LIfe in the stars

 

Christ will be glorified in my body, whether by my life or by my death.

 Life to me, of course, is Christ, but then death would bring me something more; but then again, if living in this body means doing work which is having good results – I do not know what I should choose. I am caught in this dilemma:

 I want to be gone and be with Christ, which would be very much the better,

 but for me to stay alive in this body is a more urgent need for your sake.

Avoid anything in your everyday lives that would be unworthy

of the gospel of Christ.

Philippians 1:20-24. 27

I stood outside for a few minutes last night. The sky was clear and I could see the night sky in its spring arrangement and I picked out some of its brightest players. We are, it is mused, made of stardust. And to the God in the heavens I prayed for the repose of the souls of those I have loved and who loved me, and for those who have lost loved ones. It was a short prayer in the universe's most awesome cathedral.

When we consider the fragility of life against the backdrop of the astonishing universe we dwell in, we cannot but be aware of our place in it. We inhabit a small blue planet in a minor solar system deposited between the great arm of Perseus and Scutum-Centaurus in the Milky Way. In evolutionary terms, life on earth began 4.28 billion years ago - almost 10 billion years after the genesis of our universe. There have been 5 major extinctions in the last 440 million years. What is most amazing about life is its resilience, its capacity to regenerate, to adjust to the vagaries of climate, earth movement and the impact of space debris.

Some life forms exist for hours (Mayflies between 1 and 24 hours) and the longest living vertebrate being the Greenland shark lives up to 500 years. In Tasmania may be found the sole surviving clonal colony of Lomatia tasmanica  which is estimated to be at least 43,600 years old. Where once a human lifetime was measured three score and ten years, we now regularly reach a century. Ultimately, at the end of every lifespan, there is death. It comes to every living creature. We humans love avoiding the word. We prefer such euphemisms as passed on, passed away, or just passed; with the Lord, asleep in Christ, called home, departed, slipped away or gone to eternal life. A new one I read recently was 'transitioned'.

For Paul the life that comes after this earthly one is preferable but he admits that he has work to do here and now and that this work has greater urgency then his desire for death (and eternal life in Christ). For each of us, the time we have must be put to work, to enable the flourishing of all that lives, care for our environment, our communities of communities. Whether or not there is a divine plan or a divine accident, at the deepest centre of all things is love. Not dogma. But love. All life was created to praise God. Or less theologically, just be what they are meant to be. Only humans complicate this. We can be overcome by greed and covetousness and any number of 'failings'. So added to our workload is to put right whatever we have put wrong.

Everything growing on earth, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

You springs, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

Seas and rivers, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

You sea monsters and all water creatures, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

All you birds of the air, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

All you beasts, wild and tame, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

All you mortals, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

Daniel 3: 76 - 82

Wherever we go at the time of death, we go in the hope of the resurrection. I cannot reiterate it enough that in the mission we have to take the Gospel to the world, we have no greater obligation than to lead others to love and to be in awe of this extraordinary universe.

Peter Douglas

Our common home really needs your help!

By Tony Magliano

“A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic system,” warns Pope Francis in his landmark environmental encyclical Laudato Si (“On Care for Our Common Home”).

Indeed, the scientific consensus is very solid. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), “97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree: Climate-warming trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities.”

The Earth’s hottest year on record was 2014. That was until 2015, which then became the hottest year. And that was until 2016, which is now the Earth’s hottest year.  

As reported in The New York Times, of the 17 hottest years on record, 16 have now occurred since 2000.

For decades scientists have warned that humanity is on a disastrous global warming course – increasing floods, droughts, storms, wildfires – by failing to drastically reduce fossil-fuel use – coal, oil and gas – and move quickly to clean sustainable wind, solar and geothermal energy. 

Yet climate change deniers – with little sustainable scientific evidence – insist that global warming is not happening. And the president of the United States is their chief spokesperson. Trump posted on Twitter that climate change is a hoax devised by China to secure an unfair trade advantage. 

He has irresponsibly proposed cutting necessary funding to the Environmental Protection Agency by approximately 30 percent, and has promised to pull the U.S. out of the crucial international Paris Agreement on climate change.

Leading us in the opposite direction of Trump, Pope Francis in his environmental encyclical Laudato Si (“On Care for Our Common Home”) insists “public pressure has to be exerted in order to bring about decisive political action. Society… must put pressure on governments to develop more rigorous regulations, procedures and controls. Unless citizens control political power – national, regional and municipal – it will not be possible to control damage to the environment.” 

The recent People’s Climate March in Washington, D.C. was good, but far from enough. The citizen pressure the Holy Father is urging must be strong and ongoing. Because most politicians don’t see the light until they feel the heat!

Consider signing up to receive information and action alerts from the Catholic Climate Covenant, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. And parishes would do well to order/download the Eco-Parish Guide for Catholic Parishes.

Skeptical Science is a scholarly website recommended to me by a highly respected climate scientist. I hope you find it as informative as I do. 

Each month I purchase 100 percent clean renewable energy for my home. And you and your parish can too. 

Like St. Francis, Pope Francis sees all of God’s creation as interrelated and worthy of protection. And so should we! 

In “On Care for Our Common Home” – a must read – the Holy Father warns: “When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities – to offer just a few examples – it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected.”

And thus Francis invites us to live with an attitude of the heart, fully present to each person, and accepting “each moment as a gift from God to be lived to the full.”

Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings about Catholic social teaching. His keynote address, "Advancing the Kingdom of God in the 21st Century," has been well received by diocesan and parish gatherings from Santa Clara, Calif. to Baltimore, Md. Tony can be reached at tmag@zoominternet.net.