To Act and Hope with Creation

Daniel P. Horan is a Franciscan and Professor of Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Theology at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, where he is also Director of the Center for the Study of Spirituality. He is a columnist for National Catholic Reporter and the author of more than a dozen books, including All God’s Creatures: A Theology of Creation.

This year’s theme, ‘To act with hope with creation,’ which is inspired by St. Paul’s reflections on the cosmic implications of salvation (Romans 8:18-27), reminds me of an important but often overlooked factor leading to environmental degradation and anthropogenic climate change.

Too many of us have forgotten that we are as much a part of creation as any other plant, animal, or mineral. In doing so, we have artificially distanced ourselves as a species from the rest of creation and walked away from our cosmic family like the younger brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32).

Our collective and willful ignorance about our inherent creatureliness has given us a false sense of separateness, and consequently diminished the importance and value of all other aspects of creation. The impact of this distorted way of thinking is so significant that Pope Francis names it in the second paragraph of Laudato Si’: ‘We have forgotten that we ourselves are dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7).’ The result has been our use and abuse of the rest of creation to devastating ends.

As we celebrate this year’s Season of Creation, it is a good time to perform an ecological examen and consider the ways we intentionally or unconsciously separate ourselves from what St. Francis of Assisi would describe as our sister and brother creatures beyond the human community. It is also a good time to reflect on the joy and hope that comes from being part of God’s capacious, inclusive, and broad cosmic family.

There are three key words in this year’s theme that may help us reflect more deeply on our place within this cosmic family; they are: ‘with,’ ‘hope,’ and ‘act.’

It should be clear now the importance of the word ‘with.’ Salvation is not merely about humanity doing its thing in relationship with one another and God alone. Instead, it’s about everything that God has loved into existence returning to their Creator in community.

Another way to describe this is in the language of the Book of Revelation’s ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ (21:1). That which is to come is not merely a human experience, but the renewal of everything in eternal relationship with God. The word ‘with’ also reminds us of the here and now, that we are always in relationship with other creatures, that we are interdependent and connected to one another from the bacteria in our bodies that help regulate our digestion to the plants and animals that lay down their lives so that we might eat and live.

Hope is in the Christian tradition is not to be confused with mere optimism or happiness. Those attitudes and feelings are fleeting and circumstantial—you may be happy now and sad later, optimistic now and pessimistic later. Hope is something altogether different.

Hope is about faith in the God of Jesus Christ who ‘renews the face of the earth’ (Psalm 104) and who ‘hears the cries of the poor (Psalm 34). Hope has to do with knowing that life ultimately triumphs over death, love over hate, and peace over violence. Our hope, as St. Paul says elsewhere, is grounded in Christ crucified and the resurrection from the dead, which means something for humans and nonhumans alike.

Finally, this hope is not just a passive reality, something we sit around and wait to arrive. No, Christian hope informs and inspires action in the world. Jesus sent his followers out into the world to announce the in-breaking of the Reign of God but word and deed. And this is also our call.

How do we bear witness to this faith and hope in the world? What action is God calling us to take up on solidarity with the rest of creation? How can we do a better job not only ‘caring for our common home,’ but living with and supporting all members of God’s family of creation?