7 Scriptural Keystones for Care of the Creation -- Happy 40th Earth Day!

Forty years ago was the first Earth Day, when members of developed countries gathered to act in concern about the pollution and litter in their midst. We met, changed our ways and our laws, and triumphed over these challenges to some extent, thinking we finished the job. But we didn’t recreate ourselves from the inside out, from roots of faith and inner values, and we didn’t engage all of the world as partners or act as concerned for developing countries as for ourselves.

Ecology is the study and art of communities (natural communities that include people), built on the premises of strength through diversity in a connected whole, complementarity and solidarity, where all participants are needed, and everyone has a niche of contribution, no matter what species or how rich or poor or marginalized, no matter a person’s sex or religion. It's a concept that demands that everyone feel connected, able to participate and change for the common good, and through this everyone benefits, not just from the harmony of a healthier planet, but from the spiritual growth that the changes will generate from a renewed connection to each other, our God and the natural world -- God’s first gift to humans, every day renewed and renewing.


Here is a (copyrighted) chapter excerpt from my upcoming book: GREEN HOPE: John Paul II's Ecological Action Plan for Humanity's Spiritual and Physical Survival that explains the Biblical basis for Creation Care:

God also said, "I give you all plants that bear seed everywhere on earth, and every tree bearing fruit which yields seed; they shall be yours for food. All green plants I give for food to the wild animals, to all the birds of heaven and to all reptiles on earth, every living creature." So it was; and God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."
Genesis 1:29-31


In the book of Genesis, where we find God’s first self-revelation to humanity, there is a recurring refrain: “And God saw that it was good”. . . . God entrusted the whole of creation to the man and woman, and only then as we read – could He rest “from all his work.”

The Seven Scriptural Keystones of the Christian Ecological Vision

To understand a Christian moral and spiritual perspective on ecology, one needs to understand the Scriptural base upon which it is built. Pope John Paul II claimed that every human being has an inherent “ecological vocation,” by nature proclaimed in Genesis, where the Creator made humans out of the mud and then gave them “dominion” to care for creation for God (Dominus—the LORD), knowing it is all “good”, caring for the garden of creation with God’s value's, not ours.

However, over the centuries in the West, with the integration of Greco-Roman Platonic thought, the “good” became associated with ideals that do not exist in nature, a climbing of a ladder away from creation. Later the scientific revolution added the belief that all mysteries can be solved rationally by humans. Eventually the concept of capitalism and the “self-made man” evolved, and through the Industrial Revolution, business became disassociated with morality and work separate from a vocation or calling, becoming in the general populace only a mode to accumulate wealth. “Dominion” diminished into “domination” – humans creating their own values for their own reasons and living by them, “subduing” the world to fit their thought and use patterns rather than those of the earth or of the Creator. Dominion has meanings of God-given authority, but also of husbandry and loving care. It implies both the power to do something as well as the mandate to do it as God wishes it.

Pope John Paul (as well as Pope Paul VI and Pope Benedict and many prominent Protestant Christian leaders and religious leaders from other faiths) called the citizens of the planet to remember their original nature as a creature and fellow resident on the planet and seek out “an ecological conversion” and the common good of all in the garden:

A radical cultural change is necessary: there must be a "conversion" from the indiscriminate exploitation of its resources to a responsible stewardship of the goods that God gives us in creation. Angelus, November 10, 2002
But how can we do this? John Paul II turned to Judeo-Christian Scripture for guidance.

I. Responsible Dominion -- The Message from Genesis: To Act for God in God’s Image

The book of Genesis describes how God created the earth and let it bring forth vegetation and all kinds of animals. God then gave humans “dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground” (Gn1: 26, 28).

Pope John Paul II often referred to dominion because in Judeo-Christian Scripture, it is humans’ first God-given responsibility -– to care for what God has created. JPII saw pollution, resource degradation, species extinction, poverty, materialism, abortion, euthanasia, and war all as a sinful use of dominion. “If an irresponsible culture of ‘dominion’ has been advanced with regard to natural resources, especially under the pressure of industrialization, with results in devastating ecological consequences, this certainly does not correspond to God's plan. (Address to honor to JUBILEE OF THE AGRICULTURAL WORLD, Vatican, November 11, 2000).

“The task,” he wrote in the encyclical SOLLICITUDO REI SOCIALIS “is ‘to have dominion’ over the other created beings . . . This is to be accomplished within the framework of obedience to the divine law and therefore with the respect for the image received. . . When man disobeys God and refuses to submit to his rule, nature rebels against him and no longer recognizes him as its ‘master’ for he has tarnished the divine image in himself.”

