Sunday, March 26, 2017
BUILDING A CULTURE OF ENCOUNTER
“The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast”. For this reason, the ecological crisis is also a summons to profound interior conversion. It must be said that some committed and prayerful Christians, with the excuse of realism and pragmatism, tend to ridicule expressions of concern for the environment. Others are passive; they choose not to change their habits and thus become inconsistent. So what they all need is an “ecological conversion”, whereby the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in their relationship with the world around them. Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience.
– Pope Francis, Laudato Si’
Where do I find Christ in creation? By encountering Christ in creation, do I recognize my responsibility to be in right relationship with the environment? How does an encounter with Christ—present in the cries of the earth and the cries of the poor—fuel my ecological conversion?
