When I was growing up as a child, our family was privileged to go camping during school holidays. During Easter, we went camping at Bright in Victoria, where the trees are adorned with a multicolour array of autumn leaves. A highlight of the holiday was the 7-hour round-trip climb to the top of Mount Feathertop, the second-highest mountain in Victoria. At the pinnacle, the view was breathtaking. The grandeur of God’s creation was all-embracing.
During summer, our family would go camping at Ocean Grove, a beachside town 40 minutes from my hometown Geelong one hour west of Melbourne. From morning to night, we would swim in the ocean and play cricket on the beach, even at high tide.
These childhood experiences evoked in me a fearlessness to take on the mightiest of waves whose sheer force would propel me to the shore with exuberance. Being one with the ocean was invigorating. However, times have changed over the years. Playing cricket on the beach at high tide is no longer possible because the tides come all the way into the sand dunes.
As Catholics, we are familiar with the liturgical Seasons of Advent and Lent in preparation for Christmas and Easter. In 2015, Pope Francis published his Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home and in the same year, made the Season of Creation official for the Roman Catholic Church.
The Season of Creation is an annual celebration where Christians worldwide join to pray, reflect and take action to protect our common home. It begins on September 1, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and ends on October 4, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi.
Let Justice and Peace Flow is the theme of this year’s ecumenical Season of Creation, inspired by the words of the prophet Amos: “Let justice flow on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream” (5:24). Pope Francis’ message for September 1 offers us so much on which to contemplate during the Season of Creation.
“Amos speaks to us of what God desires”, says Pope Francis. “God wants justice to reign. This justice must flow forth wherever it is needed. God wants everyone to strive to be just in every situation.” When we are “maintaining a right relationship with God, humanity and nature, then justice and peace can flow like a never-falling stream of pure water, nourishing humanity and all creatures.”
During the Season of Creation, Pope Francis invites us to dwell on our heartbeats and the heartbeat of creation and the heartbeat of God. “Today they do not beat in harmony; they are not harmonized in justice and peace.” The Pope points to the human roots of the ecological crisis and calls for an end to what amounts to a war on creation: “Let us heed our call to stand with the victims of environmental and climate injustice and to put an end to the senseless war against creation.”
Pope Francis raises many major ecological concerns, including the unrestrained burning of fossil fuels, the destruction of forests, the depletion and pollution of freshwater sources, unchecked mega-mining, intensive animal farming and the effects of fracking for oil and gas extraction.
The Pope gives particular attention to the growing challenges of climate change: “The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated that acting now with greater urgency means that we will not miss our chance to create a more sustainable and just world."
“God wants justice to reign. This justice must flow forth wherever it is needed. God wants everyone to strive to be just in every situation.”
"We can, and we must prevent the worst from happening. So let us join hands and take bold steps to 'Let Justice and Peace Flow' throughout our world.”
July this year saw unprecedented heat waves across Asia, Europe, and North America. People experiencing poverty, and those least responsible for climate breakdown, are the hardest hit by the devastating impacts of climate change. This includes our neighbours in the Pacific, who contribute less than 0.03 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions but are experiencing cyclones, flooding, rising sea levels and depleting fish stocks at unprecedented rates.
Columban missionaries in Pakistan saw first-hand the devastating effects of the unprecedented monsoon flooding that hit the country from mid-June to the end of August last year. The scale of the disaster was overwhelming – 33 million people were affected, over 1,700 people were killed, and the loss of 2.2 million houses left many poor people homeless.
Through the generosity of our Columban benefactors in Australia, the Columbans in Pakistan oversaw a project to build 100 one room houses. The families receiving the housing are from the Parkari Kohli indigenous community, among whom the Columbans have been working since 1983.
My childhood experiences of being one with God in creation instilled in me an ongoing desire to care for our common home.
This year the closing of the Season of Creation on October 4 will coincide with the opening of the Synod on Synodality in Rome.
Fr Peter O'Neill
Regional Director of Oceania
directoroceania@columban.org.au
Listen to "From the Director - Season of Creation"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - September/October 2023
