns us that if we continue with our lifestyle of greed and consumerism, we are contributing to the self-destruction of our planet.
How can I contribute to this goal of taking care of our common home?
Celebrating the Season of Creation presupposes that we believe in God the Father Almighty and creator of heaven and earth, our point of origin and destination. We believe in the love of God the Father who cares for His creation. We propose three attitudes towards ecological conversion in this time of pandemic. First is humility. Because of the pandemic, we learned humility, which has its origin from the word humus, the soil, the earth. Humility helps us become aware of our limits and points to the need of God’s grace, that we need him when we seem powerless. At a certain point, we will have to face and accept our limits like sickness, death, and the consequences of our misuse and abuse of our natural environment. It takes humility to accept our faults and our need for an ecological conversion.
Another attitude is obedience. It comes from the Latin word ob-audire, to listen to. We can reach our goal of taking care of our common home if we know how to listen to the voice of the Spirit, or read the signs of the times. Obedience, that is, knowing how to listen and follow the voice of the Holy Spirit, makes us persons of dialogue, and able to work with people who are concerned for the care of our planet Earth. In the Genesis account, Adam and Eve, the symbols of humanity, failed to adopt these two attitudes. With the insinuation of Evil, they turned against God the Creator through their pride and disobedience. David Attenborough, well-known environmentalist, has warned us that the Garden of Eden is our planet Earth, and we are destroying it with our greed.
The last attitude that we propose is gratefulness, being thankful for the blessings of creation: the air we breathe, the forests, animals, rivers, and seas. Grateful persons come to realize their responsibility to be stewards of creation.
May our September 2021 articles help us heed the urgent “CALL TO ACTION,” taking more concrete measures in caring for the Earth, our common home.
