ACTC

A Call to Communion with Creation

The following is a reflection and invitation from the joint meeting of the First Order Franciscan Justice Peace and Ecology (JPE), Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation (JP1C) and, Justice Peace and safeguarding of Creation (JPSC) ministers in the United States and Canada held at St. Francis Retreat House in Easton, Pennsylvania on November 6-11, 2006. The First Order Franciscans JPEI JPIC / JPSC Ministers in the US and Canada gratefully acknowledge the work of John Celichowski O.F.M. Cap., who served as the secretary for these sessions and as the principal author of this document.

To our brothers and sisters in Francis. Clare and Christ:

Peace and all good!

In November 2005, we who serve as the directors and animators of the Justice, Peace and Ecology/Integrity of Creation/Safeguarding of Creation (JPE/JPIC/JPSC) ministries in the Provinces of the Franciscans of the First Order, met and reflected on how our Franciscan Intellectual Tradition (FIT) might assist us in addressing environmental issues. We share these reflections with you in the hope that you will join us in the task of responding in our time to the call that God gave to Francis at San Damiano: to rebuild a house that is falling into ruin.

Wounded Creation, Ruptured Communion

At the outset, we must confess that, compared with our efforts to achieve greater justice and peace among our brothers and sisters in the human family, we have tended to give less attention to our brothers and sisters in creation. They, too, are suffering; and their disease, wrought by our actions and neglect, is now our own.

• Our depletion of the ozone layer has made Brother Sun's embrace not only warm and radiant, but also potentially fatal.

• Our explorations of space have left junk littering the home of Sister Moon and the stars.

• Our pollution of the air has made Brother Wind's breath toxic, particularly for children.

• Our treatment of our lakes, rivers, streams and oceans has made Sister Water sick.

• Our voracious appetite for fossil fuels has made Brother Fire the carrier of not only warmth and light but also destruction and war.

• Our lifestyles have abused our Sister and Mother Earth, and our work-addicted alienation from her natural rhythms and our own has led us, in many ways, to disown her.

Our insatiable desires and the seductions of technology have deluded us into pretending that we might escape the embrace of our Sister Bodily Death, whom we too often flee in fear rather than accept in faith.

We have ruptured our communion with God, with creation and with ourselves. We have traded the truth of our interdependence for an illusion of independence, our call to stewardship on behalf of our fellow creatures for a rusting crown of domination. We confess that we have sinned through our own fault, from what we have done and from what we have failed to do. We firmly resolve, with the help of God’s abundant grace, to do penance and to amend our lives in part by reclaiming the wisdom of our own Franciscan life and history.

Traditional Medicine: Finding Healing in Our Roots

During our time in Easton, we were blessed with the insights of Keith Warner, OFM and Ilia Delio, OSF, two scholars and contemporary stewards of the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition. They reminded us that we can help to heal creation, including ourselves, by more fully tilling the rich soil of knowledge and spirituality handed on to us.

In St. Francis of Assisi, we are reminded of our union with all of creation. That union is rooted in God's voluntary poverty, revealed in God’s compassionate self-donation. This incredible generosity began with the act of creating the cosmos, and reached its high point in the person of Jesus Christ, first through the Incarnation and then in the Paschal Mystery. Francis saw it echoed further in the Eucharist when he wrote in "A Letter to the Entire Order'" (27):

O sublime humility! O. humble sublimity!

The Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God,

So humbles Himself that for our salvation

He hides Himself under an ordinary piece of bread!

Centuries before the Second Vatican Council, Francis was able to recognize the Eucharist as "the source and summit" of the Church's life. It became for him the definitive symbol of our communion with God, one another, and the whole of creation. We have become accustomed to thinking of the liturgy, the Church's act of public service, as a locus for our action on behalf of justice and peace.

Francis' reflections on the Eucharist and the elements of sacrament – the integration of action, word and the things of the earth challenge us to also make it a locus for our action on behalf of the integrity of creation. These reflections also invite us to consider creation as a sacrament, with God speaking, acting and creating something new from a formless wasteland and wind-swept waters (Genesis 1: 1- 2:4).

Duns Scotus would later emphasize creation and our communion with God as the results of God's initiative. St. Bonaventure saw creation and communion as a consequence of the divine nature itself.

As Ilia Delio notes in her essay, "Are We at Home in the Cosmos? A Franciscan Perspective":

Bonaventure's theology of creation takes as its

starting point the Trinity of love. Creation is a limited

expression of the infinite and dynamic love between

the Father and the Son. To say' that creation flows out

of the infinite fountain of divine love is to say that

God is creative and loving. In order for divine glory to

be consciously expressed, God creates human beings

who are capable of participating in and manifesting

that glory. Thus God freely creates a glorious universe

and calls forth within this universe human persons

who are endowed with the freedom to participate in

this divine artistic splendor. Responding to this

generous invitation demands that we enter more

deeply into contemplation. In St. Bonaventure's view,

Francis came to 'see' God in creation because he

contemplated God in the things of creation.

Contemplation is a penetrating gaze that gets to the

truth of reality." (Delio, 3)

Scotus went further, developing his doctrine of individuation or haecceitas, i.e.) the idea that "things are God-like in their specificity. Thus regular, daily attention to the wider world of creatures/nature is fundamental to realizing that the world is charged with the grandeur of God." This holy attentiveness enables us to tap into God's power and thus enables us to share in God's work.

