Pastor Mike’s Message
10-6-07
The book of Genesis describes the creation of animals as part of a search for a companion for Adam. In the Garden, humans were given the task of being stewards, looking after God’s creation. Later on, when the earth faces destruction in the great flood, God’s love of the creatures is reflected in an ark being built by Noah to save not just humankind but also all the animals. Francis of Assisi is an example of someone who helps us see God’s love for the creation and all creatures.
Francis of Assisi had a special link with all God’s creatures.
Francis was in awe of the swallow, the cricket and the wolf. “Where the modern cynic sees something ‘buglike’ in everything that exists,” observed the German writer-philosopher Max Scheler, “St. Francis saw even in a bug the sacredness of life.”
Francis also recognized that the world of God and the world of nature are one. Francis did not build an artificial wall between the natural world and the supernatural, the secular and the sacred.
For Francis, every creature was sacred. The world in which he lived was not something evil to be rejected but a sacred ladder by which he could ascend to his Creator, as his biographer St. Bonaventure noted more than once.
The Catholic bishops of the United States published a document in 1992 entitled Renewing the Earth. In it the bishops praised St. Francis while reminding their readers: “Safeguarding creation requires us to live responsibly in it, rather than managing creation as though we are outside it.” We should see ourselves, they added, as stewards within creation, not as separated from it. Francis was ahead of his time. He saw himself, like today’s environmentalists, as part of the ecosystem, not as a proud master over and above it.
St. Francis of Assisi addressed creatures as “sisters” and “brothers,” that is, as equals, not as subjects to be dominated.
Pope John Paul II proclaimed St. Francis of Assisi the patron of ecology in 1979. The pope cited him for being “an example of genuine and deep respect for the integrity of creation. ...”
“St. Francis,” he added, “invited all creation — animals, plants, natural forces, even Brother Sun and Sister Moon — to give honor and praise to the Lord.” Amen.