In this month of September, Pope Leo XIV invites us to pray in such a way that we may “experience our interdependence with all creatures, who are loved by God and worthy of love and respect”.
How can we experience our interdependence with all creatures? Must we believe we communicate with such creatures as a tree leaf, an earth worm? Must we love things like spiders, cockroaches? What about those people who kill thousands of innocent people including babies around the world – must we love them? How?
There are so many creatures that are ‘loved by God and worthy of love and respect’ in the world and yet are impossible to live with, let alone to love and respect. Sometimes I find it a ridiculous concept! Yet, I remember an experience some forty years ago during the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. It was a dark night with only a few stars blinking in the far distance. As I stared at the small stars my world expanded, as if the stars came into my heart whispering in a little voice: ‘This situation won’t last forever’. My heart was filled with peace.
So, I believe all creatures created by God connect with us and each other constantly. If only we paused our almost unstoppable busy steps, our hundred threads of thought, our almost never-ending preparations for tomorrow… we could then stare at a beautiful flower, gaze at a golden sky, listen to falling rain drops, or perhaps hear the footsteps of the ants! These are ways we can connect with all creatures. And there we can find images of ourselves.
For thousands of years humans have assumed they have the right to master other creatures, as if to say: ‘God, you have created other creatures for our sake’. We have taken it for granted that the other creatures are there to serve us humans. Yet now we must ask: Do we really need other creatures on our human journey? Do other creatures really need us humans?
We are fortunate in our time to have scientific proof of the interdependence of all creatures, humans included. We now know how plants produce the oxygen we breathe and absorb the carbon dioxide that would harm us. We have observed communication between animals and can learn lessons of fidelity and bravery from them.
Like St Francis of Assisi, we can, as Pope Leo XIV says, “experience our interdependence with all creatures who are loved by God and worthy of love and respect”. We should, as Pope Leo XIV says, “view the world as a joyful mystery rather than just a problem”. If we work with nature, we find that contained within all life is the ability to solve its problems. A gum tree might be burnt by the bushfire, but inside it’s protective bark, new shoots emerge.
If we work with nature instead of against it, we will find hope and meaning. So, we pray with Pope Leo XIV for openness to God’s presence in creation, “so that we may feel and act to care for, respect, and protect life in all its forms”.
Hun Do rsj