At the recent Plenary Council Assembly in Sydney, the final issue addressed was that of Integral Ecology. Like the first issue on First Nations Peoples and the Church, this paper was very well supported by the Assembly and passed through the various steps quite easily.
I was quite pleased to discover that the Catholic Church in Australia, as represented by the almost three hundred people present, understands that proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus means getting involved in ecological matters. The fact that Pope Francis had produced an encyclical called Laudato Si’ - On Care for our Common Home, obviously made such a stance unsurprising. We have come a long way from the times when throwing my rubbish out the window of the car was accepted as normal!
Around the world we are still in a major discussion about how to provide for the energy needs of all in an equitable manner without destroying the planet in the process. Yes, the world is our common home, but some people seem to live in a better part of the home than others. There are many issues involved in this conversation and Pope Francis does a good job addressing them in his encyclical.
I am very attracted by what he says about God and the world. One cannot but be moved when he speaks of the intimacy of God with the whole of Creation or when he mentions the tenderness of God.
A deeper understanding of how God is involved in all of this leads me to a deeper spirituality providing a deeper motivation and greater passion for addressing the concerns of our common home. My response to the climate crisis is shaped by my understanding of how God responds to the same crisis.
I find two quotes from the New Testament helpful in this context. St Paul said: “In God we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). If we live in God, then we are being fed by God. We are inspired, energised and guided by God. We draw on the almighty power of God and are strengthened in our hope and our love by God. If everyone lives and moves in God, then there is a basic union of everyone in God. Nothing can separate us from each other at this level of being. Surely this gives us hope that all divisions can be overcome eventually.
At the start of his public ministry Jesus said: “The Kingdom of God is close at hand” (Mark 1:15). God’s rule, God’s effective power has no limit. Jesus said it is close, but our evening news shows us that there are many places where God’s law of love does not reign as yet. Again, if we believe that the Kingdom is at hand then here and now in this place maybe we could do something to address the climate crisis. We could act to improve our common home. We are not doing this by ourselves. God is working with us to bring about a better place. Jesus taught us to pray, “May your kingdom come”. I do not think he would teach us to pray for impossible things. The prayer means “Father, bring about your kingdom” and we know that God wants the same thing. God wants our common home to be a place where all live life to the full. My third quote is from the Vatican II document in Lumen Gentium (The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church), paragraph 1, where it speaks of the purpose of the Church to bring about a closely knit union with God and the unity of the whole human race.
The mission of the Church is the same as that of Jesus. Inspired by the Spirit we work with the Father and the Son to bring about a world where in God we live and move and have our being. My cleaning up the rubbish along the side of the road is not just a good thing to do, it is also motivated by God who wants to protect the common home of all of us.
Let us pray that we may believe more strongly and see more deeply the interaction of God and the wonders of Creation.
Fr Trevor Trotter
Regional Director of Oceania
rdoceania@columban.org.au
Listen to "From the Director - Laudato Si' and the Kingdom"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - September/October 2022
