Joining all creatures to praise our Creator

As Laudato Si’ has warned, the ecological crisis demonstrates a systematic failure to care for God’s gift of creation. Human sin is trashing the delicate web of life on this planet. The poorest suffer the most. The celebration of the Eucharist on 1 September is an opportunity to give thanks for creation (that goes to the heart of the meaning of the word Eucharist) as well as to pray for conversion and renewal.  Though we may differ on how exactly to proceed, this also has a huge political significance for how Catholics should behave, work, travel and vote. We owe it to this generation and the coming generations.  We are rightly concerned about the culture of death that threatens the unborn.  Likewise, we must be concerned about the culture of death that threatens those are already born as well as those who will come after us.

Tomorrow we celebrate the ‘Mass for the Care of Creation’.

Some liturgical resources are available for this special World Day of Prayer for Creation:

As the day symbolizing God’s act of creation, September 1 reminds us of a foundational mystery: that “in Christ were created all things in heaven and on earth… all things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16, as proclaimed in the new Mass’ lectionary), a mystery that up till now has received insufficient attention in our liturgical life and preaching. This also brings our gaze to the fruit of that act of love: the created world, which reveals the Creator and which we bring to the altar in the Mass. Our Eucharistic celebrations of the day of prayer help us ponder this mystery, joining all creatures to praise our Creator.

The Collect for the Mass is as follows:

God our Father, who in Christ, the firstborn of all creation, called all things into being, grant, we pray, that docile to the life-giving breath of your Spirit, we may lovingly care for the work of your hands. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

And, the prayer after communion is as follows:

May the sacrament of unity which we have received, O Father, increase communion with you and with our brothers and sisters, so that, as we await the new heavens and the new earth, we may learn to live in harmony with all creatures. Through Christ our Lord.

In a very insightful article by Michael Fox on Substack, Creation deserves a better, more significant Catholic Mass, we are reminded of the moral implications of our political actions and choices:

A Catholic may weigh a carbon tax against a technology subsidy and reach a different answer than his bishop, and the duty inside which he weighs them comes from the seventh commandment.

In case of allegations of political bias, Fox writes:

So the argument that Catholic teaching on creation amounts to a political preference has to reckon with a Collect that asks for charity in guarding the works of God’s hands, a first reading that forbids the worship of creatures, a Gospel option that opens on the service of money, and a Catechism that treats the ruin of the earth as theft from the poor.

The American Anglican Church has recognised climate change as:

an all-encompassing social crisis and moral emergency that impacts and interconnects every aspect of pastoral concern including health, poverty, employment, racism, social justice, and family life and that can only be addressed by a Great Work involving every sector of society, including the Church.

To which I can only add, Amen, Amen, Amen. Bring it on.