There has been a lot of news recently about the environment, some of it not good. This is especially true with our stewardship of creation. Recent oil spills, the request by BP executives to restart their drilling in the Gulf, albeit with renewed “promises” to adhere to stricter safety rules, the recent action by the House of Representatives’ Energy Panel’s to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its ability to regulate greenhouse gases. The sad thing is that this decision came despite the scientific evidence that at least in part global warming is caused by human behavior in the form of carbon emissions and their contribution to the creation of greenhouse gases that not only contribute to rising global temperatures that are melting the Polar ice caps and glaciers, but are also responsible for the increasing volatile weather around the world. But instead of listening to the overwhelming voice of the scientific community, they listened to the voices of big energy companies who care more for profits and satisfying their shareholders than they do for the future of the planet and coming generations.
For a follower of Jesus this is unconscionable. The Apostle Paul was right (Romans 8), the creation “groans” and waits “with eager longing” for its redemption. Its anguish and decay, to some extent, maybe a great deal, is due to human sin. That sin comes in the form of clear, selfish, violent raping and polluting of the earth, water and air; and in the form of blind neglect and acquiescence in the name of human progress.
As I was reflecting on what our responsibility should be to the great gift of life and the world around us, I came across this journal entry of Thomas Merton, written almost half a century ago. His words are worth hearing again:
"Obedient unto death ...." Perhaps the most crucial aspect of Christian obedience to God today concerns the responsibility of the Christian in a technological society toward God's creation and God's will for His creation. Obedience to God's will for nature and for man--respect for nature and for man--in the awareness of our power to frustrate God's designs for nature and for man--to radically corrupt and destroy natural goods by misuse and blind exploitation, especially by criminal waste. The problem of nuclear war is only one facet of an immense, complex and unified problem.
There are very grave problems in the implications of certain kinds of Christian outlooks on "the world." The crux of the matter seems to be to what extent a Christian thinker can preserve his independence from obsessive modes of thought about secular progress. (Behind which is always the anxiety for us and for the Church to be "acceptable" in a society that is leaving us behind in a cloud of dust.) In other words, where is our hope? If in fact our hope is in a temporal and secular humanism of technological and political progress, we will find ourselves, in the name of Christ, joining in the stupidity and barbarism of those who are despoiling His creation in order to make money or get power for themselves. But our hope must be in God. And he who hopes in God will find himself sooner or later making apparently hopeless and useless protests against the barbarism of power.
These are prophetic words in that they ask us, challenge us to look deep into our own and collective soul and to see if we are among those who “radically corrupt and destroy natural goods by misuse and blind exploitation,” “frustrate God’s design for nature and man,” “join in the stupidity and barbarism of those despoiling God’s creation in order to make money or get power.” Like all true prophetic challenges, we feel uncomfortable and hopefully, guilty.
I like the fact that Merton brings it back to hope. Let’s admit it, most of us, while saying that we hope in God, really look for our security in the things around us. That is why we are so often complicit in the over-accumulating of things that we hope will not only ensure our security, but also make us happy. In many ways our hope is really in things and what we think they bring and not in God. If we really hoped in God, not only for the promise of life after death for those who are in Christ, but for the “daily bread” we are to ask him for, this would change not only the way we relate to God and one another, but also to God’s creation. Friends, we are called to be stewards of God’s creation, holding God’s good earth in trust. Anything else is irresponsible.
In the liturgy for Ash Wednesday Many Christians prayed: “For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us, Accept our repentance, Lord.” Maybe as we journey through Lent we need to pause and ask ourselves, do we really hope in God? Do we really find our security and ultimate happiness in God? Are we really being true stewards of all the gifts that God gives to us? And if we find that we can’t truly answer those questions with a “yes”, may we be able to also pray: “Accept my repentance, Lord.”
