Twenty Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Mt. 21:33-43) “Caretakers of Creation”
Twenty Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Mt. 21:33-43) “Caretakers of Creation”
The idea of a garden that represents all of creation is used in the Book of Genesis. The image of the vineyard in the New Testament could be looked at in much the same way. God is the owner who entrusts his vineyard to caretakers while he is away. At a certain time God will return to reclaim his vineyard. The Lord will be very interested in how we have cared for this valued property.
Currently, we are more concerned than ever about the health of our earth. The church says we have a vocation to care for the world. For Christian believers the concern we have for creation isn’t something that started the last few years with climate change. The theological reflection on this topic has a long history in the Christian era.
Early Christian teachers were attuned to nature. Monks who lived in a monastery lived in nature. Great saints throughout the ages spoke about it. St. Augustine said that “while the divine scripture must be listened to, the book of the universe must also be observed to know God.” Thomas Aquinas tells us that “creation overflows with divine goodness.” The Dominican Meister Eckhart, the great mystic of the 13th century said, “Every creature is full of God and is a book about God.”
St. Francis, whose feast day we celebrated Wednesday, sings of the planets, the stars, animals, every living thing, as brother and sister. He reminds us by how he lived that we are all in one interdependent universe.
Such a radical document as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “the privilege of using the earth’s resources isn’t absolute; it is limited by the concern we must have for the quality of our neighbor’s life, including those who will follow in our wake.”
John Paul II said once, “Consumerism and instant gratification are the root causes of our ecological predicament.” Thus, he says, that all of us need to examine our lifestyle. Benedict the VI said much the same thing. And of course, Pope Francis has written encyclicals on the subject.
The words of the church are put into practice at the Vatican in this case. By installing solar panels as well as planting trees in reforestation programs, the Vatican has reduced its carbon footprint to zero. The example is meant to be a sign to the nations of the world.
We are at the beginning of Pro-Life Month. We have heard the church say through the years that we must respect human life from conception until natural end. We must still do that, but we are challenged now to look at that in different ways because there are threats to human life that have always been a part of our world, but these threats have intensified. Wildfires, floods, heat, drought, the list of natural disasters we could think of is long. How should we view these?
We could use another metaphor. We could use the image of the building blocks of life. What are they? The foundational block could be the care of creation. On top of that we could place the peaceful coexistence of humanity. Something like 100 million lives were lost in the last century to war. We see wars up close and personal in our media today. Another block would be the fundamental option for the poor. Each human being needs food, shelter, jobs, health care, education among other things. All of this leads to the pinnacle of the building, which is a respect for each individual human life, old, young, those in the womb, everyone. The more the bottom blocks erode the less likely the pinnacle will remain aloft.
The church teaches that all life is valuable. The hope is that we can preserve the capstone of the building. When we start saying one value is unimportant, we damage the possibility of protecting life. During October it would be nice to set some goals for ourselves. Maybe we could learn more about some aspects of prolife teaching that we know little about. Perhaps we could pray for our all those at risk. And maybe and most importantly we might take some concrete action. Such is the way; we can show that as followers of Jesus that we value all life.
Reflection Questions:
Is taking care of the earth important? Is it part of our Christian calling?
How do I show my love for the earth? Do I conserve precious resources?
Dear Parishioners,
On October 1st during the performance of Damien, we announced that we would be naming the Gathering Center the Damien Center. We have named rooms and buildings after people significant to our parish. St. Damien was the patron of our building project as we added on to our church. So far, he has been a wonderful prayer partner. His picture now hangs in the hallway leading to the church. We hope by next April to have a book that will be enshrined under St. Damien’s portrait that will list all the donors to our recent capital campaigns (TTT and Centennial).
Hopefully, St. Damien will be a hero that the people of our parish can look up to. His portrait shows a young Fr. Damien. I hope that our young people can picture themselves doing something heroic for Christ. Fr. Damien’s life had great meaning. There can be no greater blessing than this.
The winners of the 50/50 raffle were:
Bob DeJonghe 1st place
Bob Madison 2nd place
Dave Wrath 3rd place
Jan Arter and Lanty McGuire 4th Place
The top prize was approximately $2100.
May our Lady pray for us this week,
Fr. Mark