Seeing Creation

Having just celebrated both Easter and Earth Day, I want to share with you another portion of Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Climate & Inequality. Francis writes: “The New Testament does not only tell us of the earthly Jesus and his tangible and loving relationship with the world.  It also shows him risen and glorious, present throughout creation by his universal Lordship: ‘For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross’ (Col. 1:20).  This leads us to direct our gaze to the end of time, when the Son will deliver all things to the Father, so that ‘God may be everything to everyone’ (1 Cor. 15:28).  Thus, the creatures of this world no longer appear to us merely under natural guise because the risen One is mysteriously holding them to himself and directing them toward fullness as their end.  The very flowers of the fields and the birds which his human eyes contemplated and admired are now imbued with his radiant presence.”

Francis’ words help us to realize that there’s more to Easter than Jesus rising from the grave.  That event changed everything, even how we look at the world around us.  In ways we may not fully understand Christ is holding all things to himself and “directing them towards fullness as their end.”  Yes, the world itself was included in God’s plan of salvation and even now waits for the completeness of that salvation.  This is Paul’s teaching in Romans 8.  He speaks of the hope that “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” (v. 21)  Paul goes on to say, “We know the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” (v. 22)

Seeing the rest of creation as recipients of God’s salvation should, as Francis indicates, cause us to see nature in a new light, as “imbued with his radiant presence.”  This should help us realize the sacredness of God’s Creation and remind us that God can be seen in the work of His hands.  I would like to think it would also cause us to give greater respect to the earth and inspire us to be better stewards of it.

Growing up I was taught to pray that I might see others through Christ’s eyes.  I think we should likewise pray that we might view the world through Christ’s eyes.  I have a feeling if we were able to do so things would look quite different.  What do you think?

–Chuck

This year for Lent I gave up desserts once again.  I don’t know why I keep doing that.  I also decided to add some extra reading into my Lenten journey.  One book I chose to read is Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi by Richard Rohr.  The other book is Pope Francis’ 2015 Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality: On Care for Our Common Home.  I am enjoying Pope Francis’ optimistic outlook on things.  I must confess I’ve been pretty discouraged in recent months.  Perhaps that has something to do with living in America where environmental issues have largely been dismissed or ignored in recent years.  So it was good to hear Francis say “The Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us.  Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home.”

In his book, Pope Francis offers a solid theological basis for Creation Care.  I want to share with you a few gems I have found thus far.  Francis writes, “Our insistence that each human being is an image of God should not make us overlook the fact that each creature has its own purpose.  None is superfluous.  The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us.  Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God.”  I love that phrase—“a caress of God.”  If we could view the world around us as a caress of God perhaps we would value and honor it more.

In another section Francis writes: “The universe as a whole, in all its manifold relationships, shows forth the inexhaustible riches of God. Saint Thomas Aquinas wisely noted that multiplicity and variety ‘come from the intention of the first agent’ who willed that ‘what was wanting to one in the representation of the divine goodness might be supplied by another,’ inasmuch as God’s goodness ‘could not be represented fittingly by any one creature.’  Hence we need to grasp the variety of things in their multiple relationships.  We understand better the importance and meaning of each creature if we contemplate it within the entirety of God’s plan.  As the Catechism teaches: ‘God wills the interdependence of creatures.  The sun and the moon, the cedar and the little flower, the eagle and the sparrow; the spectacle of their countless diversities and inequalities tells us that no creature is self-sufficient.  Creatures exist only in dependence on each other, to complete each other, in the service of each other.’”

Surely we would take better care of the earth if we realized that each part of it is a manifestation of God’s goodness and love.  Likewise, if we better understood the interdependence of life on earth it would lead us to be better stewards of Creation.  I’m not sure things will get much better unless we come to grasp the sacredness of the earth and our divine calling to tend to it.

–Chuck