Care For Our Common Home

Caswell Machivenyika SJ

All Christians must try in their way to answer the question: what is the Lord calling us to pay attention to today? The Society of Jesus answered this question by announcing the Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAPs). The Society discerned the Lord’s call to work towards four UAPs, namely, showing others the way to God through the spiritual exercises, walking with those who are excluded from society, journeying with the youth, and caring for our common home. In this article, I want to briefly elaborate on the fourth one – care for our common home – a major theme for Pope Francis, and its relation to tolerance. The UAP urges Jesuits, their collaborators and all people of good will to col-

laborate in the construction of alternative models of life that are based on respect for creation and on a sustainable development capable of producing goods that, when justly distributed, ensure a decent life for all human beings on our planet. In the background to this UAP is the challenge of the unbalanced relationship between humans and the rest of creation. Human beings are dominating and exploiting nature for their interests without due care. A tension has become apparent: the continued pursuit for human interests is upsetting the good of the rest of creation. Excessive economic activities by humans aimed at increasing comforts are depleting resources, destroying habitats for other animals, increasing greenhouse gases, and polluting seas. Some scientists project that the current rate of climate change could result in a human caused destruction to our home, the so-called anthropocene. In other words, in pursuit of our own interests, we have been intolerant to the broader needs of others in this common shared home. For Christians, scripture asks us to pause and reflect on what the right relation with creation might be like. Scripture reminds us that we were given the responsibility of caregivers to the world (Gen. 1:2830). Drawing on this, Pope Francis reminds us of our stewardship to care for the Earth as a means of honoring God the Creator. We must pause to examine how our desires for comfort are affecting the planet. As caregivers and stewards, we must learn the virtue of tolerance towards the needs of the rest of creation. The word tolerance is mostly used in relations among groups of people. But the call now is to expand its sense. Tolerance refers to the ability to respect as worthy values other than our own. Tolerance often entails allowing for what one disagrees with, disapproves of, or even dislikes. Tolerance is difficult. What some great thinkers have said about tolerance confirms how many find it a difficult virtue. John Locke, for example, argued that tolerance should be viewed as ‘a flawed virtue,’ because it makes one accept differences one must try to overcome. Yet in society, tolerance is an essential value enabling peaceful co-existence. Among humans, tolerance allows for authentic dialogue, mutual respect, and transformative development. Tolerance encourages compromise on realizing that we cannot always get what we want since there are other equally legitimate interests.

In this human context, tolerance mediates among worthy interests of various groups. If we, now, take all human beings as a group in contact with the rest of creation, we face the need to similarly adopt an attitude of tolerance towards the needs of the rest of God’s creation. In Laudato Si, Pope Francis gives the example of St. Francis of Assisi whose spiritual worldview respected the otherness of creation in our common home. St Francis treated other animals like a sister or brother with whom we share our life. The earth is considered a beautiful mother. She opens her arms to embrace us. Pope Francis further explains how this ‘sister’ cries out to humanity because of the harm we have inflicted on her, the Earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom 8:22). Pope Francis’s prophetic warning against the exploitation of creation and the need to live in harmony with it follows Pope Paul VI who in 1971 called the ecological concern “a tragic consequence” of unchecked human activity. Paul VI had said that with ill-considered exploitation of nature, humanity runs the risk of destroying it and becoming, in turn, a victim of this degradation. The fourth UAP inspires an “ecological spirituality,” drawing from a tradition of prayer called Ignatian Spirituality, to restore the environment’s dignity. Based on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, this tradition offers two possible practices to cultivate ecological sensitivity: the examination of conscience and Ignatian imaginative prayer. It draws our attention to God who continually invites us and the rest of creation to himself through Christ, who came into creation, and was born among animals in a manger. The invitation requires that we hear and respond to God, but also to creation and to the poor. In Ignatian spirituality, consciousness of our ‘kinship’ with the Earth informs our transformative encounter with the Incarnate and Glorified Christ. A basic attitude of the Spiritual Exercises is beautifully proposed in the meditation called the Principle and Foundation. It states that “God created human beings to praise, reverence, and serve God, and by doing this, to save their souls. God created all other things on the face of the Earth to help fulfill this purpose. It follows that we are to use the things of this world only to the extent that they help us to this end, and we ought to rid ourselves of the things of this world to the extent that they get in the way of this end.” Human experience should be a sharing of life with God. This union with God and creation should be the desire of our entire life. According to the Principle and Foundation, life is not just about God and me, but about God, all creation, and me. In relating well to creation and others, we relate well with God. Ignatius, then, calls us to an indifference before all created things. In other words, we should not cling to one gift or another. Here is the idea of tolerance for creation. In many situations, we find

ourselves clinging to earthly comforts and pleasures such as money, status, or power. These become our life desires and make us become “consumer people.” Capitalism is encouraging us to multiply our desires for resources without much corresponding care for our environment’s needs. Ignatian spirituality can teach us tolerance towards creation by ordering our attitudes to become people who live better with others and creation, promoting mutuality and respect in these relationships. Ignatius reminds us that breaking our relationship with God hinders our own growth as loving persons. Lastly, by encouraging us to find God in all things, Ignatius calls us to live the joy of the Gospel not just with other people, but with creation. By respecting the needs of creation, we can learn the virtue of tolerance. In responding to the fourth UAP, think through, next time you wish to buy a car, for example, what its true cost is to the planet.

Vision Statement

Mukai- Vukani (“Arise”) magazine for the Jesuit Province of Zimbabwe-Mocambique serves as a magazine for theological reflection for Jesuits in the said Province and their friends. It seeks to help in finding the direction of life in the light of the Word of God at any given time. In this way the magazine facilitates dialogue among Jesuits and their friends based on study, prayer and discernment.