Preserve creation from all harm

“Because of us, thousands of species will no longer give glory to God by their very existence, nor convey their message to us. We have no such right.”  Human beings are deeply connected with all of creation. When we mistreat nature, we also mistreat human beings.

As individuals, we have grown comfortable with certain lifestyles shaped by a distorted culture of prosperity and a “disordered desire to consume more than what is really necessary”, and we are participants in a system that “has imposed the mentality of profit at any price, with no concern for social exclusion or the destruction of nature.”

A loving awareness that we are not disconnected from the rest of creatures, but joined in a splendid universal communion. This in turn must translate into concrete ways of thinking and acting that are more respectful of creation.  We must not think that these efforts are too small to improve our world. They “call forth a goodness which, albeit unseen, inevitably tends to spread” and encourage “a prophetic and contemplative lifestyle, one capable of deep enjoyment free of the obsession with consumption.”  Indeed, “care for nature is part of a lifestyle which includes the capacity for living together and communion”. Economics and politics, society and culture cannot be dominated by thinking only of the short-term and immediate financial or electoral gains. Instead, they urgently need to be redirected to the common good, which includes sustainability and care for creation.  Changing course thus means, “keeping the original commandment to preserve creation from all harm, both for our sake and for the sake of our fellow human beings.”

If we look at the works of mercy as a whole, we see that the object of mercy is human life itself and everything it embraces.”  The works of mercy also include care for our common home.  As a spiritual work of mercy, care for our common home calls for a “grateful contemplation of God’s world” which “allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us”. As a corporal work of mercy, care for our common home requires “simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness” and “makes itself felt in every action that seeks to build a better world”

Excerpts, MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS

POPE FRANCIS

FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE

WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE CARE OF CREATION

1 SEPTEMBER 2016

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