In recent times, there has been a labourious demand on our part to restore the universe to its original state of innocence. This kind of innocence resides in the fact that, all things have been created good and hence, seen with communality, perfection lies in them. With the concept and attribute of goodness which is being used to refer to all created things comes the goodness of the Creator of these creatures of which man is an indispensable part. Put at the apex, life, even of the considered minute constituent elements of the universe, ought to be defended and protected.
The responsibility to protect and preserve entrusted to man, by virtue of his capability to control all other things, in recent years, has been a left in the oblivion duty. Forsaking this divine responsibility, man forsakes not only the Creator of the universe, but also his very self. This is against the backdrop of he being an active part of the universe and hence, a deliberate refusal to faithfully carry out the task, may invariably be a spiral of self-destruction. Whatever is done to the rest of creation, save humanity, becomes a destruction of man.
With this urgent need to turn a blissful look toward caring for the universe, the Church sees it a good opportunity to set models after whom humanity should set an emulative task. St. Francis of Assisi became prominent among saints in charge of care for the universe. He was declared the “heavenly patron of those who promote ecology” in 1979 by the Papal Bull Inter Sanctos. With him, we learn to have a different and positive outlook of the the universe. This is spirited by Conversion .
With penance and conversion, we come to understand that both are expressions of the same Biblical idea of adopting a change of heart. Conversion is usually the turning towards that which is considered good. This is the cultivation of an attitude proper to developing and saving what deteriorates.
Our earth, for a long time, had been under the siege of man in which case it is continually plundered without cause. What nature gives, in recent times, is nothing but that which harms and kills. This is not the the actual function of nature. Because, nature is plundered and all her resources are forcefully made away with, what remains as a treasure to nature is but poison. Man has become a despot, subjecting all other things to an indiscriminate usage.
A glimpse of the world today, compared with the yesterday, begs us to ask the many questions ranging from economic life to whatever sphere of life we explicitly see the vicious effects of the plunder of nature. The many deforested areas of the world which tend to reduce the life span of man, the melting of the ice bergs in the poles, the experience of the daily rises in temperature with an attendant effect on the change in climate such that the climatic pattern can no longer be studied, are but few hells tyrannical men have to endure because of their neglect to take care of the universe. Food production comes to base and hunger sets in as a result of the low production. Economies run on loans from active-depleting nations all in the bid to stabilize their economies and do the least and painstaking activity of feeding.
What is needed today is an ecological conversion. This is needed now more than ever. Without returning to unity and seeing that we are active parts of the universe for which what we do affect us invariably, we can never cross to safety threshold. With ecological conversion we come to a realization that we have to stop at the edge of the abyss of self-destruction.
Ecological Conversion is traced to Pope John Paul II in 2001. He introduced this term as part of his theological analysis regarding creation. With the need to remind and engrave on the hearts of men the need to care for creation, Pope Francis reiterated this all-needed activity in the Laudato Si' (paragraph 5). Ecological Conversion could be against the backdrop of the assertion that “Mankind's dominion over creation is not absolute but ministerial: it is a real reflection of the unique and infinite lordship of God.”(cf. Evangelium Vitae, 52).
Ecological Conversion consists in being sensitive to the current state of ecological catastrophe. This is a time when life is at the peril of destruction. We may never have a solution to the problems of our world unless we face this activity and faithful perform it.
The issue of ecological conversion ought to stem form a spirituality-centred impulse. This impulse, which is in relation to God, the Creator of the Universe, “encourages, motivates, nourishes, and gives meaning to our individual and communal activity” (Laudato Si', 216; Evangelii Gaudium, 1124).
Ecological Conversion calls us to an interior conversion primus. This interior conversion personally beckons us to deeply reflect on nature. By this, Pope Francis reminds us by reiterating the view of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference that, “to achieve such reconciliation, we must examine our lives and acknowledge the ways in which we have harmed God's creation through our actions and our failures to act. We need to experience a conversion, or change of heart” (L.S, 219).
The Pontiff continues by stating attitudes called for by conversion. Appreciating ecological conversion entails first, gratitude and gratuitousness. This is a recognition of the fact that the world is God's loving gift. We are called to imitate God's generosity in self-sacrifice and good works. (paragraph 220).
It also entails a loving awareness that we are not disconnected from the rest of creatures, but joined in a splendid universal communion (220).
Thirdly, there must be the awareness that each creature reflects something of God and a message to convey to us, and the security that Christ has taken unto himself this material world and now, risen, is intimately present to each being, surrounding it with his affection and penetrating it with his light (paragraph 221).
There must also be the recognition that God created the world, writing into it an order and a dynamism that human beings have no right to ignore it (221).
We have a vocation to care for nature. This is not optional. “Living our vocation to be protectors of God's handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience” (L. S, no. 217). We have to green our hearts by seeking conversion and a reconciliation with nature. By so doing we green the earth. Green is life. To give life, you must first have it. We cannot revive the dying earth if we do not revive our hearts. This makes the maxim true, thus, “you cannot give what you do not have”.
St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us.
Pax et Bonum
L. S -Laudato Si'
Comments
Post a Comment