All is interdependent, all is interconnected.
We cannot say we love God if we do not love our neighbor.
We cannot say we love our neighbor if we do not care for the air,
the water, the land, the ecological systems, the intricate Web of Life
upon which our neighbors and we depend for life itself.
On this First Sunday of the Season of Creation, the scriptures call us to accept our prophetic responsibility in love to invite each other to conversion and care for creation in these times of ecological crisis and collapse.
Opening Prayer
Our Loving God, in You justice and mercy meet. With unparalleled love and forgiveness, You have drawn us into the circle of your life. You send us to invite our sisters and brothers to turn from their sins into Your ways, ways of love and care for You, for each other, and for all creation. Open our eyes to the wonders Your creation sets before us that we may serve you free from fear and address You with grateful love. We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. Amen.
One of Pope Francis’s central beliefs at the heart of Laudato Si’ is that everything and everyone is connected, interdependent. We are responsible for each other. God speaks to us and calls us to conversion in many ways. In the context of the Season of Creation, we need to listen to that Word of God in “the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor.”
- Laudato Si’ #49
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The Prophet Ezekiel describes God’s warning to himself and to us: we are responsible for each other. If we hear and fail to relay God’s Word, God’s call to conversion to those for whom it is intended, we will be held responsible and complicit in their sin and in the suffering and punishment it brings.
St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans puts this prophetic education and invitation to care for creation in their deepest context: they are expressions of the great commandments that sum everything up:
Love God. Love your neighbor.
How can we, how do we express this prophetic love …
In our families?
In our parishes and dioceses?
In our religious communities?
In our schools and universities?
In our hospitals and health care centers?
In our businesses and farms?
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus lays out a way to convey the urgent prophetic warnings in this time of ecological crisis, an approach that shows respect for those who need to hear these truths and invites conversion gently but persistently. At the same time, the approach is realistic: there will be those who will not listen.
Intercessory Prayer
That we may grow in consciousness of the great gift of creation and all of its elements, We Pray…
To deepen our gratitude for nature’s rich Web of Life within which we live and may grow in openness to wiser and more just ways of caring for Each and sharing it, We Pray…
To take up our prophetic responsibility in this time of climate crisis and collapse to speak God’s Truth to each other and to call each other into conversion and to ways of living within creation wisely, sustainably, justly, and reverently,
We Pray…
Prayer
Conscious of God’s loving presence and great gifts to us in creation,
let us enter into the quiet of our spirits, praying for prophetic courage, wisdom, and deeper love for God, for all people, and for creation which gives us life and sustains us. In Jesus’ Name. AMEN.
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