WHAT GIVES YOU LIFE?

 

As we moved into our mature years we all reflect back on the things we thought were so important and demanded our best energy, now seem almost insipid and unimportant. How could we have given so much energy to purchasing our first vehicle when we now own two vehicles?

 

We all smile when someone asks if an accountant with life-time of service wants to read the latest balance sheet when he/she is struggling with stage four cancer.  At this stage in life this is not important. 

 

Our life with God or rather God’s life with us receives the same treatment. Many people have walked away from sharing and living a committed Christiaan life. “This is not something that speaks to me anymore.” 

 

The life of every human being is a journey through the highs of success and personal fulfillment to the lows of suffering and rejection. We have many people who have struggled to recover from the blow the corporation threw at them. They had given almost twenty years of good and creative service to the company, only to discover that one day the employer walked in, unannounced, with the severance package in hand. After Twohy years of service they were out the door with not so much as a thank you.

 

There are a lot of scars and wounds that mark our histories. There are also heroic stories of resistance, survival and recreation of life.

 

At this point it is creative to sit down and reflect how much of my Christian upbringing and practice actually gives meaning to my life. This is not a rejection of our Christian faith or the practice serious doubt about it. It can become a life-giving moment to see how my Christiaan faith nourishes and sustains my life.

 

I may recognize that I no longer pray and worship. I call out to God when I am in trouble but that is about what my relationship with God amounts to. Or I may discover how much I enjoy the hand of God in the Autum winds, the rustling leaves and the warm autum afternoon sun.  This reflection may identify huge gaps of spiritual things I have walked away from or it may indicate how the spirit of God has become more active within my life. 

 

I invite you to spend some reflection time on what of your Christiaan faith gives you life and energy and what no longer speaks to you in any meaningful way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOVE IT AND YOU WILL PRESEVE IT

As we come close to the end of the Season of Creation (October 04), it brings us to reflect on humanity’s responsibility to preserve and nurture the earth. The past two hundred and fifty years have brought on the onslaught of the industrial revolution but it has brought some very dire consequences to the earth. 

 

Consider the reality of global warming and the threat that large parts of the earth may become uninhabitable to both humans and animals. How many of our waterways and lands have been polluted by chemicals. And what will we do with all the plastics floating in our oceans? 

 

Human beings will not change their present practices unless they are moved by a love for the earth. You will not preserve and nourish what you do not love! This is why care for creation is an intense struggle within our hearts. All the scientific information about pollution and the warming of the atmosphere is just so much ‘data.’ Only when the heart is moved will we move to care and nourish the earth.

 

This is why Pope Francis opened his encyclical “Laudato si” with the image of the earth as our common home. When we all live together we will take care of the home we live in and not leave a mess for the other members of our family. The earth is not there for humanity to exploit and get rich but to live in harmony with one another and with all the plants and animals. In our common home we are also concerned about how well the deer in the gullies and forests are doing. How are the insects thriving? 

 

Spend a good amount of time and energy absorbing the reality of our common home and how much your life benefits from living in harmony and care for all parts of creation.  Allow the awareness of all that we share with and are supported by creation sink into your heart. Feel what it means to live in the home of all living things.   

 

We need to be captured by the insight of our common home. “Our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and the beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.” (Laudato si, #1)

 

Humanity is at a crossroads. We all have the choice to move completely away from industrial pollution (and our own personal pollution) into a time when we live and thrive with all of creation. No one country can do this on our own. 

 

But every individual counts. Every one of the eight billion humans alive at this moment can make a difference. We all have power by the choices we make in our lifestyle to work toward preserving the earth. But we want to do this because we first of all love the earth and all its forms of life.

 

 

 

JUSTICE MUST ALWAYS THINK INTO THE FUTRUE

Out of the corner of my eye I caught a mother teaching her thirteen year old how to compare the prices and the quality of tee-shirts. I cannot imagine a better laboratory for learning. She was picking up a shirt and directly demand that the boy feel the quality of the cloth. Then her finger moved quickly to compare the prices. 

 

She was teaching her son how to see and evaluate things. She was giving him the tools how  how to look at things in life. His  world was being enlarged!

 

For the past sixty-five years scientists and people in the know have been pointing out to humanity that the atmosphere of the earth is warming up. There is a real danger that parts of the world will be totally uninhabitable.  We are being challenged to consider the future life possibilities for our great-grandchildren. We are learning to think of and practice justice towards future generations. This is not a new spin on justice-practice. It is just extending what we already know about justice toward our fellow human-being into the future. 

 

What  kind of world will you hand on to the fifth, sixth and seventh generation that comes after you?

 

Let us begin with the top twenty-percent of humanity. This comprises about a billion and a half billion people. These are the people we call the ‘first world.’ These are the people who have the strongest share of the world’s wealth.  By the world’s level of consumption, this is the heaviest level of consumption.

