The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
Earth has lost half its wildlife in the last 40 years
The first sentence presents the idea of a measuring or evaluating. The second sentence is a state of the earth statement.
Due to unbridled exploitation, degradation, climate change, use for food, this includes over fishing, over hunting, destroying habitats, poaching animals for ivory in Africa or bear gall bladders in western Canada we have seriously injured the natural world we live in. But there is no need to just list all the bad things, unfortunately the list is too long and depressing. If we watch the news or read, we find out more than we want to know.
The traditional Gospel for St. Francis Day is from Matthew Ch 6 “Consider the lilies of the field”. It tells us God looks after the birds, clothes the lilies. Why then should we worry? God will do it all. But stop and think, Jesus ministry to the poor, lonely, the hungry and sick This was his call to action, to justice, a mission given to us when we proclaim that we are God’s hands in the world. We act with and for God.
Firstly, I think we need to be convinced that care of the earth, sky, water and animals is not only essential to our life and lives of generations to come, we need to be convinced that such care is an integral part of our journey in faith Then secondly, we have to be committed to stepping out, to changing, to challenging each other to adjust the way we live. The World Wildlife Federation estimates that it would take 3.5 earths to sustain life if everyone lived like Canadians. As to the first, is this part of our journey in faith?
In the 5 marks of mission adopted by National Church and Diocese the fifth mark is to strive and safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth. This is also now part of our Baptismal vows.
As to the second, just as we work at feeding the hungry, alleviating pain, walking with the lonely (all part of creating justice) we need to work at our care for the planet and all its resources. We need to be constantly examining what we do, how we do it and the resources we consume.
To put money before the environment is a short term gain for long term pain. Work on behalf of creation is going to cost us money and change the way we live.
Think electric cars, limiting our driving range, increasing renewable energy (solar panels, many more wind turbines), more shopping and eating local products, buying clothes with long lives not fast fashion with synthetic material, retrofitting houses, giving up plastics and so on. And there is great urgency about doing these things.
Jesus calls us to act with compassion in creating justice in the world, to act with passion, to be compassionate towards and with people as God is compassionate.
Our challenge is to act with compassion in creating justice for all of creation.
