By Ben McCullough | For On Mission
As we consider the church’s teaching on the environment, I would be amiss to not mention a personal experience in God’s first book, that is, the book he “wrote” even before the Old and New Testaments: creation itself.
In my budding years as a college student, I had the privilege of attending Wyoming Catholic College (WCC), a small liberal arts college nestled between the Wind River Mountains and the high plains desert typical of Wyoming landscape. Indeed, WCC has the great honor of having been founded by Green Bay Bishop David Ricken when he served in Wyoming.
At freshman orientation, WCC sends its students into the wilderness for a 21-day backpacking trip, led by fellow students and accompanied by a priest who offers daily Mass.
During this time, I experienced firsthand our environment that God gifted us. Between the dirt in everything (including, sometimes, the food!), the daily songs and prayer amidst the peaks of Wyoming, the bears, the friendships, the warm hot chocolate while playing cards in a tent on a rainy day and the sunsets, creation was presented in its most visceral form.
As I experienced WCC’s continued Outdoor Leadership Program, spending a cumulative 20-plus weeks in the backcountry over the course of my life, I started to realize something about creation, about the sunsets and the dirt, about the beauty and wonder inherent in our world: it is meant not only for our enjoyment, but most primarily to point us to God.
And I felt creation working on my heart, softening it to be more receptive to our Lord Jesus.
Indeed, it is no wonder that when God wants to speak to his prophets in the Scriptures, he usually sends them “into the wilderness” to hear his voice.
Yes, creation itself is good. But I think what is often lost in translation when speaking about the environment in our day and age is that creation is good because it brings us closer to God. Without this aspect, we will lose all orientation in discussing the environment.
When we consider our faith and the environment, then, we must start with this premise, that the protection of the environment is good because the environment, creation itself, is meant to point us to God. This is not just a political reality, nor simply a scientific inquiry, but one that must be considered from the point of view of theology. And this is exactly what the late Pope Francis did in his encyclical Laudato Si’.
In this encyclical, Pope Francis outlines a theology of the environment. The beginning of this encyclical is striking. It is a reflection on the life of a man who lived out awe and guardianship of our environment, St. Francis of Assisi:
If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs. By contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously. The poverty and austerity of Saint Francis were no mere veneer of asceticism, but something much more radical: a refusal to turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled.
What is more, Saint Francis, faithful to Scripture, invites us to see nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness (Par. 11-12).
Here we see Pope Francis contrasting two opposing attitudes towards the environment: on the one hand, an attitude of being a “master” or a “consumer.” This is an attitude that is often fostered in a society where God is not seen as the reason the environment must be protected.
On the other hand, if we connect ourselves to the environment, see ourselves as a part of the larger ecological system, then “care will well up spontaneously.” In this attitude we refuse “to turn reality into an object to be used and controlled,” but instead consider it as something to be loved, something that is good because it has been given to us as a gift to grow closer to the Lord God.
Though this article is not meant to delve into every topic related to protecting the environment, I believe that the general principle outlined, that creation is meant to point us to God, can give the reader a solid basis upon which they can engage those other issues.
Any suggestion that creation is an end in itself is tantamount to thinking creation is God. However, any suggestion that creation should be destroyed or unduly manipulated degrades the integral part that creation plays in our own journey to God.
I will end with the words of Christ, words that remind us that without God as the center of our discussion about the environment, without him as our end, we can do nothing to protect even ourselves, much less the environment. These are hard words, but their difficulty only calls us to, as Pope Francis said above, “something much more radical:”
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5).
Ben McCullough received his bachelor’s degree in liberal arts at Wyoming Catholic College and a master’s degree in sacred theology from the International Theological Institute in Austria. His career has taken him around the world. He currently works in Catholic health care in mission and ethics roles.