I've heard somebody say that Catholicism is slow, eco and vintage. Today we celebrate World Earth Day and it could not be more apt to discuss the interaction between my faith and caring for our common home.
The story of creation from Genesis is the story of God entrusting the Earth to us. The relationship between a man and the creation should mirror the relationship between God and the world which is one of deep care for both the present and the future.
As a Christian, I feel particularly responsible for God's creation. Looking around at all the beauty of this world, I cannot separate my faith for a duty to do my best to make sure that my negative impact on the planet is minimised. It's so clear to me that a failure to make changes that help the environment just because using certain resources or acting in certain ways makes our lives more convenient is a sin. Christians generally agree that destroying your body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit, is sin, but somehow destroying the world created by God for our benefit escapes our attention.
Just as conversion from any kind of sin, even sins that encompass whole institutions, must start with our own personal conversion, so does the conversion that is needed to stop the insane speed of degradation of our surroundings. As Pope Benedict wrote back in 2008:
“In fact, it’s not just a question of finding techniques that can prevent environmental harms, even if it’s important to find alternative sources of energy and so on. But all this won’t be enough if we ourselves don’t find a new style of life, a discipline which is made up in part of renunciations: a discipline of recognition of others, to whom Creation belongs just as much as those of us who can make use of it more easily; a discipline of responsibility to the future for others and for ourselves. It’s a question of responsibility before Our Lord who is our Judge, and as Judge our Redeemer, but nonetheless our Judge.”
I was so pleased that Pope Francis wrote Laudato Si as his first encyclical* "On Care For Our Common Home", linking environmental change with the impact it has on the most poor in the society. It's not only about the water, trees or the amount of oxygen in the air: what we do to the environment has an immediate moral dimension. Francis writes:
95. The natural environment is a collective good, the patrimony of all humanity and the responsibility of everyone. If we make something our own, it is only to administer it for the good of all. If we do not, we burden our consciences with the weight of having denied the existence of others. That is why the New Zealand bishops asked what the commandment “Thou shall not kill” means when “twenty percent of the world’s population consumes resources at a rate that robs the poor nations and future generations of what they need to survive”
So let's start this week with this deep awareness that we are all responsible for the world around us so that it can serve us and other people, especially these most vulnerable, today and also future generations. Love of our neighbour needs to be see the big picture as well. And there are so many ways in which we can reduce our environmental impact, live more simply and really glorify God in his creation.
On Tuesday I am going to post about little changes to your lifestyle that can make a difference to the environment. If we all decide to really approach the issues of environmental degradation with attitude of personal responsibility and actually act on it, the world can still change. We won't be able to undo a lot of damage, but we can make the world more beautiful, much fairer and closer to what God intended it to be: a beautiful home for all of us.
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* Lumen Fidei from 2013 was largely the work of Benedict XVI
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