Celebrating Sister Mother Earth
“LAUDATO SI’, mi’ Signore” – “Praise be to you, my Lord.”
In the words of this beautiful canticle, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with coloured flowers and herbs”. ~ From the opening of Laudato Si’, 2015
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and the 5th anniversary of Pope Francis’ much-anticipated encyclical, Laudato Si’. These important milestones have ignited a renewed energy and excitement for environmental justice issues. They have also brought back to light the tremendous damage we are doing to the earth, our common home.
Earth Day is an annual event celebrated around the world on April 22 to demonstrate support for the protection of our environment; of our Sister, Mother Earth. Earth Day is a global reminder that we have to continue to care for our common home. Unfortunately, we as a people have been negligent in that care and have done great harm to the earth. Pope Francis writes in Laudato Si’: “This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she ’groans in travail.’. We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth; our very bodies are made up of her elements, we breathe her air and we receive life and refreshment from her waters.
More than 800 years ago, Saint Francis wrote that our Sister Mother Earth sustains and governs us; she gives us life. Instead of returning the favor, we have laughed in her face by the damage and the harm we have done to her. The social teaching of our Church speaks to us of caring for all of God’s creation – this includes God’s people and God’s earth. In Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) writes: “We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. Care for the earth is not just an Earth Day slogan, it is a requirement of our faith. We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of God’s creation. This environmental challenge has fundamental moral and ethical dimensions that cannot be ignored.”
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote in his 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate: The environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole…. Our duties towards the environment are linked to our duties towards the human person, considered in himself and in relation to others. It would be wrong to uphold one set of duties while trampling on the other” (48, 51).
Finally, Article 18 of our Holy Rule states: “Moreover [we] should respect all creatures, animate and inanimate, which “bear the imprint of the Most High,” and [we] should strive to move from the temptation of exploiting creation to the Franciscan concept of universal kinship”. This is not just a lovely suggestion or some pie-in-the-sky platitude, this is what we promise, what we profess. As Secular Franciscans, let us continue to call to mind the words of our Holy Rule and our seraphic Father Francis who called our earth Mother and Sister. Let us always show Sister Mother Earth the reverence and respect that Saint Francis showed. May the Lord continue to grant you peace.
https://secularfranciscansusa.org/2020/06/29/celebrating-sister-mother-earth/
As We Look to Our Own Wellbeing, Think of Others
(This article originally appeared in the Spring 2020 Issue of the TAU-USA)
By Alexander Escalera, O.F.M. Cap.
As part of our Franciscan charism, we have the idea that not only do we need to look to our own wellbeing, but we must also consider the welfare of others who surround us, even if our own life is not going the way we want it. For this, we have the example of St. Francis and his encounter with the leper. Francis was going through a major conversion point in his life (as he would for most of his life). He was trying to find out what God wanted him to do with his life. Where was God leading him? This was not an easy task for one who had tried it and still continued to do so. Yet God answered Francis in giving him the grace to embrace the leper, to be God’s instrument in showing His mercy and love even though he still had so many questions of his own.
A modern day example: My brother, Deacon Stephen Gabriel Escalera, passed away on October 29, 2019, due to complications from a liver disease. He was a deacon at Christ the King Parish in Pueblo, Colorado, and leaves behind a wife and two children. Steve was 53, his daughter is a senior in high school, and his son is in junior high. My brother suffered greatly in his more than three-month stay in the ICU at the University of Denver Hospital. When I visited him in August 2019, he was writhing in pain on his bed, he had a tracheotomy, and his face was contorting from all his suffering.
“God is not fair,” “God works in mysterious ways,” and “Why do bad things happen to good people?” are almost clichéd phrases given how much use they get. Many will see my brother Steve’s suffering for such a long time before his final passing, dying so young and leaving behind such young children as tragic. Yet in the Introduction to his book, “God Is Not Fair And Other Reasons For Gratitude,” Daniel Horan, OFM, states that the simple premise is that God’s way is not our way; God’s lack of fairness by human standards should challenge and show us how inappropriate, inhumane, and unchristian we actually are. We would project how we see our own world view, put that on other people, and even our own religion, as if to say these things are not our way but God’s way.
In the story of my brother, several days before he passed away, our parents were with him. At some point, a cleaning lady came in to tidy up Steve’s room. She told mom and dad how much she admired Steve because he was a fighter, fighting his illness till the end. She was a bit sad, however. Her own daughter had just been taken to the hospital for trouble breathing. Upon examination, it was discovered she had a heart defect. The doctor examined further and found out she had diabetes. And upon even further examination, it was discovered she had a lump on her leg, and the doctor couldn’t figure out what it was. She was going to go visit her daughter after her shift ended. She turned to leave after she cleaned up, and Steve, who could not speak due to the tracheotomy, motioned to get her attention. He then pointed to himself, clasped his hands like praying, then pointed at her. Translation, “I’m going to pray for you.” Even as he lay there dying, my brother, God gave him the grace to think of others in their need. Surely this was not where Steve had intended his life to go, but he was always open to God’s will.
As I write this letter, the coronavirus is spreading throughout the world. I don’t know if, by the time you read this, it will be under control or not. But in this time of uncertainty, be safe and healthy, and may God give you His grace to think of and help the other.