The Face of Mercy / Daniel Conway

Peace comes through harmony with all God’s creation

(En Espanol)

“Just as the hearts of babies in the womb beat in harmony with those of their mothers, so in order to grow as people, we need to harmonize our own rhythms of life with those of creation, which gives us life” (Pope Francis, Lac Ste. Anne in Alberta, Canada, July 2022).

Almost a year ago, in July 2022, Pope Francis visited North America to offer a pastoral response to the abuse suffered by indigenous peoples of Canada at the hands of Christian missionaries, whose actions were in no way representative of the Gospel they had been sent to preach.

The Holy Father listened attentively to the descendants of these native Canadians, and he offered them his apologies and his profound hope that such abuses will never again happen in Canada or anywhere the Gospel is preached to God’s people.

While visiting Canada’s Lac Ste. Anne, a lake that has been a place of pilgrimage for many generations of indigenous people through the years, the pope reflected out loud:

How many hearts have come here with anxious longing, weighed down by life’s burdens, and found by these waters consolation and strength to carry on! Here, immersed in creation, we can also sense another beating: the maternal heartbeat of the Earth.

The maternal heartbeat that Pope Francis says he sensed while “immersed in creation” at Lac Ste. Anne, is an image that might have been used by the pope’s patronal saint, St. Francis of Assisi, who attributed to all of God’s creation (Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Mother Earth, etc.) personal qualities that identity them as members of the one family of God.

And like St. Francis, the Holy Father is convinced that true and lasting peace can only come if we, who are disrupted and divided by chaos and enmity, “harmonize our own rhythms of life with those of creation.”

Anyone who truly recognizes the wonder and beauty of God’s creation must surely see that the Creator deserves to be reverenced and respected in and through his creation. Anyone who seeks to live in harmony with God’s will must come to understand that to abuse God’s creation is a serious offense against the law of love that governs the universe as well as individuals’ hearts.

Humanity is, of course, the summit of God’s creation. Made in the image and likeness of God, every human being is sacred and inviolable. The attitude that allows us to destroy the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land we cultivate, and the natural resources that God has given us—not for exploitation, but for the common good—is the same attitude that leads to the abuse of people.

In his encyclical “Laudato Si’: On Care of Our Common Home,” the Holy Father explicitly connects abortion and other offenses against human life with our destructive behavior toward the environment. One form of abuse leads inevitably toward the abuse of all other aspects of God’s creation. What’s needed is genuine reverence and respect for all things that God has created out of his abundant love and goodness.

In his message for the celebration of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which will be celebrated on Sept. 1, Pope Francis says:

During this Season of Creation, let us dwell on those heartbeats: our own and those of our mothers and grandmothers, the heartbeat of creation and the heartbeat of God. Today they do not beat in harmony; they are not harmonized in justice and peace. Too many of our brothers and sisters are prevented from drinking from that mighty river. Let us heed our call to stand with the victims of environmental and climate injustice, and to put an end to the senseless war against creation.

The mighty river that the pope refers to is, of course, the grace that flows from the heart of God to create, nourish and sustain all life whether animal, vegetable or mineral. God’s love makes all things and renews all things. It creates ex nihilo (from nothing) and it asks only that we be responsible stewards who take care of, and share, all God’s gifts.

“We can and we must prevent the worst from happening,” the Holy Father says, “provided we come together like so many streams, brooks and rivulets, merging finally in a mighty river to irrigate the life of our marvelous planet and our human family for generations to come.”
 

(Daniel Conway is a member of The Criterion’s editorial committee.) †