Justice Matters:  Praise God with Creation

Last Sunday at Mass when we sang that the Earth and the sea praise God, I had two reactions, one straight after the other: first a big “Amen!” but then I thought, “Do they still do so?” My answer to myself was, “Yes, of course, but…”

See

The seas are so polluted, not only with plastics.  The life in them is diminished, including by overfishing and by the effects of climate change. We know that we have brought the Earth to so many crises – the quality of soil, the loss of so many species, the change in the air, seas, land and ice… The earth cries out to us, and in its cries are those of the poor and vulnerable feeling the effects of the emergencies that our harm to the Earth is causing.

Reflect

When the challenges of the world, and what humanity has done to it, overwhelm us (and perhaps if they never do we are not alert) then let’s remember the teaching of Pope Francis.

From the first words, “Laudato Si”, of his encyclical of that name, he calls us to praise God as part of the Earth -  in the words of St Francis: “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces vari¬ous fruit with coloured flowers and herbs.” 

In paragraph 11 the Pope quotes St Francis again. “Francis helps us to [hear calls that] take us to the heart of what it is to be hu¬man. Just as happens when we fall in love with someone, whenever he would gaze at the sun, the moon or the smallest of animals, he burst into song, drawing all other creatures into his praise.”

So, yes the world is in crises, but as Hopkins wrote in the poem God’s Grandeur, “there lives the deepest freshness deep down things…. The Holy Ghost over the bent world broods with warm breast and ah! bright wings.”

Do you think that, much more than our anxieties, it is being grounded in God’s love and God’s gifts in creation that will help us to be open to the actions we can take?

Act

So perhaps when the anxieties about the Earth take hold, first find a flower, a tree, an area you like… something that catches the eye….  Spend time with it, not to escape but to be rooted in the fact that the Earth, the sea, the sky and all living things do indeed praise God from whom all life flows.  

Then maybe be alert to people who are acting in hope… people healing a corner of the earth, or responding to a few people in need… and see if you are drawn to join in and help.  Hope is about just doing the right thing because it is right. It taps into this Source of our being – our always creating, always redeeming and still sanctifying with-us God.

Mike Mineter