If you like music during prayer, you might like Marty Haugen’s Canticle of the Sun.
Opening Prayer
Creator of Heaven and Earth, You set the universe spinning with the greatest attention to detail. No geography, climate, life-cycle, or color pattern were too elaborate for Your designs. Because we ourselves are image-bearers, you also delight in our uniquenesses and name us ‘good.’ Given such dignity, lead us to honor all of creation as an expression of our praise and thanksgiving, that you would entrust such wealth to your sons and daughters. We ask this in the name of Jesus, the Christ. Amen.
Reflection Questions
Think of a time when you have had an experience of faith in the natural world. Describe it in a journal or talk about it with those at your table.
-Scripture begins with the creation accounts– God’s creative hand at work, building up to the crescendo of the world as we know it and humanity itself. How do you think this command (in Genesis 1:28) was originally intended? In your experience, is this tenet of CST currently interpreted positively or negatively?
God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that crawl on the earth. (Genesis 1:28).
-People of faith often struggle to make the connection between care for creation as a natural outcropping of living a life of holiness. Has this been your experience? Why do you imagine that is so? Is there anyone for whom you have noticed it is a natural progression? Who are they? What do you observe?
-Has ‘care for creation’ been a message you have ever heard preached or seen prioritized as a core value at your parish? If so/if not, how have you observed the natural consequences of that priority or lack thereof?
Caring for Creation
Since Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si (In Praise of Creation) was published in 2015, there has been renewed energy around the topic of our very real responsibility to take a vested interest in the welfare of our planet–and all who depend upon its resources. It has sparked more than a little controversy. So I hope to unpack a bit of where that resistance could be coming from while suggesting that our efforts to better steward what we have been generously given, will necessarily have to look like more than recycling (although that is a great place to begin).
Truth be told, I was ready to begin this Catholic Social Teaching series with care for creation, rather than save it until the very end because it is so jam-packed with goodness and beauty. However, without first grounding ourselves in our God-given dignity as image-bearers so that by the time we get to something as important and compelling as caring for the entirety of creation, we have good footing about why the Church teaches what She does about our particular responsibility to care for all created things.
Over the last several years I have often observed ‘Care for Creation’ presented as an afterthought, a random add-on. I want to address a couple of common misconceptions that seem to stand in the way for folks adopting God’s command to ‘fill the earth and subdue it.’
- Caring for creation does imply the entire breadth of God’s creation: Air/land/water/mountains/animals/insects/soils/minerals/atmosphere/etc. This does not make us tree-huggers or hippies, but grateful recipients of a gift generously offered for our use.
- Caring for creation is not limited to caring for the natural world at the expense of humanity. The two are not mutually exclusive. To care for creation is not to cease caring for humanity, but to see the direct link between all that God created and named ‘good;’ including, but not limited to the human race.
*Rarely noted, yet of vital importance, is the connection between the environment and the most vulnerable of the human family and their close reliance on the environment for daily survival. Poor environmental practices from rural, developing countries to large urban sprawls, very quickly impact the inhabitants of those places.
From the beginning, it has been and continues to be imperative that all people, particularly people of faith who have an identity as stewards of creation, live in a way that upholds that commitment to stewarding with integrity. Both Pope Emeritus Benedict (who first gained the reputation as the ‘green pope’) and Pope Francis have committed to encouraging the faithful to lead by example when it comes to honoring our call to steward the gifts we have been given.
If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs. By contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously. The poverty and austerity of Saint Francis were no mere veneer of asceticism, but something much more radical: a refusal to turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled.
Laudato Si (In Praise of Creation), Pope Francis, 2015 #11
Stewards of Creation
Though most often stewardship is spoken of in terms of time/talent/treasure, if this is the extent of our definition, then we are limiting our purview of stewardship to simply what we are willing to share (our tithe). Over and over in Scripture, we read about the multi-dimensional identity of the steward, and there is a lot more to it than the 10% we put into the collection basket or how many hours we agree to volunteer at the parish bazaar:
Thus should one regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now it is of course required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. -1 Cor. 4:1-2
The Unjust Steward— Luke 16: 1-13
Parable of the Talents-– Matthew 25: 14-30
Vigilant and Faithful Servants— Luke 12: 42-28
Trustworthiness and integrity are at the heart of good stewardship. In other words, doing the right thing whether or not anyone is looking. As Providence would have it, the world is watching and Christians in a unique way have been given a tremendous opportunity at this moment in history to lead by example when it comes to taking responsibility to be good stewards of creation.
The environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it, we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations, and towards humanity as a whole…In nature, the believer recognizes the wonderful result of God’s creative activity, which we may use responsibly to satisfy our legitimate needs, material or otherwise while respecting the intrinsic balance of creation. If this vision is lost, we end up either considering nature an untouchable taboo or, on the contrary, abusing it. Neither attitude is consonant with the Christian vision of nature as the fruit of God’s creation. Nature expresses a design of love and truth.
Caritas in Veritate (“Charity in Truth”), Pope Benedict XVI, 2009, #48.
The Bible, from the first page on, teaches us that the whole of creation is for humanity, that it is men and women’s responsibility to develop it by intelligent effort and by means of their labor to perfect it, so to speak, for their use. If the world is made to furnish each individual with the means of livelihood and the instruments for growth and progress, all people have therefore the right to find in the world what is necessary for them.
Populorum Progressio (“On the Development of Peoples”) Pope Paul VI, 1967, #22.
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Questions for Reflection
-What aspect of Caring for Creation have you found most compelling? Most challenging?
-Have you ever considered yourself a steward of creation (or of anything else)? If so, how does it change your relationship to that thing/person/cause? If not, how might it?
-Does/how does your community of faith engage its commitment to stewardship?
-In what area of my life could I benefit from further exploration of my role as a steward?
Closing prayer
God of Wisdom, we praise you for providing for our every need in lavish and wonderful ways. Inspire awe and wonder in our souls as we grapple with our indifference and the confidence you placed in our ability to be good stewards. Renew our commitment to care for our common home, by inviting us to revel in its goodness–Your goodness!
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.