Creation trembles in the grasp of selfishness

"The pleasant vineyard; sing about it. I, the Lord, am its keeper; I water it every moment; Lest anyone harm it, night and day I guard it." Isaiah 27:2-3

Someone in my house is a closet snacker. Why else would my bath towels smell like buttered popcorn? So while I was doing some detective work to discover the culprit one evening last week I happened to notice my husband doing some sleuthing of his own in the boys' bathroom Looking under towels, peering into cabinets and reaching behind the array of mugs left on the counter, he was, I determined, trying to find out who lifted the new tube of toothpaste meant for our bathroom.

"They take everything!" I heard him mutter. No use arguing that one, I thought, looking once again for the portable phone. And not only do they take it but they inevitably break it or lose it as well.

It seems to be part of the genetic makeup for children - "finders keepers," "it was there so I took it," "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine, too," "there's more where that came from" - you know, sort of like the approach that many of us as adults take toward the bountiful gifts God gives us. Like children, we use and lose, waste and abuse, and we wonder where they get it from!

Just sit in a restaurant some day and watch the amount of food that is ordered and then thrown away by adults and children alike, or the number of times you've seen someone empty their garbage and car ashtrays on the parking lot of the supermarket. Our parks and roadsides are littered with garbage, and the beauty of our beaches is marred by the sheer laziness of people who would treat this great gift like their personal garbage can and ash tray rather than get up and walk twenty feet to the nearest trash can. We pour chemicals into the ground and waters, destroy entire ecological systems and species, and still consider hauling nuclear waste through towns and cities without concern for the inevitable and devastating consequences of accidents.

Recent headlines tell the story of 10 states, including nearby Connecticut, having joined in a lawsuit to block a proposed relaxation of federal air pollution rules enabling Midwest power plants, among them some of the worst polluters in the U.S., to continue emitting harmful pollutants that cause major health problems.

In Delaware, a refinery plans to send thousands of tons of air pollution waste into the Delaware River, adding mercury and other toxic pollutants to the river.

In New York, numerous counties have reported dangerous levels of pesticides, due in great part to the urban and suburban phenomenon of "the perfect lawn."

Creation groans at the pain of devastation, and so will our children. Almost 900 years ago the mystic, theologian and abbess, Hildegard of Bingen, wrote prophetically of the consequences of such thoughtless and selfish behavior: "God desires that all the world be pure in his sight. The earth should not be injured. The earth should not be destroyed . . . As often as the elements, the elements of the world are violated, by ill-treatment, so God will cleanse them. God will cleanse them thru the sufferings, thru the hardships of humankind."

We haven't listened to Hildegard anymore than we've listened to God. That's like skating on thin ice when clearly written across a sign are the words, "Don't skate here. Thin ice," and then complaining when we fall through.

It's no wonder God still considers us children.

______________________________________

Mary Morrell is the author of Angels in High Top Sneakers, by Loyola Press

Contact

Diocese of Metuchen
http://www.diometuchen.org NJ, US
Mary Morrell - Associate Director, Office of Religious Education, 732 562-1990

Email

mmorrell@diometuchen.org

Keywords

creation

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