By Sister Ethel Howley, SSND
Lent is a good time to reflect on what it means to be part of nature. Lent calls us to reflect on our human nature, its fragility, and our capacity for life-giving relationships. When we are unconscious of this capacity, we are prone to cut ourselves off from other people and from nature which is all around us.
You Are Sent speaks of SSNDs promoting unity among all: “As the desire of Jesus that all be one becomes more fully our own, our striving for unity embraces all humanity and the whole of creation.”
Jesus does not ask us to preserve nature but to return to nature: “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”
Let us return, this Lent, to the playful creativity of nature and celebrate the gift of life.
In our younger days, we remember Lent was the time for prayer, fasting, and alms giving. Today, we have to realize as we watch the evening news and read the daily paper, we are called to hear and respond in prayer and action, to both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.
LAUDATO SI’ prods us to recognize that we, human beings, are united as sisters and brothers on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together, by the love God has for each of us who are all united to sister moon, brother sun, mother earth, and brother river.
In our Lenten reflections with LAUDATO SI’, we’ll recognize our call to an “ecological conversion, whereby the effects of our encounter with Jesus Christ become evident in our relationship with the world around” us. (217)
This also means we need a community conversion which comes with a spirit of gratitude, generous care, self-sacrifice and good works. Rather than being disconnected from the rest of creatures, it entails a loving awareness and a splendid universal communion with all beings.
Our Lenten prayers and reflections with LAUDATO SI’ can lead us to reduce our use of fossil fuels, plastics, and paper. We also might eat less beef and engage in other practices to protect our common home.
We may want to consider our alms giving to include groups responding to the cries of the earth. After all, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, "Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs."
As we pray with LAUDATO SI’, we move along on a journey, one that hopefully brings us closer to Christ and leaves us changed by the encounter with Him.
