CONSERVATION IS A LUXURY …

CONSERVATION IS A LUXURY …

On arrival in 1905, Fr Joseph Moreau, the first Jesuit to settle in Zambia, defended his insistence on farming before preaching by saying, ‘a hungry stomach has no ears’.  He brought a bible but he also brought a plough.  I heard a modern version of these words this past week, again in Zambia, relating to our efforts to promote the use of sources of energy that do not lead to global warming: ‘Conservation is a luxury when you can’t feed your children’.

This powerful pause for thought arose in connection with a formerly protected forest, close to Lusaka, which is now being pillaged by developers – and by charcoal burners. The forceful and scientifically supported arguments, warning of looming catastrophe, carry little weight if a poor man cannot put food on the family table.

Governments have a problem.  Many of them genuinely want to address the issue but first they have to educate people about the urgency of acting now.  And if they are able to convince them they have to provide alternative sources of energy which are ‘green’.  But they also have to work in solidarity with other governments otherwise those lagging behind will drag the others down.

All the science is available.  What is lacking is the will. In his letter on ‘Care for our Common Home’ (Laudato Si’), Pope Francis analyses the human roots of the ecological crisis. ‘A certain way of understanding human life and activity has gone awry, to the serious detriment of the world around us’ (#101).  He describes this in detail but ends on a positive note; ‘there is reason to hope that humanity at the dawn of the twenty first century will be remembered for bravely shouldering its responsibilities’ (#165). This will happen if we heed the call for ‘a selfless ecological commitment’ which can show itself even in ‘little daily actions’ such as where ‘a person who could afford to spend and consume more heating regularly uses less and wears warmer clothes’. This may seem a small thing but it shows ‘the kind of conviction and attitude which help to protect the environment.’ (#211)    

So the only problem we really have is a moral one: are we willing to act wisely now so that we save our common home for our descendants? When the Pharisee and the tax collector went to the temple, the former saw no need to ask himself questions about his way of life.  The tax collector, on the other hand, was conscious of his failure to live up to what his heart told him was the right way to live. Jesus praised him for his awareness and honesty.  The man knew he could not make it on his own.

The ecological crisis we face today calls us to realise that we are not so smart after all.  We need help to make the right decisions and carry them through. And the One who made our planet in the first place is ready and willing to provide that help.   

27 October 2019                     Sunday 30 C

Sira 35:12…18                        2 Timothy 4: 6…18                 Luke 18: 9-14

I’M ALRIGHT, JACK

I’M ALRIGHT, JACK

This saying used to be, perhaps still is, current to describe a person who is self-satisfied with their lot.  They have a job, a house, a car, an insurance policy and a pension waiting for them. It implies that they have taken care of themselves and feel no responsibility for anyone else. Others should do as they have done. End of story.

We know well that this is an untenable attitude of anyone who has an ounce of thirst for justice in our world.  We cannot be truly content if others are suffering. Nelson Mandela once said, ‘no one is free if all are not free’. Pope John XXIII decried, years ago, ‘prophets of doom’ – people who saw no way out of the mess as the future of the world seemed so bleak. At that time – the early sixties – the threat of nuclear war hung over us.

Sixty years on we are still there on our planet and the threat of nuclear war has receded.  But we have new worries while at the same time we have our share of those who say, ‘we’re alright, Jack’. Our biggest worries centre round global warming and the number of people in powerful positions who refuse to do anything about it. Their refusal is based on their sense of being ‘alright’ and they have no wish to make any decision that might threaten how they see themselves.

So when, for example, it is written, as it was in last week’s Zimbabwean,

‘as drought grips the region, the flow on the Zambezi river has dwindled to a third of what it was a year ago, limiting power generation’

they pay no attention or they shrug it off as ‘fake news’. Having crossed the Zambezi several times in the last year I have seen the water level drop and even as a layman in the world of meteorological science I can sense the creeping catastrophe.

This October does not feel like October as we have known it. There are cold winds and none of the oppressive heat that used to signal the approach of rain. So we already have a drought with all its multiple consequences for food and farmers. Yet there are many among us who persist in saying, ‘I’m alright.’

In today’s gospel Jesus tells a story of a widow who is persistent in demanding justice from a careless judge who has no respect for anyone. In the end he gives her what she wants, not because it is his duty but because he fears she will ‘box his ears’. (This is the meaning of the Greek word used).

It we are to make progress in halting and reversing global warming we need people like that widows who are not afraid to box a few ears.       

20 October 2o19                  Sunday 29 C

Exodus 17:8-13                     2 Timothy 3: 14-4:2                                    Luke 18:1-8

PLACES OF ENCOUNTER

PLACES OF ENCOUNTER

This Sunday, 13 October, John Henry Cardinal Newman will be declared a Saint by Pope Francis in Rome and among the thousands who will witness the event will be Charles, Prince of Wales.  The prince writes these words in the Times, ‘Newman could advocate without accusation, could disagree without disrespect and perhaps most of all could see differences as places of encounter rather than exclusion’.  He had an inquiring mind and was always ready to listen and to weigh what others said.

