CARE FOR THE EARTH IS PART OF OUR FAITH

 

For the past sixty years scientists and people who are in close connection with the earth have been warning us about the collapse of the world’s ecosystem. We are heating the atmosphere by our excessive burning of carbons, the soil and rivers are being poisoned by chemicals dumped into them and we  are losing the biodiversity of the animal and plant species of the world.  

 

Christians have been seriously challenged that their very religion allows humanity to exploit and cast off  the benefits of creation. In other words: use, abuse and throw away!

 

These serious challenges put serious Christian people to go back and examine the roots of their faith. The first thing they concluded was that all creation is a gift. Humanity is only one part of the gift. Humankind is meant to steward the gift of the earth but never abuse it like a piece of property that they throw away after it has served the purpose humans had for it. Stewardship is very different from ownership.

 

This reawakening of the original relationship that humanity was to have with the earth came to a head in the publication by Pope Francis of the encyclical, ‘Laudato si,’ (2015). This was not the official church teacher jumping on the bandwagon of ‘save the planet’ but the maturing of a much more authentic Christian understanding of the place of humanity and our relationship with all living things. 

 

This process has happened many times before in the history of Christianity. There were very serious problems in the past and we went back to the roots. What are our essential Christiaan values? What does the teachings of our faith have to offer us as preserve our planet?

 

First of all, it is our common home. Human beings are placed in relationship with everything else that lives and moves. Just as we see each human being as the very gift of God; so too, we must see every living creature (no matter how small) as the gift of God. We are sisters and brothers of all living things and they sisters and brothers to us. The earth looks very different when you see it as one glorious, inter-connected family.

 

Humanity has been given the task of working and tilling the earth. We are only stewards who are meant to bring the potential of the earth for the use of human beings and to develop and protect the potential of the earth for all living creatures. 

 

On this issue, humanity has failed so many times. We used the soil and the waters up, leaving huge patches of the earth to become deserts. We exploited the soils and the waters and left huge areas  empty for our grandchildren.

 

Our faith and the work of scientists challenges us to use the power and the riches of the earth to be fruitful and productive for all future generations. We must stand beside our productive farm -and in the Canadian prairies (and American prairies) and say: Now, we can nourish this land/soil so that it will produce food for the next thousand years. 

 

Care for the earth (in our prayer and our worship) is not just some fancy add-on. This responsibility is rooted deep in the holy Scriptures and our spirituality. We are only in the process of re-discovering what was always there. The crisis of a warming climate has only provoked us to re-discover what was always there in the first place.