John Dempster: We do not truly own anything – everything is a gift from God
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“Nature is starting to complain,” Pope Francis said sadly. “Nature is screaming ‘Stop! Stop!’”
The recent COP27 conference in Egypt reminded us of the need for action on climate change, the most serious crisis ever to face humanity.
The Letter: a message for our earth (YouTube) is a documentary recently launched at the Vatican. The title refers to Pope Francis’s 2015 encyclical Laudato Si (‘Praise be’), addressed to the whole of humanity, a challenge to respond creatively to global warming.
This beautifully-photographed film introduces us to the lives of five people from four continents – we see the devastation caused in their communities by climate change or rapacious deforestation. We fly to Rome with the five, and listen as they express their concerns to the Pope, who speaks of “the economic arrogance of a few people who use everything and destroy it”.
Finally, the five travel to Assissi, birthplace of St Francis, whose name the Pope made his own – 13th century St Francis, who understood the connectedness of all things, and wrote the Laudato Si poem: “Praise be you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains us.” The five share the issues each is facing. There are tears, and a sense of bonding. “We are already a family.”
The film reminded me that we are all, humanity and nature, part of the one web of life; we do not truly own anything – everything is a gift from God; we are united in one global community; action on climate change is vital; it is easy to ‘become used to’ the creeping consequences of global warming. “This ‘becoming used to’ is a terrible illness,” says the Pope.
In this great crisis, we seek again the still place within us where we connect with God. What am I called to do in this situation? What is my heart drawing me to? Chatting about climate change issues? Taking personal steps to reduce carbon usage? Writing to politicians?
Composing songs or poems? Protesting? Weeping with those who weep? Rediscovering the strength of local community? Financially helping the victims of global warming? We are each given something to do as we entrust ourselves, and our planet, to God.
The Pope’s letter is addressed to the world community – people of all faiths and none – and rightly so. This is something on which the global community must work together.
But from a Christian perspective, I think of another letter. One sent by God to the whole of humanity, a living, love-filled letter. Jesus, who reaches out to us and draws together all who respond in one family, aspiring to love one another and our fragile home, and to live in a way which proclaims as Jesus did ‘Laudato Si!’