Thus, the famous words of dominion in Genesis entrust the earth to man's use, not abuse. “They do not make man the absolute arbiter of the earth's governance, but the Creator's ‘co-worker’: a stupendous mission, but one also marked by precise boundaries that can never be transgressed with impunity” (Address to honor to Jubilee of the Agricultural World, Vatican, November 11, 2000).
John Paul explained further:
As the Genesis account says, [the human] is placed in the garden with the duty of cultivating and watching over it, being superior to the others placed by God under his dominion. But at the same time, man must remain subject to the will of God, who imposes limits upon his use and dominion over things (Gen. 2-16-17), just as he promises his mortality (Gen. 2:9; Wis. 2:23).
On the basis of this teaching, development cannot consist only in the use, dominion over, and indiscriminate possession of created things and the product of human industry, but rather in subordinating the possession, dominion, and use to man’s divine likeness and to his vocation to immortality.
Encyclical SOLLICITUDO REI SOCIALIS, December 30, 1987


In many ways, this is a mind-blowing concept -- that a Creator, mysterious and powerful enough to form an entire universe with millions of planets and stars, would put the lives of all life on a planet in the hands of one of the species of its creatures. Yet that is the case, both as a physical reality and a Scriptural one.
There is a growing threat to the environment of humanity, to vegetation, animals, water, and air. Sacred Scripture hands on the image of Cain who rejected his responsibility: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

The Bible shows the human person as his brother's keeper and the guardian of creation that as been entrusted to him.
Address: Representatives of Science, Art and Journalism, Salzburg, Austria, June 26, 1988

The caretaker image was a favorite for John Paul II:
Man often seems to see no other meaning in his natural environment than what serves for immediate use and consumption. Yet it was the Creator's will that man should communicate with nature as an intelligent and noble “master” and "guardian", and not as a heedless "exploiter" and "destroyer".... Encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, 1979
“Created in the image of God, humanity has the right to make use of other created realities but not to lord over nature, still less to ruin it. People are called to become God’s co-workers in caring for creation. Angelus, March 24, 1996

Far from being a burden, though, John Paul saw these obligations of keeper and guardian as the human vocation based on joy and love:
In such a Christ-centered light, Psalm 8 reveals … its hope, inviting us to exercise our sovereignty over creation not through domination but through love.
General Audience Meditation on Psalm 8 on Humankind's Proper Sovereignty Over Creation. July 6, 2002

Below is a further sampling of John Paul II’s voluminous teachings on this historically dodgy concept, often mistranslated and misinterpreted -- dominion:

We are dealing here with that which found expression in the Creator’s first message to man at the moment he was giving him the earth to ‘subdue’ it . … [which was] his call to share in the kingly function -- the munus regale -- of Christ himself. The essential meaning of this ‘kingship’ and ‘dominion’ of humankind over the visible world . . . consists in the priority of ethics over technology, in the primacy of the person over things, and in the superiority of spirit over matter. . . . Encyclical Letter REDEMPTOR HOMINIS, March 4, 1979

It is the duty of Christians and of all who look to God as the Creator to protect the environment by restoring a sense of reverence for the whole of God’s creation. It is the Creator’s will that man should treat nature not as a ruthless exploiter but as an intelligent and responsible administrator.
Post Synod Apostolic Exhortation “Ecclesia in Asia, 1998

As one called to till and look after the garden of the world (cf. Gen 2:15), man has a specific responsibility towards the environment in which he lives, towards the creation which God has put at the service of his personal dignity, of his life, not only for the present but also for future generations….
The task of accepting and serving life involves everyone; and this task must be fulfilled above all towards life when it is at its weakest.
Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, 1995

For the Christian, there is a moral commitment to care for the earth so that it may produce fruit and become a dwelling of the universal human family.
-Homily in Val Visdene, Italy, on the Feast Day of St. John Gualbert, Patron of Foresters, 1990

II. Creation Is Based in Diversity and Interdependence

Throughout the Bible, there is an emphasis on the importance of the many different members, with different roles, to make the whole. Genesis takes great time in describing the parts of the cosmos and types of species created each day, and after each day’s work, God looks in a self satisfied way and sees that “it is good.” Pope John Paul II emphasizes the ecological truths inherit in this: “By the very circumstance of their having been created, all things are endowed with their own stability, truth, goodness, proper laws and order. Man must respect these as he isolates them by the appropriate methods of the individual sciences or arts” (Pope Paul VI, GUADIUM ET SPES: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, December 7, 1965)

However happy God is with the order of the cosmos in the start of Genesis, God is definitely not happy with the disorder his human guardians soon create, living according to their own rules and sewing seeds of disharmony and destruction. So God sends the flood over the earth to sweep it clean except for the righteous Noah and his family. But protecting Noah was not enough. God made a point to command Noah to build an ark and preserve the earth’s diversity, so after the flood the earth could be repopulated. All goes as God stated, and when the waters eventually recede, Noah offers his thanks:
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the LORD smelled the pleasing odor, the LORD said in his heart: “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtimes and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease…”.

The LORD proceeds then to do a most extraordinary thing (from a human perspective) to pledge a covenant not only with the humans but with every species on the planet:
…”As for me I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animals of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark… This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creative that is with you, for all future generations. I have set my bow in the cloueds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”

To emphasize the point, lest humans not attend to this sacred contract, the LORD repeats the covenant three times with humans and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. For this reason, John Paul II urged the world to protect the earth’s biodiversity. He called a meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences to explore issues involved in species loss and extinction and habitat destruction. He spoke out numerous times, begging the world to take this issue seriously, especially in terms of deforestation and consequent species loss:
Unfortunately the rate at which these forests are being destroyed or altered is depleting their biodiversity so quickly that many species may never be cataloged or studied for their possible value to human beings.
Is it possible, then, that the indiscriminate destruction of tropical forests is going to prevent future generations from benefiting from the riches of these ecosystems in Asia, Africa, and Latin America?... Should a lack of foresight continue to harm the dynamic processes of the earth, civilization, and human life itself? Address to Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Study Week on Tropical Forest and the Conservation of Species, May 18, 1990
Building on Genesis, John Paul II’s stated the basic spiritual ecological principle: “This implies that life must be handled with care, including animal life and all of animate and inanimate nature” (Address, Representatives of Science and Art, Vienna, Austria, September 13, 1983).. The pope also noted how many of the principles of creation reflection spiritual principles as well. In the New Testament, the necessity of the planetary physical diversity is echoed in the description of the integral spiritual diversity and interdependence of the communal parts, most clearly described in 1 Corinthians 12: 4-26:
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good…All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individual just as the Spirit chooses.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though man, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. …If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, …But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

