by Christina Gray
Catholic San Francisco
Pope Francis’ post-synodal apostolic letter on the Amazon region links care for creation with Christ’s incarnation, Lexington, Kentucky, Bishop John Stowe said in a Lenten presentation at St. Rita Parish in Fairfax.
“The Lord, who is the first to care for us, teaches us to care for our brothers and sisters and the environment which he daily gives us. This is the first ecology that we need,” Bishop Stowe said in his prepared talk, quoting the pope’s “Querida Amazonia” (Beloved Amazon).
The document was released Feb. 12 and followed the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region held last October in Rome.
Bishop Stowe also cited the papal ecological encyclical “Laudato Si’” in his talk, titled “We Are All in This Together: Interconnectiveness in All Creation.”
Marking the five-year anniversary of the encyclical, the focus of this year’s St. Rita series is “Laudato Si’” and World Peace.”
Some people think of the word cosmic as “new age,” said Bishop Stowe, but Pope Francis calls it an “authentic spirituality.”
“Cosmic ecology recognizes our home is in God,” said Bishop Stowe, who is a Franciscan priest and president of Pax Christi-USA. “God the creator joins creation in the incarnation through his son Jesus. So God becomes part of our home. Jesus bridges the two homes, between this world and the eternal world in which God lives.”…
God is everywhere, part of the smallest material thing which fills all space between atoms, planets, galaxies, and universes. We tend to personify this eternal God who is the Source outside of time. This personification was used to help humans relate, to visualize , and then make paintings , mosaics ,statues, and containment’s for this imaginary god. This is where we went off the track and separated God from us and all of our surroundings. We personified God and then made god separate in three persons. Really difficult to get ones head around. We put God in a building and gave certain people the power to bring God unto bread and wine for our consumption. This is then a religion. We are charged to believe this under pain of separation from God. And all this time God is part of everything and we look up to affirm that God is in heaven.
We are missing our experience with God and spoiling nature around us in which God is an integral part. We have “personified God”. Too bad . We are missing this deep relationship with God.
Yes, as St. Ignatius says (the Spiritual Exercises): “We find God in all things”. Your reflection is so helpful, and I think it would be very useful to share this reflection with so many folks — of all ages, but especially those who do not find traditional religion helpful for themselves, for the young adults who call themselves “nones” and those older folks who — as young adults, left the church and are often called “fallen away” Catholics. Thanks so very much! I think Pope Francis is doing a good job to address (“culture of encounter”) the need to find God in all things, as he is a Jesuit and Ignatius’ SE are the foundation of his spirituality. ¡Gracias, Donald!