As mentioned last week, we are in the midst of the Season of Creation, where Cristians all over the world celebrate creation, God’s gift to us all. Pope Francis released a message to the faithful on September 1 that addresses the Season of Creation.
This week I’d like to share the beginning of Pope Francis’ Season of Creation message:
I am very pleased that the theme chosen by the ecumenical family for the celebration of the 2020 Season of Creation is Jubilee for the Earth, precisely in this year that marks the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day.
In the Holy Scriptures, a Jubilee is a sacred time to remember, return, rest, restore, and rejoice.
A Jubilee is indeed a time of grace to remember creation’s original vocation to exist and flourish as a community of love. We exist only in relationships: with God the Creator, with our brothers and sisters as members of a common family, and with all of God’s creatures within our common home. “Everything is related, and we human beings are united as brothers and sisters on a wonderful pilgrimage, woven together by the love God has for each of his creatures and which also unites us in fond affection with brother sun, sister moon, brother river and mother earth”.
A Jubilee, then, is a time of remembrance, in which we cherish the memory of our inter-relational existence. We need constantly to remember that “everything is interconnected, and that genuine care for our own lives and our relationships with nature is inseparable from fraternity, justice and faithfulness to others”.
The full text of the Holy Father’s message can be found here:
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2020/09/01/200901a.html
Working together, we can help take care of our common home.
Paul Litwin
Saint Francis of Assisi at St John the Evangelist 