We Are Part

Recently I learned the genesis of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si -Praise Be, Care Our Common Home. It began with this incident- Two years ago typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) which took place in the Philippines on November 2013, brought huge damage to the city of Tacloban. Many lives were lost, people went missing and properties were destroyed. This global climate catastrophe, became the inspiration for Pope Francis to do something seriously and address climate change.

In the Encyclical, Pope Francis says simply that if we destroy creation, it will destroy us. This line sounds so similar to what Fr Thomas Berry often said when speaking to groups of people - “We will go into the future as single sacred community, or we will perish in the desert.” I guess Pope Francis was inspired by the writings of Father Thomas Berry, perhaps Thomas Berry was a ghost writer for the encyclical! With these insightful words we are aware of our mission, expressed through our lives of service and dedication for the healing of our planet Earth.

In our daily living we engage in work with care and consciously work the land with our hands, daily praying for the earth. We live our lives simply with the seasons. We know very well what is happening to our planet today. Coming from Indonesia, a third world country, I know my country has the third largest area of rainforest in the world but now more than 70% our forest in Indonesia is being destroyed by logging companies. It is very sad, even then the poor become poorer. Our children have no place to play. Most of them don’t know anymore the big trees in the forest which has become bald, the rivers are polluted, and the meadowlands have become sub divisions, condominiums and malls. Humanity consciously and unconsciously wants to be superior and dominate everything in life. Yet nature is stronger than us humans. Its remind me of Thomas Berry and the story of when he was a child experiencing the meadow across the creek. This experience became the guiding force for his consciousness. “Whatever preserves and enhances this meadow in the natural cycles of its transformation is good; whatever is opposed to this meadow or negates it is not good”.

We in many different cultures, with different ways are all part of the meadow. We have the same responsibility in caring for our common home as we move toward the future as a single community. Just like the meadowland not only lilies but also the insects, the water, the sky, everything and everyone, every group of people and community in the community of life participates in the dance of differentiation. We are not alien to each other. We are part of the differentiation, part of the community of life and part of the cosmic universe.