Interdependence of Nature and the Poor
“Everything is connected. Concern for the environment thus needs to be joined to a sincere love for our fellow human beings and an unwavering commitment to resolving the problems of society.” Laudato Si, Pope Francis, 2015, #91
Scenes like the one above are found across this planet where children, and indeed entire families, live in poverty amid environmental degradation. This is especially true in poorer nations but also in wealthier ones like our own.
The encyclical reminds us that, “Peace, justice and the preservation of creation are three absolutely interconnected themes…. Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love God has for each of his creatures and which also unites us in fond affection with brother sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth.” If we work to nourish this realization in our innermost being, we will find ways of reaching out to help mend Earth and respond with compassion to our suffering sisters and brothers.
Christopher Pramuk, Chair of Ignatian Thought and Imagination, and Associate Professor of Theology at Regis University, encourages us along the same pathway with these words, “For my part I have come to believe that life is too short to play in small, self-enclosed circles. We feel our way through the darkness of resurrection faith by reaching out to hold the hands of others. We sing our way from fear and hesitation to courage and fresh hope. We make the path forward together by walking it.”
Or in the words of Constance FitzGerald, OCD, “being united with every human person, every living creature, the earth itself, the cosmos, precisely because we are in Jesus webbed into this Trinitarian dance of life and communion…” we can, each of us, make a difference for every living creature, especially poor human beings among us, like those with whom Jesus associated by preference during his time on Earth.
Veronica Blake, SMR