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Reconcilation With Creation

The document discusses Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si and calls Christians to reconcile with God's creation through transformative change in how we respond to environmental issues. It notes that the poor suffer most from ecological crises and calls us to see all people and nature as part of our extended family. The ultimate goal is to build a new covenantal relationship with creation through love, faith, hope and reconciliation with both people and nature.

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94 views2 pages

Reconcilation With Creation

The document discusses Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si and calls Christians to reconcile with God's creation through transformative change in how we respond to environmental issues. It notes that the poor suffer most from ecological crises and calls us to see all people and nature as part of our extended family. The ultimate goal is to build a new covenantal relationship with creation through love, faith, hope and reconciliation with both people and nature.

Uploaded by

jjpuliken
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Reconciliation with God’s creation


This is the fifth year of us obtaining the glorious encyclical “LOUDATO SI”
from our Pope Francis. The question remains as to how much of it has been put
to practice in our daily life. Excluding the members of any religious
communities, how many of us have read the encyclical even once in this five
years, alone or in groups?

The central theme throughout the encyclical is that ‘ We are not masters, but
care takers of nature, with all its creation and the need for a preferential
attitude towards the poor and needy’. The world we live in is not the paradise
we would like to be. Quite the contrary, most problems have been created by
human beings, and seem to be getting worse. The well-know but often ignored
fact that the poor are the ones to suffer most from the ecological crisis – this is
happening already and will happen increasingly in the future, unless we
reconcile with God’s creation.

The deepening of our faith experience in God’s creative gift of life calls for
transformative change in the way we respond to the urgent task of reconciliation
with creation. Creation, the life-giving gift of God, has become material,
extractable and marketable. Full of paradoxes, the world confuses and accuses
us, but holds out, at the same time, encouraging signs. There is fear, turmoil,
suffering, and despair, but also expressions of hope and trust. All of us are
responsible, some of us more than others; all of us suffer the effects, some more
than others.

Though powerless, we draw strength through Christ’s presence and with dignity
experience meaning and love. ‘Seeing God in all things’ calls us into the
mystical relation with all creation. The degrading of the environment through
unsustainable energy consumption and the threat of diminishing water and food
are consequences being played out in global society today. The struggle for
dignified living stretches across a socioeconomic abyss - from utter deprivation
at one end to abusive consumption at the other.

The ecological crisis also challenges our faith. It is the very dream of God as
creator that is threatened. It is the entire world, the one God put in the hands of
humankind to keep and preserve, which is in real danger of destruction. Many
popular issue-based environment movements in India have questioned the
developmental paradigm and brought environmental concerns to the forefront of
the political landscape.
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Advancing environmental degradation,.huge differences in income between the


poor and the rich, lack of access to basic services i.e. housing, education, health
services, etc, rapid urbanization, growing consumerism, escalation of inter-
religious and inter-ethnic conflicts, often driven by the socio-economic context
are some of the social issues, not in India but globally . Care for the environment
is, first and foremost, based on recognising the environment as a true good for
common good.

The term ‘reconciliation’ means literally a call-to-be-again-together; a call


addressed to two parties in conflict, to develop a new relationship.
Reconciliation, theologically considered, is the restoration of broken
relationships between God and people. God initiates this process of restoration,
humans respond to God’s initiative through faith, and the outcome is the
rebuilding of the human community as a new creation. For Christians, therefore,
hope for reconciliation is closely linked with faith in Christ’s saving work
among us.

The ultimate goal of reconciliation is to build a new covenantal relationship


with creation. Let us, as individuals restart to love everything among us; the
plats, the trees, the lakes, the rivers and so on. The old man at the bus stop
stretching his hand for alms is no more a beggar, but a brother. The women in
shabby cloths, who walks around in hope of getting something, when the light
turns red in a junction on the road is not a destitute, but a member of our
extended family. She too has a family to take care of, mouths to feed and still
have strength to hope for a better tomorrow.

Let this global pandemic teach lessons on love, faith, hope and reconciliation.
This should be not just with people around us, but with nature, oneself and The
Trinity.

Dr Jerry Joseph OFS


National ViceMinister
Secular Franciscan Order
India

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