 

But they also create a lot of garbage and pollute the  waters and the soils of the earth. Consider the legacy left behind from the ancient Egyptian civilization. They left behind these huge monuments of stone that we call the pyramids of Egypt. These huge pile of stones will be on locataion for thousands of years.

 

Will our civilization leave behind huge piles that we call ‘landfills?’ And a good portion of our landfills are composed of plastics which will be there for thousands of years.

 

This is where our thinking about practicing justice is so helpful. What kind of future are we  handing on  to future generations? Will the land and soil be as productive for them as it has been for us? The soil will produce crops for a thousand years if we take care of it. Will there be enough minerals, such as cooper, zinc and iron to sustain future generations?

 

This is where the Season of Creation (Sept 1-Octob er 4) is a gift. It is an ecumenical prayer and reflection time for Christians to reflect on our care of creation, to take responsibility how humanity has harmed creation and to begin to adjust our lives and civilisations so that we not only do no harm to  creation but we help creation thrive.

 

You may have some difficulty getting your mind to understand the practice of justice as extending to future generations, but the Season of Creation is an excellent tool to begin the conversation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SINS AGAINST THE EAERTH

During this Season of Creation (Sept 1 – October 4) we want to reflect on some of the consequences of humanity’s activity upon the earth. Unfortunately, the past four hundred years have limited our salvation only to personal acts on the part of each individual. There was almost no consideration given to the social consequences (i.e., in justices) to others or the complete absence of any consideration of how our understanding of salvation might apply to the earth.

 

Scientists, during the past sixty-five years, have pointed out some of the disastrous consequences of human activity on the health of the earth. The most obvious consequence is the burning of fossil fuels. The earth is warming up and human life, to keep the focus on ourselves at the moment, may be very difficult a century from now. How will humans be able to live in a very warm and dry earth?

 

In our Christian understanding of life and salvation we recognize clearly the reality of evil. We have a simple label for evil: it is sin! No matter what label you give, the evil is very painful and disastrous for so many people. We have the great evil of war, but we also have the daily evil of selfishness and using others for our personal gain, no matter what the consequences for the other. 

You can change the name for evil, but the painful reality by any other name is still very hurtful.

 

Now, as we live into the narrative of the survival of the earth and humanity we have to take responsibility for our sins (i.e., evil exploitation) against the earth.

 

We are trying to reshaped by an expanded understanding that all creation is interconnected. The earth and all it provides for human thriving is gift. The earth is our mother and the source of our life. If it is mother, then we have a responsibility to treat the earth with respect and care, just as we would care for our aging mother. The world looks completely different when we live in her vast expanse as mother.

 

One of the alarming signs of harming the earth happened in the Yukon, February 17, 2025. The process of using cyanide (a very strong and destructive chemical) in the separation of the mineral gold from the mined ore, broke loose from the holding ponds and flowed into the fresh water steams. This chemical is unbelievably destructive to the salmon in the rivers but also leaches into the underground rivers that flow within the soils. Even if this mining disaster happened in a very remote part of Canada, it is a blatant indication of how human activity can wreck havoc on the ecosystem and the fresh waters of our earth. This must never be moved to the side of unconcern. This accident has very harmful consequences for the earth.

 

Is this not one example of sin against the earth?

 

Now, as we take responsibility for the harmful effects of human activity on the earth, what are we going to do about it?

 

 

 

WHAT IS THE SEASON OF CREATION?

In the life of Christianity there are gifts that arise that many Church members are not aware of their presence and challenges.  One such gift is the Season of Creation. This begins on September 1 and culminates on October 4, which is the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis is recognized by most Christian churches as the patron saint of creation . This is an ecology saint!

 

The strength of this season of prayer and reflection is its embrace of all brands of Christianity. It originated in the Orthodox side of Christianity and has been adopted by the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church and most Protestant churches. The concern for the wellbeing of the earth is a force that can draw Christianity together.  

 

Scientists and many concerned persons have been warning us of the warming of the atmosphere and the melting of the ice in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. All parts of humanity are challenged to meet this global crisis.  It is a real danger that humanity’

s use of fossil fuels could so warm the earth that life would be almost impossible. That may be a worst case scenario, but the danger has been pointed out to all who will listen for the past sixty years.  

 

Christianity has been strongly challenged by the ecological crisis. We hear sharp challenges: And what does your Christiaan faith have to offer this crisis? 

 

This is where we go back to our roots and admit that for the past four hundred years Western Christianity has neglected creation. We have so focused our efforts on using all parts of the created world for the benefit of humanity. We have been very neglectful in getting in touch with the harmful effects of humanity’s exploitation of the goods of the earth.

 

The first part of God’s revelation is creation itself. Everything that exists, from the smallest molecule to the infinity cosmos (remember that the cosmos is billions of lights years large) has been created with the love and meaning that God gives it. Even if there was no humanity God is creating in love and meaning. We humans may not be aware of the meaning that God has gives to every single molecule, but it is very present long before humans appeared on the face of the earth.

 

We also need to be reminded that creation is still happening. We are living in the time of God’s creation. 

