God is in all of creation
Reflection
God is present in all of creation.
God is in the air we breathe, giving all of creation life, the much needed fuel for them to be sustained.
God is in the smallest of plants, which heals our wounds and protects us from all forms of diseases.
God is in the smallest of insects that pollinates the plants, allowing earth to flourish.
Every living being is important for us, for our growth, for our health, for our sustenance, for our development.
Everything is good, everything was good, but what happened?
Man has decided that they are the gods over all God's creation; they chose to misinterpret God's command to subdue the earth and to rule over all of creation to mean dominance and exploitation. It became a right to possess and to manipulate nature in order for it to fuel the desire to have more than what is needed. It allowed for greed to flourish and in the process, for evil to dominate in the hearts of people.
God is in the air we breathe, giving all of creation life, the much needed fuel for them to be sustained.
God is in the smallest of plants, which heals our wounds and protects us from all forms of diseases.
God is in the smallest of insects that pollinates the plants, allowing earth to flourish.
Every living being is important for us, for our growth, for our health, for our sustenance, for our development.
Everything is good, everything was good, but what happened?
Man has decided that they are the gods over all God's creation; they chose to misinterpret God's command to subdue the earth and to rule over all of creation to mean dominance and exploitation. It became a right to possess and to manipulate nature in order for it to fuel the desire to have more than what is needed. It allowed for greed to flourish and in the process, for evil to dominate in the hearts of people.
Since the start of Pope Francis' papacy he emphasized the need to care for all of creation not just as our responsibility as citizens of the planet but as Catholics and as Christians.
He said, "Living our vocation to be protectors of God's handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience." (Laudato Si 217).
When we truly love God, when we are sincere in our being followers of Christ, then we must also be able to love God's creation, to consider it as a gift to us which we should take care of, realizing that this gift will connect us with Him.
Love for God, do not only impel us to only care for our fellow men, but it should also drive us to passionately care for all of creation.
Pope Francis, in his first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, reminded us to "not leave in our wake a swath of destruction and death which will affect our own lives and those of future generations." (EG, 215).
And he quoted the Filipino bishops, making their lament his: “An incredible variety of insects lived in the forest and were busy with all kinds of tasks… Birds flew through the air, their bright plumes and varying calls adding color and song to the green of the forests… God intended this land for us, his special creatures, but not so that we might destroy it and turn it into a wasteland… After a single night’s rain, look at the chocolate brown rivers in your locality and remember that they are carrying the life blood of the land into the sea… How can fish swim in sewers like the Pasig and so many more rivers which we have polluted? Who has turned the wonderworld of the seas into underwater cemeteries bereft of color and life?”
The quote is from the 1988 pastoral letter of the CBCP, "What is Happening to our Beautiful Land?" Yet, three decades later, where are we? Did we listen to our spiritual fathers? Did we repent of our sins and changed our ways?
The global health crisis is a reminder for all of us that indeed we are all connected; that indeed, man's encroachment and over-exploitation of the earth's resources is detrimental to it's health; that indeed, we are not the gods of this planet but merely servants tasked to take care of it, to use only what we need, and to allow it to flourish as God's garden.
But did we listen? Instead of changing our ways our leaders continues to exploit the land for their own benefit. They level mountains in Cebu, devastating an already fragile ecosystem just so they could destroy an already embattled Manila bay in order to cover up its failure to truly rehabilitate a once beautiful coastland teeming with life. They want to cover up their failure, make the bay look beautiful and Instagrammable and then everything will be okay, people will not see that we failed and will laud us for this beautiful white sand that we have given them. Sadly, the project is spearheaded by the very people tasked to protect our environment.
When the fishes float by the thousands, they refuse to see, they refuse to listen, they refuse to speak.
They justify themselves, saying: It's a normal occurrence in an otherwise polluted water where oxygen is lacking and has nothing to do with the "beach nourishment" project that they were implementing.
This corruption of the hearts of our leaders is worse than the pandemic. This insensitivity to implement a project that costs millions while the country, nay, the rest of the world continues to battle an unseen enemy forcing millions to lose their jobs, resorting to begging for the crumbs that fall from the tables of rich politicians and businesspeople who continue to profit from this crisis.
