Reflection
The biblical vision of the community of creation is profoundly theocentric. Rather than starting out with human beings, this vision sees that in its origin history, history, and goal, the whole world with its innumerable relationships, is ultimately grounded in the creative, redeeming God of love. Neither plants, animals, nor human beings; neirther land, sea, nor air; neither sun, stars, nor galaxies would exist apart from the life-giving and sustaining power of the Creator. When broken down into its most basic element, the community of creation bespeaks the truth that all beings in this evolving world are in fact creatures, sustained in life by the Creator. To put this in dramatically simple terms, human beings and other species on earth have more in common than what separates them…in their beautiful, terrible, fragile, and vulnerable lives, they share the fundamental identity of being creatures of the same generous God.
Elizabeth Johnson
Prayer
The heavens declare the glory of God;
The skies proclaim the work of God’s hands
Their voice goes out into all the earth
their words to the ends of the world.
Psalm 19
Action
Reflect on the selection above. How connected are you with this concept of God’s creative action? Do you care about what is happening to earth and so many creatures, human and nonhuman? Have you read Laudato si? If not, consider doing so and reflecting on its implications.
Suggested Reading
Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.
Revelation 4:11
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—God’s eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Romans 1:20
God is the creator of incredible beauty and all that God envisioned and desired to create, God also desired to share.
Pope Francis, Laudato si
There are enough evidences of supreme skill in the structure of the human hand alone to prove the existence, intelligence and benevolence of God in the face of all the sophistry of infidelity.
A. B. Simpson
If created things are seen and handled as gifts of God and as mirrors of His glory, they need not be occasions of idolatry – if our delight in them is always also a delight in their Maker.
John Piper
he natural world is the larger sacred community to which we belong. To be alienated from this community is to become destitute in all that makes us human.
Thomas Berry
All of creation is a song of praise to God.
Hildegarde of Bingen
The doctrine of the Incarnation is itself an invitation to all believers to love the earth, cherish it, find the divine in it.”
Matthew Fox
May we always walk gently on the earth in right relationship,
nurtured by your love, taking only what we need;
Giving back to the earth in gratitude,
sharing what we have, honoring all with reverence,
mindful of those who will come After us;
recognizing our proper place is as part of,
not apart from, your creation.
Michele Balik, OSF