Charles has written a beautiful tribute to a great man. Newman grappled all his life – he was 89 when he died - with pressing issues of education and faith.  He had the intellectual ability to think through – and to pray through – questions that emerged in a century where reason and science posed serious challenges to long-held beliefs. Outstanding among his contributions was his assertion about the development of doctrine and the place of the laity in the Church. The essentials of doctrine do not change but the way they are expressed can undergo evolution and development.

He made a detailed study of the Arian controversy in the fourth century. The priest Arius held that Jesus, Son of the Father, could not be equal to the Father and so was subordinate to him. This view had serious implications for our understanding of ‘salvation’.  If Jesus is not God then we are left high and dry. No man could do what he did and does for us.  The Council of Nicea, in 325, condemned Arius and affirmed the absolute equality of Father and Son. But opinion remained divided and the Christian emperors of the period oscillated between Nicea and Arius and the bishops were inclined to follow their lead. It was “a time when the fidelity of the laity had ensured the Church’s continuance ‘when the body of the bishops failed in their confession of the faith’.”  Newman believed therefore that the Church was healthiest when able to encourage people to an intelligent grasp of the faith, and weakest when only requiring of them an ‘implicit faith in her word, which in the educated classes will terminate in indifference and in the poorer in superstition’.” [1]   

Perhaps this gives us a taste of the sort of man Newman was and the point of making him a saint is to make him more widely known and his contribution to faith and culture more easily accessible. It is not just the dictators of our age but even the duly elected leaders who govern our lives who could learn about ‘places of encounter’ in contrast to ‘places of exclusion’. We still live with too many walls – both physical and mental – that exclude others and so hold us back from welcoming those who are different and benefitting from the meeting.

13 October 2019                     Sunday 28 C

2 Kings 5:14-17                      2 Timothy 2:8-13                    Luke 17:11-19

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[1] Dermot Mansfield SJ, with quotes from Newman, Heart Speaks to Heart, Veritas  p 127

HOW LONG, LORD?

HOW LONG, LORD?

How long, Lord, am I to cry for help

While you will not listen;

To cry, ‘Oppression!’ in your ear

And you will not save?

                             Habakkuk 1:2

A visitor to Zimbabwe, coming from the airport, will notice solar-powered street lamps lining the new dual carriageway and they will be impressed.  But they will also notice that some of them have been felled like trees and lie forlorn at the side of the road, their solar panels removed. The image conjures up rhinos abandoned in the bush with their horns sawn off.

The visitor will pause to sympathise with those who laboured to beautify the road of welcome to the country, even as they labour to understand why people would want to sabotage the assets of the country for immediate gain. I puzzled over his question some years ago when I was directly involved in dealing with trying to guard the transformers in our area which were being drained of their special oil.

Our visitor may come from a country where the infrastructure works well and there is less temptation to raid public property for private profit.  But the one who steals the solar panels may reason; ‘some are benefiting from the assets of the country by stealing left, right and centre and why shouldn’t I?’

I have heard two other reports recently of ‘helping oneself’ without regard for the common good, though I cannot verify them. One was about people diverting money meant for the cyclone victims to their own pockets and the other about those who block medicines coming from India and other countries that are much more affordable than those carrying the international brand labels. The medication is exactly the same but it is produced under licence – a generous gesture? - in developing countries.

‘It is of the nature of sin that its effects are never confined within the individual, but reach into the tissues of human society.’[1] Once we allow corruption to enter our country it will take root and prosper from the highest to the lowest. ‘Why should I not do it?  Everyone else does’.

‘How long, O Lord, …?’ Habakkuk expresses the frustration of waiting for some relief from this pervasive influence which affects our social, economic and political life. Well, the answer must be: as long as it takes for us to wake up and, not only cry to the Lord for help, but do something about it ourselves.  Jesus cannot impose integrity on us.  We have to want it and act. Then the Lord will bless us and crown our efforts.

6 October 2019                       Sunday 27 C

Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4            2 Timothy 1:6 … 14                Luke 17:5-10

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[1] Michael Ivens, SJ, Understanding the Spiritual Exercises, Gracewing 1998, p 52

THEY WILL TAKE THE JEW BY THE SLEEVE

THEY WILL TAKE THE JEW BY THE SLEEVE.  Zechariah 8:20-23

October 1, 2019. St Theresa of Lisieux (Ruva Diki) (+1897)

‘In those days ten men of nations of every language will take the Jew by the sleeve and say, “We want to go with you, since we have learnt that God is with you”.’ Currently, our daily first readings are on the theme of the rebuilding of the temple and the promise of the new Israel. There is joy in this reading from Zechariah as the prophet glimpses the fulfilment of the long process of preparing for the coming of the Lord and the ‘glory of Israel’. The image is of an elder brother or sister leading their younger sibling to their first day at school. The gospel for today, on the other hand, tells us of Jesus ‘resolutely’ taking the road to Jerusalem with his disciples. His journey will lead to his suffering and death. The people they meet, and the disciples too, are either confused or unwelcoming.