In much the same way as the human body and spiritual community, the body of the planet is comprised of many varied members – myriads of species, many races and religions, countries of more development and less, individuals of different perspectives, backgrounds, and gifts, and male and female gender. Pope John Paul II put the same sentiment this way:
Destruction to any part of creation harms the whole. The ensemble of creatures constitutes the universe. In its totality, as well as its parts, the visible and invisible cosmos reflects eternal Wisdom and expresses the inexhaustible love of the Creator (General audience, March 12, 1986).

He also emphasized the principle of interdependence underlying all the diversity of life:

Today, the dramatic threat of ecological breakdown is teaching us the extent to which greed and selfishness -- both individual and collective -- are contrary to the order of creation, an order that is characterized by mutual interdependence. MESSAGE FOR THE WORLD DAY OF PEACE, JANUARY 1, 1990, PEACE WITH GOD THE CREATOR, PEACE WITH ALL OF CREATION

Pope John Paul II was noted that not only biological diversity should be respected, but cultural, religious, economic class, and individual diversity.
With daily renewed wonder, we note the variety of manifestations of human life, from the complementarity of male and female, to a multiplicity of distinctive gifts belonging to the different cultures and traditions that form a multifaceted and versatile linguistic, cultural and artistic cosmos. This multiplicity is called to form a cohesive whole, in the contact and dialog that will enrich and bring joy to all.
World Day of Prayer for Peace Address to representatives of World Religions, Assisi, Italy, January 24, 2002

However much we know and are commanded by the Bible to respect and preserve diversity, difference is never easy to live with it, Pope John Paul II knew this well, as he visited war-torn, ecologically devastated places around the planet. He meditated sorrowfully on this:
Unhappily, the world has yet to learn how to live with diversity, as recent events in the Balkans and Central Africa have painfully reminded us. The fact of "difference", and the reality of "the other", can sometimes be felt as a burden, or even as a threat. General Assembly of the United Nations in Honor of Its 50th Anniversary, New York, October 5, 1995

In 2001, Pope John Paul decried the costs to communities and the world of racism and the denigration of human dignity, and he said that we could more easily handle difference well if we fostered new attitudes, appreciating the opportunities and gifts in multiple perspectives, gifts, talents, and resources, as the Bible taught. Instead, we often fall into the sin of racism and religious wars:
“Every upright conscience cannot but decisively condemn any racism, no matter in what heart or place it is found. Unfortunately it emerges in ever new and unexpected ways, offending and degrading the human family. Racism is a sin that constitutes a serious sin against God… ‘We cannot truly pray to God the Father of all if we treat any people in other than brotherly fashion, for all men are created in the images of God.’” [emphasis is pope’s own, Angelus, Sunday August 26, 2001]

So he called for an end to racism and the establishment of habits of dialog, tolerance, and understanding, and a sense of the universal values and Creator that are shared by all. After 9/11, he invited religious leaders of all faiths to join him in a peace conference at Assisi, Italy. He also remind countries and individuals with more wealth, education, and technology that they must respect those without access to these tools and see that they have wisdom and creativity to bring to situations based on hard won experience, ingenuity, and practicality. This, too, is part of the Biblical call of diversity and interdependence:
It is important to acknowledge that persons living in poverty must be considered as participating subjects. Individuals and peoples are not tools but protagonists of their future and agents of their own development. In their specific economic and political circumstances, they are to exercise the creativity that is characteristic of the human person and on which the wealth of a nation is dependent. Sustainable development is aimed at inclusion. It can only be attained through responsible and equitable international cooperation, participation and partnership. (The Holy See’s address to 11th Session of the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development., New York, May 2003 ---a follow-up meeting to the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development held in South Africa).


III. The Earth Belongs to God

Christians have long struggled with how to best approach land and property, since Jesus preached radically against accumulating riches and storing up goods on earth. Christian ownership, then, was a kind of oxymoron in the early church. According to Acts in the New Testament, believers sold all they owned to give to the community and those less fortunate.

So, in considering the question of ownership, John Paul II went back to the beginning. How did people get land in the first place and for what intents did God present it? John Paul II wrote: “Without doubt, the most important value at stake when we look at the earth and at those who work is the principle that brings the earth back to her Creator: The earth belongs to God! It must therefore be treated according to his law.” (Jubilee of the Agricultural World Address, Vatican, November 11, 2000).

John Paul II also noted how each element of nature is beloved by God and given to humans as a sign of love. “In a territory where drought is common, as it is in the East, the first sign of divine love is the rain that makes the earth fertile. In this way, the Creator prepares food for the animals. Indeed, he even troubles to feed the tiniest of living creatures, like the young ravens that cry with hunger” (General Audience, Castel Gandolf, Italy, July 23, 2003).

