Environmentalism in the scriptures
September 1 marked the start of the “Season of Creation” which lasts until October 4 on the Feast of St. Francis. Pope Francis also declared September 1 as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.
Here in Cebu, the Archdiocese celebrated a Mass to open the Season of Creation at the St. Pedro Calungsod Shrine inside the Archbishop’s Residence Compound. After the Mass, Rev. Fr. Mhar Vincent Balili gave a short talk on the scriptures in the Bible containing numerous prescriptions about our duty as stewards of God’s creations.
Upon the invitation of Rev. Fr. Murphy Sarsonas, chairman of the Cebu Archdiocesan Commission on Environmental Concern, I joined them and found myself on a Saturday morning learning about the words in the Bible about the environment.
I had earlier volunteered my services as legal adviser of the Archdiocesan commission. The last time I served the Church was way back in the 1990s as acolyte or altar boy in the chapel of the Adoration Convent of Divine Peace, commonly known as the Pink Sister’s Convent in Banilad.
I remember before every Mass the priest would say: “Our help is in the name of the Lord,” and we acolytes and the lay ministers would reply, “who made heaven and earth.”
It’s hard to count how many times the word “earth” is mentioned in the Bible, but as I learned from Fr. Balili last weekend, there are indeed several prescriptions in the holy scriptures about the preservation of the planet.
Genesis 2:15 says, “The Lord God placed man in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Genesis 1:28: “Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
Indeed, we are appointed by God as stewards of this planet. And God had decreed that the land and animals should fill also the earth and multiply, not just the humans.
Another thing I learned from Fr. Balili’s talk is that God loves the whole world he created. It is often that we read John 3:16 as “God loves the people in the world,” but this is not only what it says. John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
If one examines closely the parables of Jesus, they often bring the message about God’s creations. In the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), for example, Jesus taught us that we should do more than simply conserve the planet’s resources. We must dedicate our talents to cultivate and grow these resources for the greater good.
In the light of today’s widespread environmental degradation, the Church sees the urgent need to reorient our views about lording over other creatures of the planet or what is called anthrocentrism. The teachings in the scriptures call upon us to create a hospital and loving world for all of God’s creations.
Take Job 12:7-10: “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”
- Latest