We are all connected. What happens to our planet will eventually happen to us. It is a cycle. When we care for the earth, we care for people, we care for our future generation, the future citizens of the planet. When we exploit the planet, we will be stealing and destroying not just the planet but the future of our children and of future generations.
Addressing representatives of people's movements in 2014, Pope Francis said: "Brothers and sisters, creation is not a possession that we can dispose of as we wish; much less is it the property of some, of only a few. Creation is a gift, it is a present, it is a marvelous gift given to us by God so that we might care for it and use it, always gratefully and always respectfully, for the benefit of everyone."
As we continue to face this global health crisis that is the COVID-19 pandemic, let this be a reminder to us all. At the root of this health crisis is a moral crisis that has caused an environmental crisis resulting in the situation that we are in today. What are we to do now?
He said, "Living our vocation to be protectors of God's handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience." (Laudato Si 217).
When we truly love God, when we are sincere in our being followers of Christ, then we must also be able to love God's creation, to consider it as a gift to us which we should take care of, realizing that this gift will connect us with Him.
Love for God, do not only impel us to only care for our fellow men, but it should also drive us to passionately care for all of creation.
Pope Francis, in his first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, reminded us to "not leave in our wake a swath of destruction and death which will affect our own lives and those of future generations." (EG, 215).
And he quoted the Filipino bishops, making their lament his: “An incredible variety of insects lived in the forest and were busy with all kinds of tasks… Birds flew through the air, their bright plumes and varying calls adding color and song to the green of the forests… God intended this land for us, his special creatures, but not so that we might destroy it and turn it into a wasteland… After a single night’s rain, look at the chocolate brown rivers in your locality and remember that they are carrying the life blood of the land into the sea… How can fish swim in sewers like the Pasig and so many more rivers which we have polluted? Who has turned the wonderworld of the seas into underwater cemeteries bereft of color and life?”
The quote is from the 1988 pastoral letter of the CBCP, "What is Happening to our Beautiful Land?" Yet, three decades later, where are we? Did we listen to our spiritual fathers? Did we repent of our sins and changed our ways?
The global health crisis is a reminder for all of us that indeed we are all connected; that indeed, man's encroachment and over-exploitation of the earth's resources is detrimental to it's health; that indeed, we are not the gods of this planet but merely servants tasked to take care of it, to use only what we need, and to allow it to flourish as God's garden.
But did we listen? Instead of changing our ways our leaders continues to exploit the land for their own benefit. They level mountains in Cebu, devastating an already fragile ecosystem just so they could destroy an already embattled Manila bay in order to cover up its failure to truly rehabilitate a once beautiful coastland teeming with life. They want to cover up their failure, make the bay look beautiful and Instagrammable and then everything will be okay, people will not see that we failed and will laud us for this beautiful white sand that we have given them. Sadly, the project is spearheaded by the very people tasked to protect our environment.
When the fishes float by the thousands, they refuse to see, they refuse to listen, they refuse to speak.
They justify themselves, saying: It's a normal occurrence in an otherwise polluted water where oxygen is lacking and has nothing to do with the "beach nourishment" project that they were implementing.
This corruption of the hearts of our leaders is worse than the pandemic. This insensitivity to implement a project that costs millions while the country, nay, the rest of the world continues to battle an unseen enemy forcing millions to lose their jobs, resorting to begging for the crumbs that fall from the tables of rich politicians and businesspeople who continue to profit from this crisis.
We are all connected. What happens to our planet will eventually happen to us. It is a cycle. When we care for the earth, we care for people, we care for our future generation, the future citizens of the planet. When we exploit the planet, we will be stealing and destroying not just the planet but the future of our children and of future generations.
Addressing representatives of people's movements in 2014, Pope Francis said: "Brothers and sisters, creation is not a possession that we can dispose of as we wish; much less is it the property of some, of only a few. Creation is a gift, it is a present, it is a marvelous gift given to us by God so that we might care for it and use it, always gratefully and always respectfully, for the benefit of everyone."
As we continue to face this global health crisis that is the COVID-19 pandemic, let this be a reminder to us all. At the root of this health crisis is a moral crisis that has caused an environmental crisis resulting in the situation that we are in today. What are we to do now?
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