You might remember this poem from school –
The Wayfarer (Patrick Pearse)
The beauty of the world has made me sad, This beauty that will pass;
Sometimes my heart has shaken with great joy To see a leaping squirrel in a tree,
Or a red lady-bird upon a stalk, Or little rabbits in a field at evening,
Lit by a slanting sun, Etc
And then my heart has told me: These will pass,
Will pass and change, will die and be no more,
Of course, the poet, Patrick Pearse, was facing a firing squad not too long after writing this – so no wonder he was sad about these things passing. I always found this poem both sad and uplifting – uplifting because I too have known moments of sheer joy in nature, for example as I listened to a blackbird rolling out its beautiful song late in the evening as the other birds go silent – singing from the highest perch in the neighbourhood as if he just has to get it off its chest, as if he is overflowing with song and can no longer contain it. Or watching a sunset setting the horizon on fire with pink and red and orange – and then the sun quietly disappears and all in nature is silent. Such moments for me are concrete evidence of a wonderful and loving Creator.
What is sad about it all is that this is not passing away in a natural normal way – what is sad is that we are destroying it: nature, if left alone will adjust, accommodate, and realign itself. But humans, in greedy grasping ways, have taken too much, have plundered and destroyed resources, habitats, forests – making it almost impossible not only for animals but for many fellow humans to live at all. And of course it is the poor who suffer in these circumstance – the indigenous people of South and Central American, the Amazon Indians – those very people who have the greatest respect for nature and have always lived in harmony with nature are now being violently thrown off their land because their fellow human beings cannot live in harmony with them – well, they actually don’t want to live in harmony with them because all they want is money and they make huge profits by destroying the forests for logging, throwing the indigenous people off their land so they can have pasture for their huge herds of cattle, and all of these things have huge consequences in terms of human lives, but also in terms of their affect on climate, bio-diversity, flooding, fires, etc. This is why climate change is not just about climate – climate change is a social justice (or injustice ) issue – this is why you will hear Pope Francis and our Archbishop always putting together “the cry of the earth” and the “cry of the poor” because they are one and the same thing. The other inequality here is that those people who contribute the least to negative impacts on climate changes and the environment, are the very ones who suffer most from it. The poor in Africa, South America, Madagascar and Haiti are not driving around in SUVs or burning coal all year round or taking flights to go on holidays each year – we can assume their carbon footprint is very low – but they are suffering most from the extremes of weather we have been seeing in the past 20 years. Madagascar is in danger of famine as we speak because it is going through a drought which scientists have agreed is totally due to climate change. And it will only get worse.
You may have heard some people say that climate change is cyclical, its not new, we have always had freaky weather – you may also have heard some people say this has nothing to do with our faith – I read something on Twitter the other day complaining that we were spending too much time on Creation and not enough time worshipping the Creator. Well, when you think of the magnificence of the Creation you have to think that God had a reason for making this earth so beautiful and I for one think it is ingratitude not to admire and give thanks for the gift of all this beauty. Creation is also called the Fifth Gospel as we can see the hand of God in this work and get some idea of the kind of God he is by studying and admiring it. The living faith of both Judaism and Christianity sees creation as a witness to the love of God, and to the nature of the Creator, who made us and calls us into life each day. We heard it in the psalm earlier “The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands”. ‘The world was made to communicate the glory of God,’ St Bonaventure would later say, ‘to help us to discover in its beauty the Lord of all, and to return to him.’ There are many ways to God and many a person found their way to God through the beauty of the created earth.
Pope Francis has always been very strong about our Christian responsibility to care for and sustain the earth and all living things, and all its people. It was interesting to hear in the first reading today that God made his covenant not just with Noah and the people but also with “ALL living creatures of EVERY kind”. That never struck me before – and probably not many people have reflected on that – I think we have always seen ourselves as the superior being and have sought to subdue the earth rather than hold it in stewardship for those who come after us and maintain its beauty and diversity in all its magnificence. But the reading today is clear – God’s covenant is with all living things on this earth therefore who are we to destroy it and them?
Pope Francis reminds us regularly that everything is interconnected so that each choice we make has an impact for good or ill. This month he has particularly praised young people for their work and support for environmental change – he added that adults can learn much from young people, since they are often at the forefront of issues “related to care for the planet.” “Let us take advantage of their example and reflect on our lifestyle, especially during these moments of health, social and environmental crisis,” he said. We should take the opportunity to reflect on “the way we eat, consume, travel, or the way we use water, energy, plastics, and many other material goods,” especially those which are harmful to the environment. “Let us choose to change!” the Pope urged. “Let us advance with young people towards lifestyles that are simpler and more respectful of the environment.”
Our Archbishop had just recently written his first pastoral letter to the people of the Archdiocese and he has chosen to address this very same topic. The letter is available to download from the Dublin Diocese website or you can buy a print copy in Veritas – I would encourage reading it although it is a long letter. Perhaps you could read it with a few others and discuss it. While setting out a lot of the things I have mentioned above and other thing that you are aware of from news and media he also highlighted that the main thing we have to have as Christians is hope, even in the face of this huge challenge. He says, “Approaching the world from the conviction of faith is a call to hope. Christian hope is not an easy hope; easy hope is little more than a form of complacency. The hope that comes from faith is not a flight from disaster or danger, but the foundation of committed response and decisive action. The Christian does not fabricate hope, but hope comes from God who is its foundation. Our faith is not a flight from the world, but faith provides (see Gen 22:14) a meaningful framework within which people can make decisions and take action.”
You might say “hope is fine” but what can we do? The problem seems too overwhelming that sometimes we are paralysed when we even try to think about it. What can one person do we ask? A person once said ““Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has”.
Archbishop Farrell continues: “What do we need to do as individuals and communities? We need to change. The Church – locally and globally – needs to become even more an agent of change. Among the many worthy proposals and initiatives that have been suggested, I would like to highlight the following: • Adopting sustainable lifestyles • Setting up Parish Care for Creation (Laudatio Si)groupsLaudato • Local ecology: rootedness and belonging in local communities • Developing and deepening an ecological spirituality • Raising awareness and promoting biodiversity • Welcome and respect for the vulnerable, particularly those driven from their homelands by natural disasters, famine, and war.” There are plenty of ideas there that communities or parishes could get involved in.
Finally, one small action that all of us could do right now is to sign a petition called The Catholic Petition or the ‘Healthy Planet–Healthy People’ petition. This petition endorsed by the Holy See, is aimed at the UN Climate Conference (Cop 26) taking place in Glasgow in early Nov, and it advocates for an agreement that limits warming to 1.5 degrees, while protecting and supporting those most affected by the climate crisis. For the Holy See the ‘Healthy Planet–Healthy People’ petition is a key advocacy action for this year’s Season of Creation. Communities, people in parishes and dioceses, schools as well as religious congregations are encouraged to sign the petition and ask friends and family to do so. You will find the link on the Diocesan website, Trocaire website and the Vatican website. This is one small thing we can all do – Pope Francis hopes to attend the Climate Conference and hand over a significant number of signatures. There are 1.3 billion Catholics in the world – just imagine if Pope Francis could hand over a million signatures to this Climate Conference? The power of our voices combined would be amazing – but that group is made up of individual voices so never think that your one signature is not important. It is very important. And never think that there is nothing we can do – there will always be something. Lets start with this one small step.
