You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness [Ephesians 4:22-24, NRSV].
In three little words – “we have forgotten” – Pope Francis arouses the consciousness of those who have the hearts to feel, ears to hear and eyes to see, of the ecological crisis besetting the earth, our common home, in his encyclical, Laudato Si’.
In spirit, Pope Francis resonates deeply with St Francis of Assisi whose Canticle to the Sun is music of the human heart that is directed to the heart of God. The core of the message in Laudato Si’ is an appeal to conversion, to change in culture and in lifestyle.
In contents, the encyclical is a comprehensive document covering a wide terrain of human activities, and there is much in it that is worthy of our prayerful and careful consideration. Unfortunately, the broader discussion about it has in some quarters been dominated by a narrow and mostly unhelpful point of view, arguing over the accuracy or otherwise of what it says (or seems to say) about climate change, the economy, and politics.
Depending on one’s agenda, there is a risk in people rushing into the text cherry picking items either for political-bashing or for activist-affirmation. In so doing, there is a real danger of missing the soul of the encyclical set out in its introductory paragraphs, especially paragraph 2. There, from deep meditation, Pope Francis alerts us to the depth of our spiritual problems.
- He begins by joining Saint Francis of Assisi in praising God for the beauty and its fruitful provisions of the gift of Mother earth who is like a sister to us. But we have forgotten all that.
- This “forgetfulness” has rendered us blind to the destruction of our “mother” and hard of hearing of the cries of our sister “because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her.” Instead of behaving as ontological siblings towards her, for we came from the same Father, “we have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will”.
- At the centre of it all, lies the excruciating reality that humanity’s conflict with itself is at the source of the ecological disorder. So the “violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she ‘groans in travail’ (Rom 8:22)”.
- We have even forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth [Gen 2:7], made up of elements from our sister-mother-earth, breathing her air and receiving sustenance from her.
- We are badly in need of a spiritual revolution, inside.
The purpose of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ is to promote “ecological awareness” [Nos.14, 219-221] and “ecological conversion” [Nos. 5, 216-221], and due attention to “integral ecology” [Nos. 10-11 and chapter IV]. He wants to advance responsible “ecological citizenship” [No.211].
The encyclical is, first and foremost, a spiritual and moral writing, rather than a scientific report on climate change or a political campaign for environmental protection. It has everything to do with a call for a revolution of the heart. It calls on individuals to see what “each one of us” [No.19], as well as the people of the world coming together in close collaboration, can seriously do for this earth, our common home, which is “beginning to look like an immense pile of filth” [No.21].
The urgent question Pope Francis puts to us all is this:
- What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up? [No.160]
Consciousness not only overcomes forgetfulness, but may well overcome problems that lie at the root of our ecological crisis – our attitude and mentality towards creation. Our attitude and mentality determines our lifestyle and the future of our natural environment.
Creation came from God and is a gift from God. That is the basic starting point for the Christian faith on creation. Christian responsibility within creation, and our duty towards nature and the Creator, are an essential part of our faith. A critical distinction must at once be drawn. It is the distinction in a pair of terms, namely, “given” and “gift”, which parallel the attitudes in another pair of contrasting terms – “taker” and “giver”.
First, when we view the environment and all things in it as a mere “given”, that is to say, as objects that are simply there for the taking, our mentality towards the environment is going to be utilitarian and wasteful. At any rate, this unthinking perception of the “givenness” of things – that the things are just “there” – is what is behind the dominant throwaway culture of today where people use and discard things. This attitude is one of taking things for granted, and often even accompanied by a presumption of “entitlement”. At the root of all this stands a serious forgetfulness of God. So Pope Francis vehemently states:
- “We are not God. The earth was here before us and it has been given to us” [No.67].
He goes on to persistently link all this to a corresponding problem in that people will use, abuse, ignore, and discard other human persons at their convenience and for their short-sighted profit. In this mentality, people are mere “takers” and “abusers” – inconsiderate, utilitarian, even abusive. We take, we use, and then we throw away soon as we are done. This affects the natural ecology – our relationship with the environment – and it affects our social ecology – our relationship with other human persons. Relationship is the first major key.
Take a look at two quick but dire illustrations of this throwaway mentality, habit and lifestyle – one on discarding “valueless” things and the other on discarding “valueless” human beings.
One is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. This massive span of polluted waters is estimated to be about 270,000 square miles – or around the size of the state of Texas.
[L ]The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. [R] Frail and elderly woman repeatedly slapped by daughter at an HDB flat, Singapore.
The other is the recent hot story which happened in Singapore where a very frail and elderly woman was repeatedly slapped by her daughter outside an HDB flat. Soon as the video was posted on the social media, it went viral, and attracted the prompt action of the authorities.
Secondly, however, there is always an alternative vision, that is, of seeing reality, the environment in which we live, as part of “CREATION”. Seeing creation at once reminds us of the Creator. In this alternative vision, reality in its richness as we see and experience it, is not simply available for the “taking”, “as is where is”, but is acknowledged and received as “gift” from the Creator. The immediate difference from the callous vision of seeing reality in its simple “givenness” and “thereness” is that, in this alternative attitude, we begin to be more attentive to things and to human persons and their God-given dignity, especially the Poor. What happens each time is the pregnant potential of “receiving” an object or “welcoming” a human being, particularly the Poor, with a sense of surprise and joy and gratitude, and perhaps even awe. There is a perception of an element of gratuity – that in the giving of the free gift, the Giver has given a bit of the Self, that an element of affection and love is involved on the part of the Giver. We acknowledge the element of “gift” as the facticity in everyday life by recognizing our need to give thanks for each gift, in order for it to be properly received [and not just improperly taken for granted or worse, grabbed]. Receiving a gift properly, opens the self of the receiver to the self of the giver, creating a oneness between them that did not necessarily exist before the passing on of the gift and its reception. It establishes a communion between the giver and the receiver. In turn, it moves the heart of the receiver and prompts a desire to make return gifts. There, a mindless “taking” mentality is replaced by sacrificial love. This love and sacrificial spirit stand at the origin of our life as givers, and not mere takers.
