LAST Sunday, my homily went into a different direction, which I believe was God’s revelation. Instead of focusing on people who are crying out for help to satisfy their physical and spiritual hunger, it led to talk about a big and fundamental part of us that is hungry for love, care and protection: our Mother Earth.
“Yes,” I told my hearers, “our Mother Earth is crying out for help; she’s thirsty for water, for care and protection. We’ve denuded its forest, polluted its waters, and caused its climate change. We’ve trashed the earth and the ocean with industrial wastes.”
My mind travelled back to the morning walk I did that day with my two sisters and their husbands in a West Covina neighborhood when I saw grocery carts thrown out into a river and other corners of the town. It travelled too to my own lack of passion and that of other priests to bring up into the pulpit the need to protect and to preserve Mother Earth. “Me a culpa,” I mused, listening to my repentant heart and mind.
These thoughts reminded me of Pope Francis’ recent encyclical on environment, “LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord”. Reflecting on the spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis states in the opening lines of this relevant and timely encyclical: “In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.”
Then, the Holy Father pricks our conscience by stating: “This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom 8:22). We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7); our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.”
Furthermore, alluding to the words of Pope John Paul II, the Holy Fathers states: “The destruction of the human environment is extremely serious, not only because God has entrusted the world to us men and women, but because human life is itself a gift which must be defended from various forms of debasement. Every effort to protect and improve our world entails profound changes in lifestyles, models of production and consumptions, and the established structures of power which today govern societies.”
Including other wisdom of Christian leaders, Pope Francis also mentions the thoughts of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew: “For human beings…to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation, for human beings to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the earth of its natural forests or destroying wetlands, for human beings to contaminate the earth’s waters, its land, its air, and its life—these are sins…Replace consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing.”
Indeed, our Mother Earth is suffering and crying out for help. We’ve got to take this challenge “to protect our common home…to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development” and to appeal “for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet.”
We can start now…in our own backyard and neighborhood!
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From a Filipino immigrant family, Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas was ordained to the priesthood from St. John’s Seminary in 1991. He served as Associate Pastor at St. Augustine, Culver City (1991-1993); St. Martha, Valinda (1993-1999); and St. Joseph the Worker, Canoga Park (1999-2001). In 2001, he served as Administrator Pro Tem of St. John Neumann in Santa Maria, CA, until his appointment as pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary, Los Angeles, in 2002, which lasted 12 years. His term as Associate Director of Pastoral Field Education at St. John’s Seminary began in July 2014.
