THE TENTH STATION: Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments

For creation awaits with eager expectation … in hope that [it] would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.

—Romans 8:19–21

When we think of those goods the poor are stripped of daily, there are probably several key items that come to mind: food, water and shelter, to name a few. We so often see countries rich in resources, and yet, the people of those countries live in poverty. How do we ensure that the wonders of the natural world are used in a sustainable, equitable way? Giving a man a fish, as the old adage goes, only solves the problem for the day.

Pope Francis says it best in his encyclical, Laudato Si’: “We have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.”

The environment and the people that inhabit it are interconnected; all of God’s creation is one. God calls us to be stewards of the resources which we have been given, to look out for one another by sharing and collaborating, rather than grabbing up everything we can get now and worrying about others later. After all, teaching a man to fish will be of little value if we’ve left a polluted pond.