SHARING IN GOD'S WORK OF CREATION

may 6, 2007

In recent years, we have become aware of the need to protect and nurture our environment, because our life and future depend on it.

Reverence for God's creation is nothing new to Christians, since
we view it as a masterpiece of his creative genius.

God created the world and its creatures and he called his work good. He designed his creation to be ecologically balanced, and he placed natural laws in motion to maintain that balance. From the beginning, God intended that human beings would share in the development and maintenance of the earth. He made man and woman responsible for the care of the earth and its resources.

"And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it" Genesis 2:15. God directed that the first man and woman actively take care of the earth, but Adam and Eve, and the majority of people since, have not kept this trust.

A consensus has now developed that we have been abusing the earth and that if we do not become better stewards of creation, we will destroy the environment on which we depend for life. To be sure, there are many heated debates today about, for instance, whether or not the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere is being depleted to a dangerous extent, whether or not global warming is happening, whether or not we need to save the rain forests from developers, whether or not the levels of pollution in the air, ground, and water are reaching life threatening proportions, whether or not we are overpopulating the earth, and so forth.

There are two points upon which we can all agree, however. First, keeping the environment healthy so that it can continue to sustain future generations is not just a good idea, it is absolutely essential. Second, sooner or later, if we do not manage our natural resources wisely, we will reach a point beyond which our living planet cannot regenerate itself, and all living things will die.

Industrial development and technology are not bad in themselves. They are very good, and they have improved the quality of our lives immensely. And many scientists and technological engineers have dedicated their lives to finding ways of making science and technology serve the good of the environment. Nonetheless, the plain fact is that the earth and the living creatures inhabiting it have suffered from the shortsightedness of many of the applications of technological knowledge.

What should our world look like? In the book of Genesis, we find an inspired description of the Garden of Eden. To show us what he had in mind for all the earth, God created a beautiful, peaceful, and harmonious setting.

If we look back, we see that most generations of humanity have worked the land to produce food for themselves and others. They knew what it meant to be directly, immediately responsible for a portion of the earth. The directive of God to Adam and Eve made perfect sense to them: "God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Gen. 1:28).

Yet, most people today live in cities or towns. They are surrounded not by what God has created, but by what humans have built. It is very hard for growing numbers of modern people to feel directly responsible for God's creation.

The great challenge before us, then, is how to take responsibility for our world. This is admittedly a complex and much debated issue. But surely there are some simple steps everyone can take not to waste or abuse the resources we have, and to beautify the world in some way.

We should try, in other words, to think as God thinks. We should cherish his creation and all creatures within it. We should be concerned not just about our own fate or the fate of other people, but also about the fate of animal and plant species, and about the whole of the natural world and the entire cosmos itself.

Saving the earth must be the work of each one of us, but we should not forget our utter dependency on God, and the absolute need for the salvation not only of ourselves, but of all creation. As St. Paul puts it, "All creation groans and is in agony even until now. Not only that, but we ourselves, although we have the Spirit as first fruits, groan inwardly while we await the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:22 23).

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 05-Jun-2008 9:48 sitemap