Justice Matters: Bearing Fruit 

Last week we wrote about “falling in love with the earth”.  Continuing this theme the readings remind us today that we are part of that creation, branches of the vine.  Not separate, not above or below but within and indivisible.  When we begin to take that in and understand, then, things can begin to fall in to place.  We start to be able to see that when creation is hurt, we are hurt. 

See: When the air is unclean due to car fumes or factory waste; we see not only the flowers wither and the birds take flight in disarray; but we suffer with them, being a part of creation.    Recently in 2020, an inquest returned the verdict that a child’s death had been related to air pollution.  When the rain fails to come or arrives at the wrong time; we see it is not only the animals that perish and the landscape that is ravaged but we are also damaged. We see that our economy uses measurements such as gross domestic product (GDP) to measure societies’ success, but often fails to see resulting socio-economic inequalities and impacts on global health and well-being.

Reflect: “When we tug at a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world.” So says John Muir (1838 – 1914) a man who revered nature and whose spirituality was fed by seeing that interconnectedness as God’s presence in everything. How do we see interconnectedness? Do we see it in terms of how much profit we can extract? How do we open ourselves to the pain and pleasure of interconnectedness? To see the child that dies in London as our child. The crop that fails as our doomed livelihood? To see the successes as our own.  What would happen if we did? If we spread the message of interconnectedness?  

Act:  A good place to start is by looking at nature and trying to see yourself as part of nature. To recognise that not only am I part of nature but so is, the loud group of teenagers, the woman with the dogs and the person outside the shop begging- we all need a place of worth in our world. We could read about the wellbeing economy (link above) which has as its principles – restoring a harmonious relationship between society and nature; fair distribution of goods and supporting healthy and resilient individuals and communities.  At this time of elections we can talk to people and ask our representatives about their views. We need to vote in the election for policies that follow the science and address climate disruption; even though such policies will lead us to examine our own actions critically.

Tricia Kaminski