Lent IV – Laudato Si’

The Fourth Sunday of Lent

_{The fourth in a Lenten series on the Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si’ of Pope Francis.}

Kicking the can down the road is something we all do. It is easier to ignore an issue then deal with it head on. Though the evidence surrounds us, I wonder how many people are seriously concerned about the changes occurring in the environment that face our generation. Changes that we have caused. Changes that are affecting us and will affect our children and grandchildren.

Do we consider future generations in our national and international decision-making or is it all about the present, about production, consumption and profit? In a culture that is impatient and looks for instantaneous results, how many people think that the changes in the planet are another generations’ problem? How many of us will be alive 25, 50 years from now, why bother. So let’s kick the can down the road. It is a selfish attitude, is it not?

The Haudenosaunee, the confederacy of tribes that we know as the Iroquois, on whose land this Cathedral stands, did consider the future. In The Great Law of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, they wrote, “Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground — the unborn of the future Nation”.

The Haudenosaunee philosophy instructs, “in our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” This is what has come to be called the Seventh Generation Principle. Seven generations is about 200 years. By this philosophy, decisions we make in 2024 are to take into account the people who will be living in 2224 and beyond.

Echoing this indigenous view, Pope Francis in his Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si’, asks, what kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up, to generations who are as yet unborn – whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground?

Indigenous peoples around the world remind us that the environment is on loan to us. This planet is a gift, which we have been entrusted to hand on to future generations as it was handed on to us. What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us?

Francis thus writes of an inter-generational solidarity. We are not only connected with each other but with the generations that came before and the generations that will come after us. Francis challenges the values of individualism, utilitarianism, efficiency and productivity upon which we base our decisions in the postmodern world. These values have the individual at its center and not the common good of humanity.

One of the principles of Catholic Social teaching is the Common Good. The common good while respecting the rights of the individual balances these rights with the needs of the disadvantaged and the dispossessed. It looks to raising up people to their full potential.

The Liturgy is a school for understanding the common good because it counters and challenges the centrality of the individual and the utilitarian, efficient, product and profit oriented lifestyle of our culture. In the Sacred Liturgy, we are all, lay and clergy, equal members of the Body of Christ with equal responsibilities. Except that, there is a preferential option for the poor among us. Each of us is at the service of everyone else of which we are starkly reminded when we recall Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. Note the pronouns of all our prayers are plural. We pray, not as individuals, but as one body and voice.

The Liturgy is not efficient. We are not here to get in and get out. Liturgy takes time like the fermentation process of what will be choice, rich wine. We are not gathered to produce anything. Prayer has been called “wasting time” with God as we do with anyone we deeply care about. We wait upon each other until everyone has received Holy Communion. Moreover, all of this is enacted in what is be a ‘safe place’ for every human being without judgement.

The Liturgy gives us the experience of the common good and a vision of a world as God intended it in those first days of creation. 

For Francis, to speak of the common good includes adequate housing in which people can gain a sense of personal dignity and raise their families. It includes addressing greenhouse gas emissions, systems of transport, improving efficiency, eliminating the use of toxic ingredients in the supply chain and increasing the use of recycled materials.

Just consider plastic. For all plastic affords us, every toothbrush, drinking straw, Styrofoam clamshell and pen we have ever used is still on this earth. Plastic takes 20 – 500 years to decompose. If seven generations is 200 years, every piece of discarded plastic is an affront to 15+ generations of humans, animals and plants into the future.

The common good includes healthy products, healthy communities, and a healthy environment.

The sound of a can being kicked down the road is tinny and hollow. This sound should haunt us as it echoes our hollow response to the changes in the climate and its effects on the planet and all life.

Will we allow Pope Francis’ question to confront us? What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us?

The Haudenosaunee answer, “Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground”.