Justice Matters: A season for renewing life
This weekend marks the second of the five Sundays of the Season of Creation. It is a season to reflect on how we understand what it is to be human, to be alive on Earth, how humankind is damaging our Common Home by changing the climate, disrupting ecosystems, other species, and polluting.
It is a season to stop seeing “the environment” as an issue for enthusiasts, one issue among others – it is a call to review how we understand what it is to be human.
It is a season to grow in our love of the earth, and in attention to the cries of the Earth, the cries of the poor.
It is a season to hear the prophetic shouts of the young, and of those who are “climate refugees,” having to leave their homes because their lives are no longer sustainable.
It is a season to review how humans have the bright prospect of change personally, change as communities, and change in the political-social-economic spheres.
It is a season to discover how each of us can help to establish a new quality of life for all people, and a new communion with all the planet.
See A recent interview with Pope Francis was as follows:
Some time ago, Your Holiness, you admitted that a few years ago ecological issues were of no interest to you. Now Your Holiness has changed, for you are one of the world leaders who speak out most on this issue, on the abuses committed against the Earth. Has the ecological choice made you enemies? Will you be in Glasgow for COP26? Two questions in one.
“I am going to make history: [The V General Conference of CELAM in] Aparecida was in 2007 if I am not mistaken. I’m a little lost for dates. In Aparecida I heard the Brazilian bishops talk about preserving nature, the ecological problem, the Amazon.... They insisted, insisted, insisted, and I wondered what this had to do with evangelization. That’s what I felt. I didn’t have the faintest idea. I’m talking about 2007. That shocked me. When I returned to Buenos Aires, I became interested, and slowly I began to understand something. Already being here, huh? I am a convert in this. And then I understood more. And somehow, I realized that I had to do something and then I had the idea of writing something as a magisterium because the Church in front of this... just as I was a “salami” as we say in Argentina, a fool who did not understand any of this, there are so many people of good will who do not understand... So, to give some catechesis on this. I summoned a group of scientists to explain to me the real problems; not the hypotheses, but the real thing. They made me a nice catalogue and rightly so. I passed it on to theologians who reflected on it. And that is how
Laudato Sí' came about.”
Reflect
In Laudato Si’
Pope Francis calls us to delight in the Earth, to be alert to its crises and the crises of the poor who most suffer from the disruptions that human beings have caused (greenhouse gases that disrupt the climate, pollution…). He calls us to a conversion of heart so that the Earth is seen in the light of our relationship with Christ, and so we live in deeper communion with all the Earth, knowing ourselves as part of the Earth.
Act
On Sunday afternoon the Archdiocesan Commission for Caritas, Justice and Peace is holding a 2 hour zoom gathering to reflect on the climate emergency, climate refugees and our call to action. 3-5pm, Sunday 12 September Details and registration. Can you join this?
You might like to explore the season of creation website
and take a look at “Pastoral Orientations on Climate Displaced People” from the Vatican.
- do pray for the success of the COP meetings
- you might like to read the statement just issued by Pope Francis with Archbishop Welby and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
