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Not Just Earth Day, Creation
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Last weekend, I took my twelve- and five-year-old sons to see Disney’s new movie, Earth. Viewing the movie with my two youngest sons was the culminating act of a week filled with earth-centered activities including the exhibitions and presentations at my college, the launching of the Catholic Climate Covenant website, preparing for my participation in the United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development (CDS-17), and pushing forward the formation of the Creation Sustainability Council for the LA Catholic Archdiocese.Questions about the environment cannot be “ignored.” Earth Day celebrations are important for us to have. Nature films are an effective means by which we are moved, and books provide us with important information. However, more needs to be done, and must be consistently done. Respect for creation will not be achieved when we resolve one of the many environmental problems we face today. Respect for creation is not merely stopping global warming, or ceasing the destruction of the rainforest, it requires a whole new attitude toward life. It is this attitude of respect that is fundamentally and morally demanded of us. Even if tomorrow we resolved the problem of global warming, we are still not off the hook, for our respect for what God has created is still demanded of us. Analogously, even if tomorrow we solve world hunger, we still are required to love our neighbor. Thus, our attitude is not grounded on an environmental problem we need to resolve, or on the utility of having a healthy environment for us to live in, but instead it is grounded on recognizing and responding to the sacredness of the creation. Genuine ecological activism cannot be reduced to merely addressing a particular environmental problem, but instead must consist of helping others and ourselves to recognize the sacredness of what God has freely given.
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