In Christ we are seeds of Peace and Hope

An invitation to a fruitful experience of the Season of Creation

Pope Francis, of blessed memory, published the encyclical Laudato Si in 2015, in which he voiced his concerns about the harms inflicted on our Common Home. Since then, through an ecumenical partnership, the project called Season of Creation was established. It invites Christians to reflect on the respect and care that should be shown to all creation and to pray for this intention, recognising that creation is a gift from God that must be protected. The Season of Creation runs from 1 September to 4 October. 1 September is the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, observed among Catholics since 2015, and among Orthodox Christians since the 1980s. The closing date, 4 October, honours St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of ecology and author of the Canticle of the Creatures, which is the namesake of Pope Francis’ encyclical.

This year, for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Pope Leo XIV wrote a message in which he states that “in Christ, we are seeds. Not only that, but “seeds of Peace and Hope.” The Holy Father’s message is rooted in the experience of the Jubilee. It is therefore worth recalling the call for hope made in the Bull of Proclamation of the Holy Year, which recognises that there is an ecological debt ‘linked to trade imbalances with ecological consequences and the disproportionate use of natural resources historically made by some countries’ (cf. n. 16). Number 4 of the Bull also reminds us that we have lost the ability to admire creation, we no longer await the changing of the seasons, we do not observe the life of animals and their cycles of development, and that we should have a simple gaze, like that of St. Francis (cf. n. 4), a gaze capable of praising God for creation, feeling part of it, part of a large family; and not a gaze of greed and utilitarianism, which views the gifts of the earth with a market-oriented perspective.

The Jubilee reminds us that our life is a pilgrimage, that we are walking towards the Lord, but we must think of those who will come after us; all are called to contemplate the beauty of Creation, to experience the goodness and gifts of God contained in our Common Home. When God finished his Creation, he ‘saw that everything was very good (Genesis 1:31). We are responsible for caring for our Common Home, for God wanted our cooperation in his project.

Still in the Message, Leo XIV writes that “in various parts of the world, it is already evident that our earth is falling into ruin. Everywhere, injustice, the violation of international law and the rights of peoples, inequality and greed are causing deforestation, pollution and the loss of biodiversity. Extreme natural phenomena, caused by man-made climate change, are increasing in intensity and frequency, without taking into account the medium and long-term effects of human and ecological devastation caused by armed conflicts.”

Seeds of a new world, we are called to care for and protect Creation, for it is ‘a project of God’s love, where every creature has value and meaning’ (LS 76). This is not a matter of deifying the earth, as Pope Francis taught in Laudato Si, but of understanding that ‘everything is a caress of God’ (LS 84) and that creation ‘is a continuous revelation of the divine’ (LS 85). We are invited to an integrated, committed spiritual experience, because ‘spirituality is not disconnected from the body, nature or the realities of this world, but lives with them and in them, in communion with everything that surrounds us’ (LS 216).

In this Season of Creation, may we pray for awareness of the crimes committed against nature and against humanity itself, especially the poorest; may we embrace concrete projects, propose changes, and adopt habits that aim at care and respect for our Common Home. May the Holy Spirit lead us to a genuine ecological conversion and give us the grace to fight for an Integral Ecology. So be it.

Father Sérgio de Jesus Azevedo, MSC
Deacon Leonardo Henrique Agostinho, MSC