In light of this, John Paul II reminds Christians, and humans in general, that according to Scripture they are aliens who have become tenants (Lev.25:23; Matthew 21: 33-43). God gave humanity the land as a gift, one to be shared by all and cared for through work, in dominion, for God’s purposes. One can see this theme in many writings, including these:

It was a common conviction, in fact, that to God alone, as Creator, belonged the . . . lordship over all Creation and over the earth in particular (cf. Lev 25:23). If, in his Providence, God had given the earth to humanity that meant that he had given it to everyone. Therefore, the riches of Creation were to be considered as a common good of the whole of humanity. Those who possessed these goods as personal property were really only stewards, ministers charged with working in the name of God, who remains the sole owner in the full sense… Apostolic Letter Tertio Millenium, November 10, 1994

The goods of this world are originally meant for all. The right to private property is valid and necessary, but it does not nullify the value of this principle. Private property, in fact, is under a 'social mortgage', which means that it has an intrinsically social function. Encyclical Solicitudo Rei Socialis , 1988


John Paul II looked at extreme poverty, where people are born without access to clean water, air, and a chance to make a living as a moral aberration of creation’s intents. The fruits of God’s lands and oceans, which were meant to feed all, were being mismanaged so that the few had too much and many had too little, a fate that was not destined, but chosen:

Every person, every people, has the right to live off the fruits of the earth. At the beginning of the new millennium, it is an intolerable scandal that so many people are still reduced to hunger and live in conditions unworthy of humans.
We can no longer limit ourselves to academic reflections: we must rid humanity of this disgrace through appropriate political and economic decisions with a global scope.
JUBILEE OF THE AGRICULTURAL WORLD ADDRESS, Vatican, November 11, 2000

It is thus painful to note how many millions of people are excluded from the table of creation. For those people and for all the dispossessed of the world, we must work hard and without delay so that they can occupy their proper place at the table of creation. -Lenten Message, 1992

VI. Work as an Act of Daily Dominion

Dominion and God’s ownership of the land were not just vague philosophical concepts for John Paul II. They had daily pertinence because they were at the core of who humans are and what they are created to be. Work, he pointed out, is how humans act out their dominion of God’s earth.

The opening page of the Bible presents God as a kind of exemplar of everyone who produces a work: the human craftsman mirrors the image of God as Creator. This relationship is particularly clear in the Polish language because of the lexical link between the words stwórca (creator) and twórca (craftsman). . . .
God therefore called man into existence, committing to him the craftsman's task. Through his “artistic creativity” man appears more than ever “in the image of God”, and he accomplishes this task above all in shaping the wondrous “material” of his own humanity and then exercising creative dominion over the universe which surrounds him. With loving regard, the divine Artist passes on to the human artist a spark of his own surpassing wisdom, calling him to share in his creative power. JPII, LETTER TO ARTISTS, 1999

Work is an inherently ecological principle, because all work must adhere to God’s mission of caretaking. Work must be ethical and help cultivate and restore the wholeness of the human community and the garden of earth and heaven.
“This description of creation, which we find in the very first chapter of the Book of Genesis, is also in a sense the first "gospel of work". For it shows what the dignity of work consists of: it teaches that man ought to imitate God, his Creator, in working, because man alone has the unique characteristic of likeness to God. …” JPII, Encyclical LABOREM EXERCENS; September 14, 1981

John Paul taught that people in all professions can do creative and manual acts to make a living and in small ways contribute to this work of restoration.
Awareness that man's work is a participation in God's activity ought to permeate . . . even the most ordinary everyday activities.
For, while providing the substance of life for themselves and their families, men and women are performing their activities in a way which appropriately benefits society. They can justly consider that by their labor they are unfolding the Creator's work, consulting the advantages of their brothers and sisters, and contributing by their personal industry to the realization in history of the divine plan. Encyclical LABOREM EXERCENS; September 14, 1981

St. Benedict and other Christians explained work as dominion this way: Laborare est orare – work is prayer. Work is meant to be an act of service to God, to others, to oneself, and to the larger community. Work that is unethical, selfish, petty, for mere profit, or that destroys the earth as home is an improper use of dominion.

In the best-selling memoir Father Joe, the Benedictan monk explains: “Laborare est orare doesn’t mean we actually mumble prayers while we work, does it? You’d drive the other chaps barmy. The work itself is prayer. Work done as well as possible. Work done for others first and yourself second. Work you are thankful for. Work you enjoy, that uplifts you. Work that celebrates existence, whether it’s growing grain in the fields or using God-given skills… All is prayer that binds us together and therefore to God.” All work that selfishly undercuts the common good or makes others less well off or destroys the gift of creation is a breaking of the trust of dominion.

These concepts are explored in John Paul II’s Encyclical LABOREM EXERCENS; (on Human Work): “The most profound motive for our work is this knowing that we share in creation. Learning the meaning of creation in our daily lives will help us to live holier lives. It will fill the world with the spirit of Christ, the spirit of justice, charity, and peace.”

