CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING: Care for God’s creation

“There exists a certain reciprocity: As we care for creation, we realize that God, through creation, cares for us.”

—Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, World Day of Peace, January 1, 2010

As we walk through our days—past trees, along streams, in the heat of the sun or the chill of the spring breeze—do we sense God among us? Do we recognize that simply being present in creation means we are in the presence of the Divine? What does God desire to say to us through those gentle breezes, the songs of the birds, the rain, snow and clouds? What does the firmness or slipperiness or unevenness of the ground beneath us say about our God?

It is so easy to forget that God exists in the created world around us, that God purposefully made each and every piece of creation, from the grains of sand to faraway planets the naked eye can’t see—and each thing was and is good. In our busyness, we hurry about with an eye only to what is useful to us. We spend our days trying to harness the powers of the earth’s resources. We confuse what it means to be stewards of creation.

God was quite clear: We are not the master builders. Creation is not judged by its usefulness to humanity. Creation is judged—and judged favorably!—solely by the very fact that God made it. As stewards, we are called to walk humbly, carefully and reverently with the created world. And we are called to recognize that our own future is intrinsically interwoven with the rise and fall of that which God made.

So don’t just stop and smell the roses. Stop and listen to creation. God is speaking through it.