Week 3 – 2024 Season of Creation: “To Hope & Act with Creation”
Peace, Justice, and the Integrity of Creation
Originally Published on OMIUSAJPIC.ORG
(By Maurice Lange, current Justice & Peace Director at Presentation Sisters & founder of the Oblate Ecological Initiative)
Reflection #3: September 2 – 7
READ: 3rd part of Pope Francis’ letter for the 2024 Season of Creation (below)
REFLECTION:
Hope. I ponder that with all the pushback Pope Francis has received, what he writes about hope in this Season of Creation is not removed from his own personal journey – with hope connoting: “remaining steadfast amidst adversity” and “not losing heart” in troubling times.
His reflection on hope leads Francis to ponder a medieval visionary who, despite violent times, proposed a new spirit of coexistence among peoples. Francis’ further writes that his own call for universal social harmony in Fratelli Tutii needs to be extended to Creation.
As such, Fr. Thomas Berry, the great, recent visionary, does not lose heart in setting forth the Ecozoic Era: a time of where humans and the rest of the natural world are mutually enhancing.