All good work done, unselfishly, helps to heal the earth and restore the original garden. In this way, the Holy Spirit works through daily life to infuse the earth with continual re-creation, with humans as part of the process:
All work is collaboration with God to perfect the nature he created, and it is a service to others. It is necessary, therefore, to work with love and out of love!
JPII, Address to Christian workers, December 9, 1978

Every genuine inspiration, however, contains some tremor of that “breath” with which the Creator Spirit suffused the work of creation from the very beginning. Overseeing the mysterious laws governing the universe, the divine breath of the Creator Spirit reaches out to human genius and stirs its creative power. He touches it with a kind of inner illumination that brings together the sense of the good and the beautiful, and he awakens energies of mind and heart which enable it to conceive an idea and give it form in a work of art.
It is right then to speak, even if only analogically, of “moments of grace”, because the human being is able to experience in some way the Absolute who is utterly beyond. JPII, LETTER TO ARTISTS, 1999

With this in mind, all humans are not only helping to create the world each day, but also, themselves.

Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet, as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life . . . they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece. LETTER TO ARTISTS 1999



V. Rest For Proper Dominion

Intimately related to work as part of dominion and guardianship of the earth is rest -- the physical element necessary for regeneration as well as for spiritual and ecological health. Rest was decreed by God both by example (Gen 2:3) and by command, over and over again (Ex 20:8-11; 32:12-17;34:21;35:2-3;Lev. 23:3; 25:2-7; 26:34-35; 26:43, etc.).
We find this truth [about work] at the very beginning of Sacred Scripture, in the Book of Genesis, where the creation activity itself is presented in the form of "work" done by God during ‘six days’, ‘resting’ on the seventh day. . . . Humans ought to imitate God both in working and also in resting, since God himself wished to present his own creative activity under the form of work and rest. JPII, Encyclical LABOREN EXERCEN: September 14, 1981


This concept of rest was so important in Scripture that every seventh year was mandated as one of rest for the land as well as for the people and animals. Every fiftieth year was a Jubilee Year. During the Jubilee, God’s directed the people to return the land to its earliest caretaker, to remind people that they are merely tenants –- and that God is the only real, unending owner (Lev. 25:1-7). Sacrifices and tithing were then a kind of “rent,” or a gift of gratitude paid to God for the earthly gifts bestowed. The themes of rest and God’s ownership of the earth wind from the Old Testament through to the New Testamant, as seen in Hebrews (11:1-11).

This is precisely why it [Sabbath] is also the day of rest. Speaking vividly as it does of "renewal" and "detachment", the interruption of the often oppressive rhythm of work expresses the dependence of man and the cosmos upon God. Everything belongs to God! The Lord's Day returns again and again to declare this principle within the weekly reckoning of time. …It recalls that the universe and history belong to God; and without a constant awareness of this truth, man cannot serve in the world as co-worker of the Creator. Apostolic Letter, Deis Domini, on the significance of Sunday, Vatican, May 31, 1998

John Paul II explained that through rest, especially in meditation with God, humans become physically and spiritually re-created and refreshed, and the earth is made fertile once more. For this reason, the third of the Ten Commandments is focused on setting aside one day out of seven, not just for worship and prayer, but to restrain oneself from daily worries and tasks.

Through Sunday rest, daily concerns and tasks can find their proper perspective: the material things about which we worry give way to spiritual values; in a moment of encounter and less pressured exchange, we see the true face of the people with whom we live.
Even the beauties of nature — too often marred by the desire to exploit, which turns against man himself — can be rediscovered and enjoyed to the full. . . . Sunday becomes a moment when people can look anew upon the wonders of nature, allowing themselves to be caught up in that marvelous and mysterious harmony. Apostolic Letter, Deis Domini, on the significance of Sunday, Vatican, May 31, 1998

This commandment of rest is often dismissed as “outdated” in the United States and increasingly in other countries. But not without consequences.
This neglect of rest has great environmental repercussions. Consider the great expenditures in terms of energy and consumption resulting for nearly round the clock production and “on” time. Besides this cost in natural resources, the pope noted that rising levels of stress, exhaustion, apathy, and cynicism demonstrate that humans neglect the commandment to rest at their own risk. And in neglecting rest, people miss its promise, its gift. Rest has the power to re-create and renew relationships, bodies, and the earth itself.

This very goal [of rediscovering our fraternity with the earth] was foreshadowed by the Old Testament in the Hebrew Jubilee, when the earth rested and man gathered what the land spontaneously offered (Lev 25:11-12). If nature is not violated and humiliated, it returns to being the sister of humanity. General Audience, ZENIT Translation, January 26, 2000



VI. Presence of Christ in Creation and Necessity of Contemplation

Genesis laid down the law of environmental responsibility but the New Testament illuminated the essential reasons for it. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through Him and without Him, nothing came to be”(John 1:1-3)..
Christ showed the way to a new relationship with God by being the link between humanity and creation and God.

