Byzantine Catholic Family Matters

Benedict XVI, Bartholomew, Creation and Us

On a late summer Saturday in September my son John and I spent the afternoon exploring along a trail in the nearby Great Swamp. In places the trail consisted of boardwalk taking us over areas seasonally covered by water. The boardwalk finally led us to an area always covered by water save for the driest of years. From the boardwalk we were able to look down onto the still waters and observe numerous painted turtles swimming along beneath the surface, occasionally surfacing for air. There was also a frog, its head basking in the sun with the rest of its body submerged, its legs becoming visible only after one of the painted turtles swam by a bit too closely for its comfort. John was first to spot the turtles. He was captivated, intently watching the scene unfold, as if he would never tire of it, watching the turtles wind their way in the water and the frog resume its statuesque pose after making way for the turtle that got too close. John was awed by God’s creation.

A few weeks earlier, while on summer holiday in the north of Italy, Pope Benedict XVI had a dialogue with priests from the local diocese. At one point the conversation addressed the matter of consumption and our reverence - or lack thereof - for God’s creation. He said, "The brutal consumption of creation begins where God is missing, where matter has become matter simply for us, where we ourselves are the ultimate measure, where everything is simply our property and we consume it only for ourselves. The waste of creation begins when we no longer recognize any claim beyond ourselves, seeing only ourselves; it begins where there is no longer any dimension of life beyond death, where in this life we have to grab everything and take hold with the maximum intensity possible, where we have to possess everything it’s possible to possess."

In the 1960s serious plans were being made to transform the Great Swamp into the New York area’s fourth major airport. Individual citizens mobilized to successfully stop the project from destroying this oasis of wilderness some twenty miles from Newark. The area became a national wildlife refuge, permanently protected from development. And the New York metropolitan area has more than survived without a fourth major airport.

Benedict went on to say that we must remember that God is both Creator and Redeemer, and that God’s role as Creator has been ignored. The work of our Creator is something to be treasured, and "where the Word of the Creator was understood in the correct manner, where there was life with the Creator-Redeemer, in those places there was a commitment to protecting creation and not to destroy it." The Holy Father continued that protecting creation at its core goes beyond protecting the environment and finding alternative sources of energy. It requires a new life style, which holds together "the two dimensions - Creation and Redemption, earthly life and eternal life, responsibility for creation and responsibility for others and for the future."

In his recent book Encountering the Mystery, Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew has written of the wonder of God’s creation, the need to appropriately venerate it, and the need to "listen to the voice of creation." Bartholomew writes that the in the Christian east there is an "ascetic ethos" wherein we seek to "protect the gift of creation and to preserve nature intact." We do this, he writes, through self-restraint and self-control and that God’s creation is "not ours to abuse and waste simply because we have the desire to consume them or the ability to pay for them."

Sadly John was only one of two youngsters on the trail that late summer Saturday. The several other people we encountered on the trail were adults -- many of retirement age. No doubt many youngsters were on soccer fields (not a few made of artificial turf), and I’m sure there were no less than hundreds of kids in the four large malls within fifteen miles of the Great Swamp.

The wisdom of Benedict and Bartholomew makes absolutely no sense in a world where God is missing. It is a wisdom, which is sorely needed to guide the way in which we live and raise our children. We have largely lost our connection with God’s creation, and, in doing so; have sacrificed our connection with God. In part II of this essay we will look at ways in which the family can use the wisdom of Benedict and Bartholomew as our guide to reconnect with God and His creation, and in the end, to lead more Christian lives.