Pastor's Pen - June 26,2016

Taken from Weekday Homily Helps;

October 27, 2015 by Anna Marie Covely, OSC

Readings for the day: Rom 8:1825 and Lk 13:18



Floods in the South, drought on the West coast, record breaking snows in the Northeast  and this is only in the United States. Throughout the world, we read of villages being wiped out from earthquakes, islands disappearing amid rising water levels  even mountains shaking.
Creation is groaning, awaiting redemption, trying to give birth amid all our pollution and greenhouse gases. 

Last May, Pope Francis blessed us with an encyclical entitles “Laudato Si” (LS). The opening words are taken from the ”Canticle of Creation” written by St. Francis. In the Canticle, St. Francis teaches us to see all of creation as our brothers and sisters. In today’s reading, St. Paul tells us that all creation is waiting along with us for the fullness of revelation and redemption.

Most of us recognize our call to reach out to the poor, but do we recognize, as Pope Francis notes, that “the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she ‘groans in travail’” (Rom 8:22, cited in LS 2)?

The mustard seed becomes a shrub that gives hospitality to other. Earth has shown us hospitality by providing us with food, drink, and shelter. Can we return to all our sisters and brothers human and nonhuman the hospitality we have been given?

As we begin our summer fun and enjoy the great outdoors, maybe we should take time to remember that this is all a gift and one we need to use with respect. And don’t forget to give back and thank the Creator for all that He has given us.