In Christ, we experience anew that original harmony that existed between Creator, creation, and humanity before people succumbed to the effects of sin. In Christ, man re-reads his original call to subdue the earth, which is the continuation of God's work of creation rather than the unbridled exploitation of creation. Liturgy of the Word celebrated in Zamosc, Poland on June 12, 1999

Jesus used metaphors from the earth to describe God’s loving relationships with his people and He showed way the way to seeing God’s love in nature’s blessings.
It is clear from the Gospel that Jesus also lived in close contact with nature. His teaching is filled with references to nature and human life. He spoke of the shepherd and his flock, the net cast into the sea, the mustard seed, the lilies of the field and so on. He even described his own mission in the world as that of "the Good Shepherd", and he compared his preaching to the work of a farmer going out to sow his seed. Representatives of Rural Australia, Melbourne November 30, 1986

Jesus teaches us to see the Father’s hand in the beauty of the lilies of the field, the birds of the air, the starry night, fields ripe for the harvest… If you look at the world with a pure heart, you too will see the face of God (Matthew 5:8) because it reveals the mystery of the Father’s provident love. JPII, World Youth Day; Homily, Denver, 1993

Pope John Paul II, like many saints of the early church, also witnessed to the truth of Christ’s presence in creation: “Even matter with its energy, life, and light bears the imprint of the Word of God –- ‘his beloved Son’ (Col 1: 13). The revelation of the New Testament casts new light on the words . . . ‘from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator’ (Wis. 13: 5)”(General audience, May 5, 2004).

Because of Christ’s example and His presence in creation, Pope John Paul II declared, Christians have ongoing, integral reasons to care for it. The pope observed: While on the one hand, Christ is superior to created realities, on the other hand, He is involved in their creation. …He can be seen by us as an ‘image of the invisible God’, brought close to us through the act of creation” (General Audience, November 24, 2004).

If Christ is in creation, then to draw nearer to Him, one would want to contemplate nature. By being attentive to nature and part of it, Christians can feel His presence, see His Light, hear His voice which leads them to the Creator, source of all life. Pope John Paul II explained:

Everything has its origin and receives its strength from the Most High Creator. In contact with creation, a person can better understand the eternal values upon which life is built. These are, among others, values of beauty and truth, of simplicity and love, of fidelity and solidarity. JPII, The Franciscan Environmental Prize, awarded to Costa Rica, 1991

Within the movement of nature, tranquil and silent but rich in life, there continues to palpitate the original delight of the Creator. Vatican, November 17, 2000

Like many religious leaders and early Christian saints, Pope John Paul II was passionate that nature is an inspiring book of revelation from God, and that it has to be respected and contemplated. “Along with the revelation specifically contained in Sacred Scripture, there is a divine manifestation in the shining sun and in the nightfall. In a certain sense, nature is also ‘God's book’" (General Audience Address, August 2, 2000).

Anyway, for those who have attentive ears and open eyes, creation is like a first revelation that has its own eloquent language: it is almost another sacred book whose letters are represented by the multitude of created things present in the universe. … St Athanasius says: "The firmament with its magnificence, its beauty, its order, is an admirable preacher of its Maker, whose eloquence fills the universe". General Audience, January 30, 2002

“Nature therefore becomes a Gospel that speaks to us of God: 'For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator' (Wis 13:5). Paul teaches us that 'Ever since the creation of the world his (God's) eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made' (Rom 1:20). But this capacity for contemplation and knowledge, this discovery of a transcendent presence in creation, must also lead us also to rediscover our fraternity with the earth, to which we have been linked since creation (cf Gen 2:7) (General Audience, ZENIT Translation, January 26, 2000

Nature is also given to us to be admired and contemplated, like a great mirror of the world. It reflects the Creator’s covenant with his creature.
Apostolic Letter Amici Dilecti, 1985


JPII urged all people, but especially youth, to engage with nature through sports and leisure, but to go beyond that. While at rest in a natural setting, people may observe the natural order at work, catching a glimpse of God’s loving embrace, power, and beauty. “Reason can know God through the book of nature -- a personal God who is infinitely good, wise, powerful, and eternal, who transcends the world and, at the same time, is present in the depths of his creatures. . . .”(JPII, World Youth Day; Homily, Denver, 1993).

If people open themselves to God, they can also speak to God more intimately. He observed: “Close to nature, one can speak confidentially to God.“ (Address at Mentorella, Italy, October 29, 1978)

It was to the mountains that John Paul would go most often, and he referred many times to how restorative they were for him and how the contemplation of nature lifted his thoughts to God:

I thank the Lord for giving me the opportunity to spend a time of rest again this year in this charming mountainous locality, which brings to mind the majestic presence of God. --Angelus Message, July 16, 2000

The beauty of nature, things and people, seen as they are, can be stunning. How can we not see in a mountain sunset, in the immensity of the ocean, or in the features of a face, something that both attracts us and invites us to want to know more about the reality in which we live? …

Even what lies outside the tangible world has its own deep beauty that impresses the spirit and gives rise to admiration. Think of the powerful spiritual attraction of an act of justice, a gesture of forgiveness, a sacrifice made with joy and generosity for a great ideal. 23rd Meeting for Friendship Among the Peoples, by his secretary, Rimini, Italy, 2002

More difficult perhaps, but no less profound, is the contemplation of the works of human ingenuity. Even cities can have a beauty all their own, one that ought to motivate people to care for their surroundings.
World Day of Peace Message, January 1, 1990

Never simplistic or cliché, Pope John Paul II also proclaimed that scientists and artists are by vocation contemplators of nature, and he called upon them to use their work to explore the meaning and order of God’s cosmic works, thus leading others to greater understanding, appreciation, and respect. By seeing God’s hand in all of creation, everyone can catch a glimpse of the beyond:

