This year’s Season of Creation (1 Sept-4 Oct) theme, ‘Living Water’, explores Ezekiel 47:9 and 12 as a powerful biblical vision of hope and ecological healing.
September 1 introduces the Season of Creation. It comes to its climax on the Feast of St Francis of Assisi in early October. Pope Francis introduced this celebration as part of his emphasis that respect for our environment is central to Christian faith and not simply a political choice.
In the Christian tradition St Francis has long been the model of a commitment to simple living and of attention to nature. He saw the world of nature with all its rich connections as more than something out there to pray for. He experienced it as God’s gift to us and saw us as part of the world, not as its masters. In this vision of the world we suffer if the physical world is wounded and exploited, if animals and birds are deprived of their habitat, and if forests are felled and their rich ecology destroyed for gain. When the rich and delicate relationships between plants and animals, wildflowers and insects, bees and honey, insecticides and propagation, are destroyed, we human beings also suffer.
The theme of the Season of Creation this year is ‘Living Water’. These are flowing waters as distinct from the still water in wells and containers. Living or flowing water satisfies our thirst, but it also irrigates the earth, enables crops to grow and flowers to bloom and birds and insects to blossom and produce fruit. It is an essential part of the circle of life and beauty of the world. Most of us take it for granted, but the rainfall on which our life depends relies on the complex harmony of sunshine, rainfall, winds and low emissions.
In his Gospel, St John emphasises the Good News that God joined our world in Jesus and describes faith in him as living water. The Good News offers hope for the world which is stronger than the drought and flood that we experience in our lives. Like flowing water, it extends beyond our own limited lives to irrigate a dry world and to turn winter into spring.
In his great poem ‘The Canticle of the Sun’, St Fracis speaks of water as useful, earthy, precious and pure, qualities that are both desirable and modest. He sees human beings together with animals, birds, insects, plants and microorganisms as loved by God. In their relationships they depend on one another. This contrasts with the view shared by many Christians that human beings are above the world and that all other things given to them to enjoy and to use however they please.
In celebrating the Season of Creation, we are encouraged to delight in the beauty and delicacy of our natural world, to weep for the world devastated by exploitation, and to celebrate its preservation and nurturing. The whole world of which we are part reflects the beauty and the love of God.
Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ is an editorial consultant at Jesuit Communications
