September 19, 2023
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily for the Boston Catholic Climate Movement’s 3rd Annual “Green” Mass on September 16, 2023 at the Paulist Center in Boston, MA. The homily is based on Isaiah 45:6-8, 18-20; Psalm 85; Laudato Si’ #72-73; and John 7:14-16, 28-29, 37-39.
As we were choosing readings for today’s Mass, we considered using The Message Bible’s translation of a forceful passage from the Book of Amos that condemned so-called religious people who simply went to conventions, made up slogans, worked on public relations campaigns with what it called “noisy ego-music,” and ran fundraisers.
But we decided that the last thing members of the Boston Catholic Climate Movement needed was a message of condemnation. This group of people doesn’t need to be told about the past sins of humanity’s treatment of the environment. This gathering is filled with people who take action. In the face of the climate crisis, what do those of us most dedicated to environmental justice need?
Today’s Mass will be a celebration of hope. Hope is a virtue. Hope is a gift from God. And God guarantees that hope is always available to us who believe.
To celebrate this Season of Creation as a Season of Hope, we will now be blessed with holy water. Let justice and peace flow!
The signs that industrial activity is degrading the environment have been visible for decades, but the evidence has become truly overwhelming in the past few years. We use a lot of words to describe the weather in New England, but one we usually don’t use is “tropical.” Nevertheless, we are gathered here as some of our neighbors are experiencing or anticipating wind & water damage from a tropical storm.
The biggest danger to the environment now is not the denial of the problem. We face a double threat: of people who think the full effects of climate change will not not happen until far in the future, and of wealthy, powerful people who think that they can simply spend enough money to protect themselves from the damage. But all of us here know that there’s not enough money in the world to build sufficient infrastructure to protect everyone from the ravages of unbridled global warming.
It’s easy to give in to despair. But as the Canadian climate activist David Suzuki said recently, “Despair is a luxury we can’t afford any longer.” What do we replace this despair with? Amanda Shendruk of The Washington Post wrote a big article 10 days ago, and the main person she cited was Christiana Figueres, a key player in writing the Paris climate accord. Figueres says we must employ what she calls “a stubborn optimism” in our work. Shendruk defines stubborn optimism as, and I quote, “a dissatisfied, gritty, determined confidence that humanity can bring about needed change in the face of great challenges.”
Yes, we need that stubborn optimism, that gritty, determined confidence to continue speaking up, making sacrifices, organizing resources, and winning people to our cause. There’s a great challenge to confront. I think that we need to find a supernatural, spiritual wellspring at which to continually replenish our optimism. God has entrusted us to be the stewards of creation. I don’t think God wanted us to supervise things for all time without regularly checking back in to see if God had further advice, instructions, or encouragement for us!
In the prophecy of Isaiah, God promises that justice will descend from heaven like a gentle rain, and justice will blossom. Pope Francis instructs us to find renewed strength in contemplating the combination of God’s great power and great love.
But the message is not passive. We are not to look for God in an empty waste, says Isaiah. That’s a trap that leads to inaction. We are charged by God to make the world habitable. Francis reminds us that God’s acts of liberating and saving are intimately connected to God’s act of creation. Just as we are stewards of God’s creation, we have been baptized as agents of God’s liberating and saving actions.
We need to have “a dissatisfied, gritty, determined confidence that humanity can bring about needed change in the face of great challenges,” but we must understand that the change is not up to humanity alone. Everything depends on us working hand-in-hand with the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We are not in this alone. Even now, God is on our side in caring for creation.
In other words, the work of environmental justice must always be done while nurturing the virtue of hope. Technically, hope is a combination of two things: it is both the desire for something, and the expectation that we will receive it. Our “dissatisfied, gritty, determined confidence” must include the hope that humanity is still guided by God.
For Christians, hope springs eternal. Even in the middle of Good Friday, even if no human beings could comprehend it, God’s plan for creation was still moving forward towards its ultimate destiny. Even at funerals, we speak repeatedly of “the sure and certain hope” of the resurrection.
Humanity is waking up to the reality of climate change and growing in awareness that time is running out. More and more people are willing to make the painful sacrifices that will be required of us all to reverse the damage. Even though new environmental tragedies face us every day, humanity is making substantial progress in addressing the needs of our common home.
Christ, God the Almighty’s very Word, was present and participated in the very first moments of creation. As Jesus, Christ continues to be present with us, still carrying out the work of creation. As he said nearly 2,000 years ago, “I know [the Almighty Creator], because I am from [the Almighty Creator].” The prophet Amos also shared words of the Almighty. That passage I mentioned at the beginning Mass ended with this beautiful exhortation: “When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want.” (The Message, Amos 5:23-24)
Let us not look for God in the wastelands of the environment we have destroyed.
Instead, as God’s stewards of creation, let us continually seek God’s instruction as we do all we can to allow justice and peace to flow once again!