Whoever really wants to find himself, must learn to savor nature whose charm is intimately linked with the silence of contemplation. The rhythms of creation are so many paths of extraordinary beauty along which the sensitive and believing heart easily catches the echo of the mysterious, loftier beauty that is God Himself, the Creator, the source and life of all reality. JPII, Address in the Dolomites, 1991

VII. The Spiritual Value of Wilderness

In the midst of hectic daily life, it is often difficult for a person to withdraw enough in silence to really contemplate creation. From his boyhood on, Karol Józef Wojtyła withdrew when he could to the isolated wildernesses of Europe, often with a small group of friends, to hike, backpack, canoe, or kayak. He’d go for the day or for weeks. These times energized him, like water for a drought-parched plant. During the first years of priesthood, he’d bring along groups of students to introduce them, as he was first introduced by his father and parish priest, to the spiritual and physical joys of these experiences. Even when he was elderly and ill, he would visit secluded village chalets where he could be with the mountains without traveling too far.

In wild secluded places, he would practice living as simply as possible, leaving behind all the many accumulations of life, to survive with only what one could transport on one’s own powers. It cut life to its essence -- the perfect cure for consumerism, over-burdened schedules, media messages, noise, stress, and too little time for prayer, thought, reflection. Far from the comforts of civilization, he found a humility (as well as exertion, exhaustion, discomfort, perseverance, and joy) before the wonder, glories, and life-threatening power of the natural world. He envisioned times where people need to take these kind of wilderness sabbaticals from everyday lives for recreation and re-creation.

This idea of seeking God in a secluded natural spot was a common one in Scripture, and John Paul II followed the example of Jesus, the many Biblical prophets, and the early saints:
Before he began his public activity, Jesus, moved by the Holy Spirit, withdrew into the wilderness for 40 days.
JPII, HOMILY March 1, 1998

He {Jesus Christ] himself, in the decisive moments of his life, before doing something, used to withdraw to an isolated place to give himself to prayer and contemplation, and he asked the Apostles to do the same. JPII, Apostolic Letter Ecclesia in America, 1999

In today’s liturgy the figure of John the Baptist appears, the prophet sent to prepare the way for the Messiah. His voice cries out "in the wilderness" where he had withdrawn and where, as the Evangelist Luke says, "the word of God came to [him]" (Lk 3:2), making him the herald of the divine kingdom.
How can we fail to accept his powerful call to conversion, recollection and austerity at a time — like our own —ever more subject to dissipation, to inner fragmentation, to the cultivation of appearances? JPII, Angelus, December 7, 1997

In Scripture it says that one must tithe the land in ways like tithing other goods, with a portion being left for God, for sanctuary: “When you apportion the land into inheritances, you shall set apart a sacred tract of land for the Lord, twenty-five thousand cubits long and twenty thousand wide; its whole area shall be sacred” {Ezeikia 45: 1}. This Scriptural passage goes on to apportion this further for certain purposes, but the message is clear, that some land is set aside for God’s uses, for meditation and ‘the holies of holies”, for places for the priests to live, and for some common preserved lands as wild sanctuary. After coming through the wilderness, the concept that the land is God’s to apportion as God sees fit makes more sense. Humans are not in control. They are vulnerable and waiting, waiting to be told what to do, listening and wondering in awe, humility, and obedience:

Moses speaks to us of God who feeds his people on their journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land: "Remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart . . . [he] fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end" (Dt 8:2,16).

The image of a pilgrim people in the wilderness, which emerges from these words, speaks also to us who are approaching the end of the Second Millennium after Christ's birth. In this image, all the peoples and nations of the whole earth find a place, and especially those who suffer from hunger. JPII, 46th International Eucharist Conference homily Wroclaw, Poland, June 1, 1997

This wisdom of the wilderness is, of course, not limited to the Judeo-Christian tradition, but many cultures and religions throughout the world and history have recognized the connection between spiritual wisdom and this discipline of taking time and making vision quests by oneself in an isolated place in nature. “At first sight, the ‘wilderness’ evokes a feeling of solitude, bewilderment and fear ; the ‘wilderness’ however is also the providential place for meeting God” (Angelus, December 7, 1997).

He explained the importance of the wilderness, a place reserved from the sounds of human made machines: “The soul's ear must be free from sounds to hear this divine voice that resounds in the universe.” --General Audience Address, August 2, 2000. ZENIT Translation

Pope John Paul II understood intimately that the land belonged to God, and that it must be shared by all. But there is also a sense of the necessity to save some places, as noted in the Bible, for spiritual sanctuary, set aside for God and the common good, for the Spirit’s work to happen in all who visit. He did not speak much about tithing land for this, since so many people of the world struggle just to have a scrap of land on which to abide and feed themselves. In this, he taught by example.

Biblical Highlights of Creation Care

Judeo-Christian Scripture, from Genesis and the Garden of Eden on, emphasizes that what God made in creation is good (Genesis 1). Humans, made in God’s image, have been given the unique responsibility to act for God in this world -- to value as God values, to love as God loves, to care as God cares.

But because of disobedience, Adam and Eve were sent from the garden. Disorder came and people were at odds with nature. God then lovingly bound people and the animals into a covenant with the animals after the great flood, and placed the rainbow into the sky as a promise for all, linking the animals and people (Genesis 9: 8-17).

