In caring for the environment, we also honor God
World Water Day on Monday and World Earth Day on April 22 focus on our responsibility for the reverence and enhancement of all creation.
These days call all of us to develop a new respect and appreciation for Mother Earth, our home, for all the gifts that we receive from Earth, especially water. On these two ecological days, we celebrate the beauty and wonder of God’s creation, which has its origin in a plan of love and truth. The natural world around us is nothing more and nothing less than God’s work of art, his own gallery.
God gave human beings the gracious gift of Earth for our use and that of future generations; and as his stewards, we are to respect and care for it. Our mandate from God is to complete the work of creation, to perfect its harmony and growth for our own good and that of all of our universal neighbors. As guardians of the environment, we are to ensure the proper balance of the ecosystems on which we depend.
The creation that surrounds us is a “chalice of grace.” It is gracious because it reveals God’s abundant goodness. This grace — this goodness — is found everywhere, and to treat it with disrespect and abuse is blasphemy. The imprint of the creator, as the patron of the environment St. Francis teaches us, is found in all of creation, especially in humans. The environment is sacred, as it comes from the holy hands of our creator, and to ruthlessly exploit it is a sacrilege.
Our engagement of the world must transcend politics, personal policy and science to focus on human ecology that calls for a conversion of political, economic, cultural and social systems as well as individual lifestyles and sharing all of Earth’s goods with all inhabitants. We are living in a time of crisis, fracturing the environment in countless ways, including global climate change.
We see damage in the nature that surrounds us, but we also see it in men and women. Science and technology have contributed much to the progress and enrichment of the gifts of creation. However, there are moral limits of their use and application that sometimes have deleterious effects on the environment. The proper ecological balance depends on international cooperation, intergenerational solidarity and addressing the roots of poverty.
These two special days of creation call our urgent attention to biodiversity. Sadly, each year sees the disappearance of thousands of plants and animal species that are dependent on one another. Often, transnational economic interest obstructs their protection.
Ecology implies a system of relationships and interaction. Maintaining a proper ecology of our natural environment is only possible when we foster a truly human ecology that is inseparably linked to natural ecology.
All ecology is strengthened when we promote human relationships and interactions that respect the dignity of the human person, the crown of creation, the common good and all nature.
World Water Day reminds us that water is essential for all life. The management and resource distribution ethic of this gift must be guided by consideration for the common good for the people of the world and the natural systems — for the planet itself.
What kind of world do we want to continue to live in and to leave to those who come after us? If we do not determine this, who will? If not now, when? Pope Francis reminds us that the Earth is the common home of humanity — the one we will pass to the next generations.