“We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental.” (LS, 139)
Pope Leo XIV gave us a meaningful message for Lent Season recognizing the opportunities for the people of God to listen, to fast and to work together. He highlighted the importance of listening that comes from the heart where our thoughts, and actions come from. He talked about the transformation and liberation from the enslavement of people of God from what is hateful to what is loving. He emphasized in his message about being able to listen to the Word in the liturgy, pondering about the reality, fasting to build discipline of our hunger for justice, to be active in our care of our neighbor even those we cannot see and those who cannot defend themselves. He invited us to be practical in addressing the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth. Our words, works of kindness through fasting and communion will pave way to build the paths of hope, peace and the civilization of love. He ended his message that our reconciliation with God through our works in justice will be a grace for the lent.
By allocating time to listen, we give the opportunity to the Holy Spirit to speak to us. We are able to identify the needs of our brothers and sisters including our mother earth. When people act together, the challenge or issue that created such problem will eventually start to lose its power.
As Pope Leo XIV opens this season with the call to respond to justice, we can open ourselves to an opportunity to pause and listen to what we are seeing, hearing, and feeling. As Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew 13:16, the followers of the Incarnate Word have been blessed with senses that are open to see and hear for the benefit of the Reign of God. God is able to reign in our midst given the space that we allow ourselves to listen and act on our call to be just, to be the voice for the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor which are ultimately one issue as these are related. We cannot fully and authentically address one without the other. As Pope Francis reminds us, in his letter or encyclical "Laudato Si'", that the root of this social and environmental crisis, is the spiritual crisis. We need to look deeper what is causing the destruction, the dismissal, the throw away culture:
Laudato Si' Article 9
At the same time, (Ecumenical Patriarch) Bartholomew has drawn attention to the ethical and spiritual roots of environmental problems, which require that we look for solutions not only in technology but in a change of humanity; otherwise we would be dealing merely with symptoms. He asks us to replace consumption with sacrifice, greed with generosity, wastefulness with a spirit of sharing, an asceticism which “entails learning to give, and not simply to give up. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I want to what God’s world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed and compulsion”...
When we learn to discipline our appetite for pleasures, we learn to love God and care about others. We can only see this, when we look into our interior.
- Listen to your heart.
- Listen to your surrounding.
- How are you taking care of yourself from within and without?
- How do you feel with the words you use with your neighbors?
- What is your relationship with the "world" around you (people, and Mother earth)?
- Do you witness a life in solidarity with the poor and earth, our most vulnerable?
- Do you care to spend or use resources to build the Reign of God out of the goodness of heart doing good deeds, and making use of sustainable practices?
- Joint Reflection- Ecological Conversion 02-17-2026.pdf
- 4 Thematic Spiritual Retreats to Reconcile with Ourselves, with Others, with Creation and with God
No comments:
Post a Comment