As the people survived and multiplied, they endured slavery and longed for their own lands. So God, through Moses, led them through the desert into the land of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey. But God reminded them that they do not own the land, that they are merely God’s tenants (Leviticus 25, Matt. 21:33-43).

If they don’t respect the earth, which was given in common to be shared, and if they don’t respect his command for Sabbath, to give the land and the animals and themselves periodic rest, the people shall be doomed to massive destruction (Leviticus 26, Hebrews 4:4-11).

Later, in the Christian testaments, Christ comes to renew and redeem Creation, to show people once more how to value as God values, live in ways that would bring back the harmony of the garden. Christ gives his followers examples of prayer, praying in places of solitude with nature – in the garden, by the seashore, in the wilderness, in the desert. And he reminds his followers of His Father’s great care for all of creation, especially for people (Matthew 6:26-29).

St. Paul reminds followers that Christ is in all creation (Colossians 1: 15-23) and the nearness of the end times is all the more reason to be vigilant with carrying out one’s duties before Christ (Hebrews 13:11-12).

Revelation reminds followers “hurt not the earth, neither the seas, nor the trees,” (7:3) and that those who destroy the earth, God will destroy (11:18).


A Christian Creation Ethic -- The Tipping Point?

The Dynamic Human Tipping Factor

What if just 10% of the world’s practicing Catholics and perhaps even those who have left the Church decided to take John Paul II’s counsel seriously, joining in solidarity with others already at work on these issues, pushing these questions to the forefront in every parish and community in which they live? What if 10% of other Christians also heeded the call, acknowledging the synergism of the pope’s voice with Scripture and their own leaders in creation care? What if 10% of leaders of all faiths and spiritual callings overcame the divisive aspects of inter-religious condemnation within their communities to seek out universal spiritual and ecological partnerships in the shared value of the earth itself? What if just a small percentage of everyday people around the world picked up John Paul II’s plan simply because the concept intrigued them and they started debating its principles and applying a few at a time? What if book clubs considered in lively and sometimes hot conversations the questions of whether or not every person does have an ecological vocation and if so, what does that really mean? What if environmental groups looked the plan over and asked themselves, are we going deep enough? Are we seeing all the connections? Are we supporting all the life issues and efforts?

And what if 10% of people around the globe of no faith affiliation or prior environmental concern but who share the values of the common good stepped up to join in the dialog to create a culture that embraces ecological ethics? The conservationist Aldo Leopold once defined ethics as “a kind of community-instinct-in-the-making,” and he posited ethical criteria for the ecological conscience: “A thing is right only when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the community, and the community includes the soil waters, fauna, and flora, as well as people. [A thing] is wrong when it tends otherwise.”

John Paul II talked often about the essential divine-infused beauty and integrity of the natural world and order of creation that needs to be observed and respected. Would he have substituted “creation” for “community” in his creation ethic – or would community have served him as well? What a great starting point for a discussion: could this land ethic of Leopold and the seven keystones of a Christian ecological vision explained in the next section form a starting point for discussions around definitions of Christian ecological virtue and vice – A Christian earth/creation ethic? What if all faiths crafted an earth ethic of their own or used the Earth Charter or Charter of Compassion as their guiding principles? What if just 10% of international leaders invited faith leaders and ethics experts into world councils to develop a grammar of shared moral terms, as John Paul II advocated, to facilitate deeper global discussions of interconnected underlying moral ecological issues?

Imagine the momentum. Think of how self-perpetuating, grooved paradigms would bust apart and be tossed out like 45 rpm records. After John Paul II’s death, Johan Vilhelm Eltvik, a Lutheran minister serving as the Secretary General of the European YMCA, described John Paul II’s part in the fall of communism in Europe:
Sometimes the good Lord above blesses us with leadership bigger than we deserve. . . The spiritual authority of John Paul II was joined by people like Sakharov, Solzhenitsyn, Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel -- just to mention a few -- and they became stronger than any other authority, physical or ideological, and like the old walls in Jericho, the Berlin wall came tumbling down and our continent changed dramatically…[15]

This could happen again, only this time it could be the great greenhouse wall of indifference and moral confusion that would come tumbling down. The new outlooks would be lively and surprising, revitalizing economies around the world with dynamic new technologies, products, approaches, goals, and sustainable patterns. That says nothing of what we could do to reduce terrorism, loss of diversity, and war while improving our mental and physical health and the quality of life and relationships. No doubt John Paul would say to us, as he said to a gathering of youth in 1988: “I hope that your discussions will bring about concrete ideas for the spread of an ecological culture. May the earth flourish again as a garden for all.”{Address: National Congress of Young Proprietor Farmers, Chosen Theme: Youth, Agriculture, Territory, Environment, January 9, 1988}

John Paul II designated as the patron saint of ecology St. Francis of Assisi -- a man admired beyond any religious boundaries because he lived simply and joyfully, viewing all elements of the cosmos as his brothers and sisters, from the sun and the moon, to the wolf and the sparrow, to the wildflowers of the fields and every poor person he met:
It is my hope that the inspiration of Saint Francis will help us to keep ever alive a sense of "fraternity" with all those good and beautiful things that Almighty God has created. And may he remind us of our serious obligation to respect and watch over them with care, in light of that greater and higher fraternity that exists within the human family. World Day of Peace Message 1990, Peace with God the Creator, Peace with All Creation.