On his address on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, Pope Francis called us to "renew our sense of sacred respect for the earth, for it is not just our home but also God’s home. This should make us all the more aware that we stand on holy ground!"
Lately, discussions of environmental silver linings to the Covid-19 crisis have been circulating worldwide. There have been reports and images where air and water pollution have dramatically improved, levels of carbon emissions have dropped, and even wild animals gallivanting in empty streets. A big lesson that Covid-19 taught us is that there is an opportunity to positively impact the future of our environment, if we all work together and start anew in the way we view our world and the way we interact with it.
On 24 May 2020, we celebrated the 5th anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical on climate change and ecology – Laudato Si’: On the care of our common home. To commemorate this, Pope Francis appealed for a global campaign to commit to ambitious actions that accelerate solutions for our ecological crisis. Pope Francis says that to heal the world and “overcome global challenges”, we need to “show solidarity with one another and embrace the most vulnerable in our midst”.
The anniversary of Laudato Si’ reminds us to celebrate the incredible actions Catholic communities have implemented to respond to “the cry of the earth and cry of the poor.” Broken Bay parish and school communities have responded and embraced this call in their everyday lives. Schools have injected their sustainability plans with initiatives on ethical resource use, review and maintenance of their physical surrounds and its biodiversity, promotion of community relationships and ecological formation aligned with our Catholic values. Parish groups have also been tirelessly working on embedding initiatives and plans in parish life that advocate sustainability and social justice.
Pope Francis challenges us to have a harmonious relationship with the earth and the rest of humanity. “A harmonious relationship... We so often lose sight of harmony: harmony is a work of the Holy Spirit. In our common home too, on the earth, and in our relationships with people, with our neighbour, with the poorest, how can we restore this harmony? We need a new way of looking at our common home. For this is not a storehouse of resources for us to exploit.”
As we journey out of this pandemic and into our ‘new normal’, let’s pray that the Holy Spirit guides our views, behaviour and motivation to shift us into a harmonious relationship with God’s home.