In this regard, a link is easily drawn with our Eucharistic living. Before anything else, our understanding of the Eucharist ought to be preceded by three elements: memoria, eucharistia, and diaconia, in that order. Underpinning this trilogy of nouns are spirit-filled verbs – to remember, to give thanks in gratitude, and to give back in loving service. We participate in communal liturgy because we are called to come together as a community of believers who remembers what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Remembering, we can grow faith and warm hearts in thanksgiving. In turn, putting gratitude to practice, we can embark on a life of service and making return-gifts of what we have received in life. This represents in a profound way the indispensable essence that accompanies our Eucharistic celebrations as commanded by our Eucharistic Lord, “Do this in memory of me.”
What we are essentially doing here, is to recall the desert-spirit of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth, and countless spiritual giants who came after them. They each has retreated to the lonely place – biblically denoted as desert, wilderness or hill – to commune with God in meditation, as a pre-condition for being able to exit with deep spiritual messages for humanity, calling for repentance. The point for us is this: this desert spirit is now reflected in Pope Francis’s encyclical in which we see four things:
- □ he speaks courageously,
- □ he points out our common sin and calls for repentance,
- □ he urges actions from the heart, and
- □ he announces God’s grace.
And why are we suggesting that damaging the ecology is “sin”? Quoting the Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, Pope Francis calls our destructive bahaviours sins against creation:
- “For human beings… to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation; for human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the earth of its natural forests or destroying its wetlands; for human beings to contaminate the earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life – these are sins”. For “to commit a crime against the natural world is a sin against ourselves and a sin against God”. [No.8]
- The creation accounts in the book of Genesis contain, in their own symbolic and narrative language, profound teachings about human existence and its historical reality. They suggest that human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbour and with the earth itself. According to the Bible, these three vital relationships have been broken, both outwardly and within us. This rupture is sin. [No.66]
From the inception of his papacy, Pope Francis has been calling the Church and her faithful, beginning with the bishops and the priests, to change, change and change. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect” [Rom 12:2]. Now, in this encyclical, Pope Francis speaks truthfully to all, calling to account the immense harm done to the earth – our common home – by the irresponsible and sinful actions of all – from gross neglect on the part of first world countries, through the wanton extractive activities of profit-driven multi-national companies, down to the consumerist throwaway culture and attitude in modern societies and, finally, passive individual conscience.
Repentance, however, is not primarily in feeling guilty about our sins, or in doing penance. The biblical meaning of repentance is fundamentally two-fold:
- first, to “return” to God, to “reconnect” with God;
- second, to “go beyond the mind that we have”.
In essence, to repent is to change our minds that have previously been shaped by unthinking behavior and habits which might even qualify as bad lifestyle. What is urgently needed is reflection, serious reflection, so the whole world may come to acknowledge the human causes to the pressing environmental crisis and begin seriously to come together to take remedial actions, for the good of God’s creation and our common home.
To degrade creation is to sin against the Creator and ultimately to sin against ourselves [n.8]. Hence Pope Francis speaks with urgency of a collective ecological conversion to repair the lost harmony. And as he incessantly calls for reform and renewal, Pope Francis aims for changes that are wide and deep, in mentality and attitude, in structures and systems, and in habits and lifestyle. It begins with the heart.
Pope Francis calls us to a more personal human culture based on care for others and walking lightly on the earth. He calls us to take an honest look at our lifestyle and to see in which areas we need to change. Two areas he points out in common daily life is the waste of food, and the suffocating of our sensitivity towards others. Put relationship first, he urges. Climate change, he diagnoses, is caused by humans. At its root, it is an issue of human relationship. We cannot solve this crisis without tackling the rampant selfishness, greed and consumerism that marks modern human interaction. For no less than thirty times, the Pope refers to the principle of the common good underlying which is “respect for the human person as such, endowed with basic and inalienable rights” [No.157]. The bottom line for Pope Francis in an integral ecological vision is always this:
- How do we relate to people?
He writes an encyclical, not a policy paper for a rogue state, a profit-crazy company or even an NGO. He recognizes that the ecological crisis is spiritual in nature, and so must be its cure. He urges real reform, which always requires digging down to the roots of the problem, and those roots lay buried in our hearts. More than anything else, this is a spiritual and moral encyclical, containing moral and spiritual challenges. The ecological crisis, Pope Francis writes, is a summons to profound interior conversion – to renew our relationships with God, with one another, and with the created world. God created the world and entrusted it to us as a gift. Our responsibility is to care for and protect creation and all people, especially the Poor, who are part of creation. We cannot properly care for creation without protecting human dignity. The whole of creation is closely inter-connected. We are connected to the rest of the human family, to the created natural ecology, and to those who will come after us in future generations. In regards to the ecology, we have both intra-generational and inter-generational responsibilities.
The first step in finding human responsibility is that of ecological conversion. The second step is recognition of what the love of creation entails. Laudato Si’ says: “When we can see God reflected in all that exists, our hearts are moved to praise the Lord for all his creatures and to worship him in union with them” [No.87]. Pope Francis focuses on the heart and ties it to the disorders of the age. His encyclical aims at the heart, and calls for a revolution of the heart. Repent, and believe in the good news!
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, August 2015. All rights reserved.
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