 

The gift of this Season of Creation can help Christians get in touch with the first source of divine revelation. It can also move us to a stronger compassion for the earth. It can lead us to a more responsible us of the goods of the earth.

 

This is a quiet gift but it can have powerful effect on the life and prayer of all our churches.

 

 

 

 

 

IT IS OUR LIVES THAT SPEAK THE TRUTH

 

Every parent has countless stories about the things their kids have pulled off. But thank goodness for mistakes. Most often, these have become moments of serious learning. This is h ow most of us become good drivers. We have made a few wrong turns and we pay attention to what the driver instructor has taught us.

 

Our Christian life is a journey of failure, learning and being lifted up. We make mistakes. We take ownership of our selfish and sinful attitudes. We wrestle with and struggle with the power of the Holy Spirit to be converted to Gospel living.

 

The most dangerous attitude we could live in is to feel that we are living a good life, and we are in good standing with God. Feeling religious is its own trap. This is why the prophets of the Old Testament railed against all these people who said all the correct prayers but cheated the poor in the business dealings. 

 

The Church, organized to live the gospel, can also fall into the same trap. We refuse to come to grips with the way we live our life and they teachings of Gospel. One of the most glaring contradictions was the practice of slavery by rich Christians over native and black peoples. 

 

One of the best images of what tit means to be Christian is the twelve step programs of the recovering addicts.  They introduce themselves in terms of their struggles: “I am Joe/ Pete/Sam and I am an alcoholic.”  They are owning their woundedness. They are a community of struggle and their woundedness  become their strength towards healing.

 

Life in the Church calls us to be honest – beginning with our own lives. 

 

Come before God and one another to take ownership of how you find it difficult to live with people who are different from yourself: they are not the same skin color, they have a very different culture and they eat different foods. Difficulties do not indicate sinfulness. It is just being honest that difference can be uncomfortable.

 

Every human being is made in the very image of God. Our faith firmly roots us in this truth that there is equality of life, of importance and value in the life of everyone. Our religion challenges us to live up to this truth.

 

Having difficulties does not indicate sinful attitudes. It is when we use these downgrading attitudes to put people who are different from ourselves down. We have a long history to teach us how this degrading can be done. The sins of exclusion from our pas can become the moments that the Holy Spirit is lifting us up to a new way of living with our fellow human beings.

 

It is when we fail, when we are prejudiced and down-putting, that we can discover how our Christiaan faith can lift us up to value each and every human being as the very image of God. We can discover a new sense of equality in those who are different from ourselves.

 

Mistakes are not bad in themselves. They are moments, opportunities to  grow. As we struggle with our sinfulness, the Holy Spirit can be lifting us to new life, new love and joy in the  divine image that is the other person who is different from myself.

 

 

 

 

 

WHERE OUR FAITH LEADS US.

 

Born-Catholics often make the observation that the people who join the Church as adults have a much better grasp of the faith than us ‘born-types.’

 

Whenever an adult has to take a definite stand on any position, they will do so with conviction that often arises from a personal struggle. Should I become a Christian person or should I not? Most often, their position in their life’s journey demands a commitment.

 

The way of the Gospel, given to us by Jesus Christ, leads us into the heart and mind of God. Our faith leads us into the very life and outpouring of the Holy Trintiy. We share the very life and heart of God.

 

Now at the same time, Jesus was trying to get rid of a religion that did all the right things, followed all the rules of the religion game,  but did not seek a change of heart. The message that Jesus taught was to get rid of ‘doing’ religion rather than walking and breathing in the very heart of God. 

 

Today, if our Christian religion is lived authentically, we will see that the Gospel leads us to a deeper love for our fellow human being. This is why the closer we actually draw towards God, the closer we will draw to our fellow human being. People have observed that many of our women and men who are deeply into prayer and immersing themselves in the Gospel, are people who are very concerned about the well-being of the elderly, the homeless and the unemployed. The Gospel always leads us to embrace the poverty and the struggles of the neighbor. 

 

But it does not stop there. The Gospel leads us to see in the other, in the little one, the very face of Jesus Christ. We are being shaped to see that in the face of the poor, is the very face of Ghrist. This is why the final judgement after our death we will be confronted by the risen Christ, and what does he recognize in us? 

 

He will not say, ‘you did good’ but rather he will say, “I was hungry and you gave me food.:(Mt. 25, 35) Jesus identifies with the poor and the forgotten ones. Whatever good we do for others, we are very much doing good toward Jesus Christ.

 

This is why we need daily reminders that whatever good we do towards our neighbor, no matter how small, we are doing good to the Risen Jesus. From a heart shaped by the Gospel of Jesus, we are lead to greater love and service. 

 

Countless Christians before us have lived the teaching of Jesus out in very ordinary but in very radical ways. They have made it a daily practice to reach out to the neighbor.

 

Our Christiaan faith is not static. It moves us powerfully toward much greater love for  others. There is no room for selfish people when you live with Jesus.