We Have a Responsibility to Care for our ‘Common Home’Read Time 9 min

Sunday, Sept. 1, will be the celebration of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. The celebration marks the start of what is meant to be an ecumenical “Season of Creation,” which ultimately will conclude Oct. 4, the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology. This month-long commemoration is a time of spiritual renewal that will highlight our responsibility to take care of the Earth, our “Common Home.”

Pope Francis has acknowledged this special time of prayer with a message titled “Hope and Act with Creation.” The message is drawn from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans (8:19-25) in which the apostle considers the destiny of the created world, noting the interconnection it shares in the penalty of the corruption brought about by sin while at the same time eventually sharing in the benefits of redemption and future glory that comprise the liberation of God’s people.

The Holy Father is critical in pointing out a number of the evils of human sin that bring harm to our planet: injustice, fratricidal wars that kill children, the deterioration of cities, the pollution of the environment, etc. Such signs reflect the tribulations and trials that St. Paul describes as “the whole creation” groaning in labor pains (Romans 8:22), and like humanity, enslaved, albeit by no fault of its own, finding itself unable to fulfill the lasting meaning and purpose for which it was designed, subject to dissolution, aggravated by the human abuse of nature.

Yet, Pope Francis points to the promise of St. Paul that the salvation of humanity in Christ is also a sure hope for creation, for “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21) Thus, he envisions the possibility for us to “Hope and Act with Creation,” to join forces and to walk together with all men and women of goodwill and to help each other rethink “among other things, the question of human power, its meaning and its limits. Our power has frenetically increased in a few decades. We have made impressive and awesome technological advances, yet we have not realized that at the same time we have turned into highly dangerous beings, capable of threatening the lives of many beings and our own survival.” (Laudate Deum, 28)

The Holy Father urges us to turn to the Holy Spirit, whom he reminds us “accompanies us at every moment of our lives,” and he invites us to undergo an “ecological conversion” — challenging us to shift from exploiting nature to nurturing it. He encourages us to a transformation through the obedience to the spirit of love, which can radically change the way we think: from being predators of the Earth, we become tillers of the garden of creation.

Pope Francis chastises those who claim they have the right to possess and dominate nature, manipulating it at will, thus representing a form of idolatry, a Promethean version of man who, intoxicated by this technocratic power, arrogantly places the Earth in a “dis-graced” condition, deprived of God’s grace. He counsels that the Earth may be entrusted to our care, yet it continues to belong to God. (Leviticus 25:23)

Finally, the Holy Father states, “The protection of creation, then, is not only an ethical issue, but one that is eminently theological, for it is the point where the mystery of man and the mystery of God intersect. This intersection can be called creative, since it originates in the act of love by which God created human beings in Christ. That creative act of God enables and grounds the freedom and morality of all human activity. We are free precisely because we were created in the image of God who is Jesus Christ, and, as a result, are representatives of creation in Christ himself. A transcendent (theological-ethical) motivation commits Christians to promoting justice and peace in the world, not least through the universal destination of goods. It is a matter of the revelation of the children of God that creation awaits, groaning as in the pangs of childbirth. At stake is not only our earthly life in history, but also, above all, our future in eternity, the eschaton of our blessedness, the paradise of our peace, in Christ, the Lord of the cosmos, crucified and risen out of love.”

To assist us in strengthening our dedication to caring for our “Common Home,” I encourage you to pray this pledge of commitment from the Committee on the Divine Liturgy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops:

To Protect and Heal God’s Creation

We have come to renew our covenant with God and with one another in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

We have come to protect God’s creation.

We have come as followers of Jesus to commit ourselves anew to one another and to heal injustice and poverty.

We have come to stand together against all threats to life.

We have come to discover some new beauty every day in God’s creation: the sunrise and sunset, birds, flowers and trees, rainbows in the sky, the stars, the many forms of life in the forest.

We have come to listen to the “music of the universe” — water flowing over rocks, the wind, trees bending in the wind, raindrops pattering the roof.

We will remember always that God speaks to us through the beauty of His creation, and we will try our best to answer God’s call to reverence all that He has created.

Amen.