by Marg Siberry
Each year the Justice and Peace Commission facilitates two away-days to provide an opportunity to reflect more deeply on one of our key priorities. On Saturday October 19th we wanted to focus on Climate Change as an urgent priority. Our hope on these days is to develop the theology underpinning the issue as well as providing an opportunity to deepen spirituality through creative prayer and shared reflection.
The late Fr Daniel O’Leary, when he was Episcopal Vicar for Formation in Leeds Diocese, used his experience as a writer and teacher to introduce a creation-centered approach to spirituality. He encouraged us to embrace new developments in science and cosmology to gain a new understanding of the role of each person in the evolving story of God’s creation.
After his death, The ‘Begin with the Heart Group’, has tried to continue this teaching and they agreed to facilitate the away-day. The parish of Ss John Fisher and Thomas in Burley-in-Wharfedale was chosen as the venue because they have a very active parish Livesimply group which gave an opportunity to share experience of how parishes can become more aware and active around the issue of Climate Change.
Starting Point – Insights from Church Fathers and Modern Prophets
More than 700 years ago St Thomas Aquinas stated, ‘If we get creation wrong we get God wrong’, a good starting point to think more deeply about our image of God and our understanding of creation. St Augustine argued that there are two books that reveal the nature of God – the Book of Scripture and the Book of Nature and that if we want to understand how God reveals Godself we need to hold these two sources together.
The story of the evolution and the revelation of God’s love through the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures are not in conflict with one another but are recognised as complementing each other and therefore enable us to grow in understanding God’s presence in our world and in our lives.
Renowned Jesuit theologian and eminent scientist Teilhard de Chardin developed a profound understanding of this truth through his work as a palaeontologist and through his study of scripture and theology. It was his belief that evolution is nothing other than the evolution of God’s love expressed in the material world of creation and in us.
The late Fr Thomas Berry, Passionist priest and scientist, said that in the last several decades a new story has emerged, a new cosmology that brings matters of science and matters of faith into a space where they not only complement each other but where the ‘new universe story’ deepens spirituality and energises faith.
Ironically, in modern times it is scientists, especially physicists and cosmologists, who are telling us the story of how all life is connected in a fundamental way – a story that the world’s mystics have been telling for centuries.
The Evolution of Love and The Evolution of Humanity
Andrew Thomson from the ‘Begin with the Heart’ group spent the morning using striking images and quotes to explore the latest scientific understanding of the evolution of the universe and its implications for our understanding of God and of our own place as humans within this evolving story. The human person is nothing else than evolution become conscious of itself.
We are the latest expression of God’s creation and we have a unique role in ensuring God’s complex and beautiful creation flourishes. Creation-centred spirituality invites us to recognize our role within the ongoing evolution of the universe and to be excited by the potential we carry.
Daniel O’Leary wrote that
‘We are called to see all of evolution and cosmic energy, from the first star to the final ending, as the work of the Holy Spirit.’
And in Laudato Si Pope Francis said,
‘The human person grows more, matures more and is sanctified more to the extent that he or she enters into relationships, going out from themselves to live in communion with God, with others and with all creatures.’
The afternoon provided an opportunity for shared reflection, prayer and liturgy and closed with another quote from Teilhard.
‘Love is the most universal, the most tremendous and the most mysterious of the cosmic forces.
The day will come when, after harnessing space, winds, the tide and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love.
And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, humanity will have discovered fire.’ Teilhard de Chardin