(The Nationalist, 10 August 2001)
Our environmental sins are catching up with us. For centuries, we human beings have acted as lords of nature, giving little thought to the consequences of our actions. But those consequences are now beginning to become apparent, whether in global warming, or the pollution of air and water, or the depletion of natural resources beyond the capacity of nature to replace them. Experience, the greatest, though not the gentlest, of all teachers, is showing us that we have gone wrong.
Perhaps the first step for humanity is to grow in awareness of what we are doing and where it has led. Such an awareness has gradually grown over the last forty years or so. But there is also a need for individual and collective repentance; we need to say sorry. That means creating a society which is not controlled, as ours is, by the market. The ideology of growth needs to be challenged – and the materialism which goes with it. Concern for growth in the future should be about its quality, not its quantity. That will involve personal sacrifice, a willingness to do without, to say no to our desire for more. Goodbye greed would be a first act of repentance.
We are partners with nature, indeed a part of nature. We should not think of it as if from the outside. We are not apart from it, we are part of it. We are its ministers, not its masters. The whole of life is one: God, others, the self and nature are inter-related, mutually dependent. Our priority in this should be to create a God-centred rather than a human-centred world.
A sense of community, a sense of the obligation we have to each other and to future generations to safeguard God’s earth can lead us to appreciate nature, respect it and work with it. We are its stewards, not its owners. Intelligent self-interest can take us some of the way but not far enough. We need to be willing to take a long-term view of things and accept an element of sacrifice at our own level.
We need education in humility and self-denial. It is witnesses more than teachers, those who act rather than merely talk, who can educate us in these. Saint Francis, the patron saint of ecology, was one such witness to what he called his ‘Lady Poverty’.
The most valuable resource is hope. We can have a realistic expectation of surmounting our problems. Through nature God has provided very generously for the human race: Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘There is enough in this world for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed’. The prophets of doom have been proven wrong by events before now; the doomsday scenarios have not unfolded as they said they would. Humanity listens to those who offer hope, and Christianity is a religion of hope.