Ask The Beasts

Deacon Paul Harney in his blog last week highlighted an interview with Pope Francis who listed his top 10 secrets to happiness.   Number 7 was:  “Respect and take care of nature.  ‘Environmental degradation is one of the biggest challenges we have,’ he said.  ‘I think a question that we’re not asking ourselves is: ‘Isn’t humanity committing suicide with this indiscriminate and tyrannical use of nature?” 

Being on Cape Cod and so close to pristine and gorgeous environments, seemingly undegraded, we tend to forget the abuse and devastation occurring elsewhere in the U.S. and throughout the world as population pressure with its many consequences squeezes out the natural inhabitants – plant and animal alike.   Much is slip sliding away, and, in fact, is gone forever.

Elizabeth Johnson, author and Professor of Theology at Fordham University, describes why this must stop.  To do so she suggests we: “…Ask the beasts to teach you…the hand of the Lord has done this.  In his hand is the soul of every living thing” (Job 12: 7, 9-10).  Her suggestion is detailed in her 2014 book “Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love.”

Some may remember Johnson as the author of Quest for the Living God (2007), and many more books.  Her Quest rattled a few cages because it “failed to embrace authentic Catholic teaching” according to the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine.   The Committee publicly denounced Johnson’s book because it was directed to a “broad audience” and was being used in many venues “as a textbook for the study of God,” according to a John Allen March 30, 2011 article in the National Catholic Reporter.  

Wanting to understand the criticism, I read her book, and it was a great read.   Consider this passage: “…We ‘know God’ better in solidarity with the poor, as disciples recognized Christ in the breaking of the bread.  Without care for those in anguish, by contrast, our relation to God is thinned and ruptured.  The preferential option for the poor is an absolute theocentric stance…”  Much of what she writes seems in keeping with Pope Francis’ attitude.   It will be interesting to read what he has to say about her “Ask the Beasts.”

Johnson concludes by saying, “A flourishing humanity on a thriving planet rich in species in an evolving universe, all together filled with the glory of God: such is the vision that must guide us at this critical time of Earth’s distress, to practical and critical effect.  Ignoring this view keeps people of faith and their churches locked into irrelevance while a terrible drama of life and death is being played out in the real world.  By contrast, living the ecological vocation in the power of the Spirit sets us off on a great adventure of mind and heart, expanding the repertoire of our love.  The beasts ask of us no less.”

Pope Francis, on behalf of his namesake – St. Francis of Assisi– likely would conclude the same.   After all, St. Francis wrote a Canticle of the Creatures, an ode to God’s living things. “All praise to you, Oh Lord, for all these brother and sister creatures.”  He often referred to animals as brothers and sisters to mankind.

So, when next we think about despoiling and disrespecting nature, let’s first ask our brothers and sisters – the beasts.

Deacon David Pierce