Roger Bacon, a thirteenth century son of Francis and "delayed vocation" responded enthusiastically and creatively to the call to collaborate with God. He embodied in his time what Keith Warner proposes is a critical task of Franciscans today: to pray with, learn from, and act on behalf of nature. Keith added that this demands ''that we take nature seriously-take it seriously as an agent of religious conversion, and as an object of our interest and compassion." (Warner, 3). It also requires that we join Francis in becoming what Keith calls "vernacular theologians," i.e., those who can translate our experiences and nature's voices in meaningful ways. Bacon, he recalls, "learned from careful observation of nature, describing its properties and behavior, and articulating this knowledge with theology, education and ethics, He was what we would today term an interdisciplinary scholar" (Warner, 21).

The study of Bacon and other sources caused Keith to conclude that animating concern for creation will demand a different pedagogy, including more emphasis on education and spiritual formation (ecoliteracy); integrating a contemplative perspective and practice; and linking the FIT with critical questions about society, science and technology.

Our deeper understanding of the communion of creation increases our consciousness of our interdependence. It also requires that we develop a more holistic understanding of our world, avoiding destructive dualisms (humanity vs. nature, spiritual vs. material, etc.) and the compartmentalization that has even contaminated our own work when we have failed to integrate environmental concerns with our work for justice and peace. We can no longer separate, for example, the environmental degradation wrought by the use of depleted uranium weapons in Iraq from the gross violations of human rights at Abu Ghraib and other prisons, or the weakening of international law by engaging in a preemptive attack on another nation without the necessary condition for an imminent (and not merely "gathering") threat. All are dimensions of the same sin.

An Invitation to Transformation

Our annual rhythms of renewal in the seasons of Advent and Lent present us with opportunities to engage more deeply in our call to be ambassadors of Christ and, ministers of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:20). What special effort can your local friary make to begin to be reconciled with creation?

We invite you to heed this summons by returning again to God present in creation.

Prayer and contemplation

• How well are the natural and man-made worlds integrated in my church or chapel, my friary, and my personal life and prayer?

• How can my community and I include the needs of creation in our prayers and intercessions?

• What balance' is there in my personal prayer between liturgical/ritual player and simply "obeying" before God and resting in the divine presence (lectio divina vs. lectio tranformativa)?

Fasting

• What relationship do I have with “fast food"? How can I receive better nourishment and a better return on the monetary investment I make in fast food?

• What influence or control have I given to technology in my life? Are there ways in which I might reduce my dependence on them?

• What does my "day off" look like? How much time do I allow for recuperating, renewing and rejuvenating myself? What is my relationship with nature when I take time alone?

Almsgiving

• How can my friary's charitable giving support local, sustainable agricultural programs?

• What energy-saving devices might be utilized in my community (e.g. compact fluorescent lights, front-loading washer, energy assessment of the friary, etc.)?

• How might we give of our time and talent to augment the financial support we offer specific?

How do these fit into your own lifestyle, and that of your local community? What other things might be more meaningful and life-changing in you local community? Share what you decide to do with someone else. It may challenge or inspire them.

In the face of the immensity of our planet's suffering, these suggestions may seem a handful of band-aids. Remember, though, that salvation came to us wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger (Lk 2:6), and that Francis' conversion turned on the simple act of embracing a leper.

Let us begin, then. For up to now, we have done very little.

Selected Resources:

Christopher Uhl, Developing Ecological Consciousness: Path to a Sustainable World (Rowman & Littlefield 2003).

Dawn Nothwehr (Ed.), Franciscan Theology of the Environment (Franciscan Press 2002).

Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the American Meal (Perennial 2001).

Ilia Delio, "Are We At Home In The Cosmos?: A Franciscan Perspective," in New Theology Review (November 2005), 31-39.

llia Delio, "A Franciscan View of Creation: Learning to Live in a Sacramental World" (Franciscan Institute 2003).

James B. Martin-Schramm and Robert L. Stivers. Christian Environmental Ethics: A Case Method Approach (Maryknoll 2003).

Keith D. Warner, "Taking Nature Seriously: Nature Mysticism, Franciscan Spirituality, and Environmental Advocacy." In Ilia Delio OSF (Ed.), Franciscans and Creation: What is Our Responsibility? (Franciscan Institute 2004), from http://www.scu.edu/envs/whoweare/whowearefacultyandstaff-kwarner.htm

Mathis Wackernagl and William Rees, Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Hunan Impact 0n the Earth (New Society Pub. 2003).

Pope John Paul II, “Peace with God the Father. Peace with All Creation," Message for World Day of Peace (January 1990), from http://conservation.catholic.org/ecologicalcrisis.htm

Contact Friars for the Conferences:

Mark Schroeder, OFM

4050 Mission Avenue

Oceanside, California 92057

bromarko@att.net

Charles McCarthy, OFM Conv.

131 S. Zaragoza Road

El Paso, Texas 79907

justicefund@hotmail.comm

James Zielinski, OFM Cap.

1927 N.4th Street

Milwaukee, WI 53212