Polarization, war, climate change, political and civil instability, homelessness, gun violence, racism, nationalism, extremism, regionalism, fascism, materialism, fundamentalism, and moral degradation are all symptoms of spiritual crisis.
Life is not about possessions. In Luke 12:15, Jesus said to them, 'Watch out! Be on our guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.' Are you holding on to material things rather than relationships? We have forgotten that the most important treasure we hold as humans is our ability to love. We are one human family. If we have lost this ability, what is the value of everything we hold as precious? We have seen our relationship with jobs, bank accounts, houses, luxurious items, and other material wealth as more important than our ability to love our brothers and sisters, and the nature to which we all belong. As Pope Francis in Laudato Si said in article 119, the vast desert in our heart, which is our spiritual crisis, caused this climate change and humanitarian crisis. This is a desert. This is a purgatory that stops us from reaching heaven. It is a purgatory stopping us from being free. These are the attachments that our hearts contain rather than the love from which we are created. We failed to love our brothers and sisters. We would rather protect which invisibly and visibly destroying nature.
...A misguided anthropocentrism need not necessarily yield to “biocentrism”, for that would entail adding yet another imbalance, failing to solve present problems and adding new ones. Human beings cannot be expected to feel responsibility for the world unless, at the same time, their unique capacities of knowledge, will, freedom and responsibility are recognized and valued. (LS118)
Nor must the critique of a misguided anthropocentrism underestimate the importance of interpersonal relations. If the present ecological crisis is one small sign of the ethical, cultural and spiritual crisis of modernity, we cannot presume to heal our relationship with nature and the environment without healing all fundamental human relationships. (LS 119)
In 1 Corinthians 13:13, there is an invitation to ponder what is enduring: "The three most important things to have are faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of them is love." What is eternal is love. We need faith and hope to help us in moving forward. It is love that is the fruit and cause of all virtues. When we reach the fullness of life, we have come to the fullness of love. We are struggling in this fullness. As Fr. Ron Rolheiser said, the symphony is not finished and we are unfinished symphony. The question is how unfinished business within ourselves that we can hold or keep?
Whatever relationship you hold dear, I invite you to look into your heart, mind, and spirit. We are here to journey each other carrying the burdens of all whether we like it or not. Everything we breathe, we drink, we walk into are common goods. Even if you think water is yours, we cannot have clean water if we have failed to protect it from being polluted or contaminated. We all drink from the same stream of nature. We are at the mercy of nature. I invite you to be generous in love. That is the only thing that can hold us together. You can start from wherever you are.
This year is the 10th year of Laudato Si.' Pope Francis wrote this encyclical to highlight that all are interconnected. If we fail to care for one part of this creation, we fail nature, which includes all of us. Starting February 25 6 am NYC / 11 am London / 12 pm Rome / 2 pm Nairobi / 7pm Manila for 10 hours, all people of the world are invited to contemplate with the hope that we may feel Christ in our hearts, we may see Christ in our brothers and sisters and Christ in all Creation. It is with hope that we can find our oneness with nature. May we truly incarnate love hidden in the core of our hearts into our lives.
Information on the Contemplative Vigil on Zoom here: Laudato Si’ 10th Anniversary Contemplative Vigil - via Zoom - Contemplative Outreach, Ltd.
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