Interfaith Journeys
  • Home
  • Interfaith Journeys
  • Stella Reekie

A Legacy for our children.

13/7/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Today I was at an event in the local Gurdwara to welcome and pray for a new member of the community - now only two months old. I knew his grandparents well and was privileged to be at the ceremony. Everyone loves a baby and we queued up to cuddle and hold him. Babies bring out the best in us, I think. They give us hope for the future and inspire us to want all that is best for them. What will life be like when this little fellow grows up?  It will certainly be different if the pace of change in our world continues at the rate it's going. But I hope it will also be safe, not just in the face of violence but also in the face of sustainable development.  

These past two weeks there has been a lot said about the environment, certainly in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis recently published an encyclical which is a papal letter on the environment. It's long for a letter and comprehensive in its survey of how we are destroying the environment because of consumerism, greed, lack of reverence for life and an understanding of nature being there for our satisfaction and use. It recognises the great inequality between people with some living in luxury at the expense of the poor and exploiting the earh's resources for their own end. It can be overwhelming to consider what we as human beings are doing to our world and and the future looks bleak if we don't do something about it.  Somehow our generation is caught up in the present moment with no thought of future generations even though each one of us would want the best for our children and would want them to live in a healthy and safe environment. The Pope gives practical ideas for caring for our environment but at heart what he asks for is a change of heart which will change our thinking and approach to the created world. He calls us not just to remember how all of creation is interconnected but to feel this in our very bones so that we feel "the desertification of the soil almost as a physical ailment and the extinction of a species as a painful disfigurement". He calls us to reverence the sacredness of the earth and to use its resources well realising that they are on loan to us and that we have a duty to care for the earth for the sake of future  generations. 


All religions teach this care for the earth. Most of them teach that human beings are creatures and gifted with life and even Buddhism that doesn't believe in a Creator God stresses the interconnectedness of all things and treating the earth with reverence and respect. As Thich Nhat Hanh says, to walk on the earth is a miracle and we should do it mindfully.I recently came across John Moriarty and was struck by his desire that we should come home to the eath, seek to walk beatifully on it and reject a sense of them and us to move towards a 'we' feeling with trees, animals. oceans and all living things. It's not just humanity that's in it together but the whole world and the whole universe and each part of it is to be respected. "To see anything as less than it is is to sin against it" - something Pope Francis would agree with.

While the major religions call their followers to care for the earth and give reflective moments to remind us that we are finite and vulnerable creatures, it's indigenous people that keep alive this connectedness with the earth. Sometimes they're called pagan and considered inferior to the more developed religions, even in some situations being forcibly converted and their culture destroyed or in more recent times here in Scotland not being welcome at the table of interfaith dialogue.  But their sense of the sacredness of the earth and their understanding of it as a living body teaches us that to damage any part of this body is to damage the whole body. They have a wisdom that we ignore to our peril and the peril of our children.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    I am  a Catholic nun, involved in interfaith relations for many decades.  For me this has been an exciting and sacred journey which I would like to share with others.

    Picture

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    RSS Feed

    Categories
    Religious Performances
    ​​

    All

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.