From 1 September to 4 October, we celebrate the Season of Creation, a time in which, as a Christian family, we come together to pray, reflect and act to restore our Common Home. This time unites us as Christians throughout the world, for it arose in 1989 at the initiative of the Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I, who proclaimed 1 September a world day of prayer for creation for the Orthodox. Later, the World Council of Churches extended the celebration to 4 October, in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi, patron of ecology. In 2015, the year the encyclical Laudato si' was published, Pope Francis encouraged us, as the Catholic Church, to join this initiative.
Each year, the Season of Creation takes up a theme that guides the reflection. This year, the theme is "Immersion in the living water," inspired by the prophecy of Ezekiel 47:9,12. This theme invites us to contemplate the image of the spring that flows from the temple, watering and giving life to every area it passes through. This torrent flows from the place of encounter with God; it springs from that sacred space to reach the most arid region, making it fruitful and bringing forth fruit and medicinal plants, and giving the animals space to live. Ezekiel writes this vision in a context of exile, of hopelessness and of the people's crisis before the loss of all that had meant security for them. This prophecy inspires us to reflect on the experience of God, the intimate encounter with Him, face to face, as a source of deep transformation that spreads life and positive actions that shape the transformation of our surroundings, even in the darkest moments and situations, such as those our world is going through today, on account of war, climate change, forced migration and the hunger generated by inequity.
As members of the Assumption, heirs of the spiritual experience of Saint Marie Eugénie, we cultivate a gaze of hope as we contemplate our Earth. From her youth, she is convinced that the Earth is not a place of exile or of suffering: "the Earth is a place of glory for God," she tells Father Lacordaire.[1] This conviction invites us to a twofold movement as we dwell in our Common Home: contemplation and action. In contemplating — that is, in pausing to admire all that exists — we discover that it is creation, that its foundation is God. We discover his imprint of goodness in each thing, in each person, in ourselves. This goodness flows, it is passed on. Creation is like a spring of God's goodness. In Him we live and move and have our being.[2] To live rejoicing in that goodness makes praise and adoration well up. It leads us to join the "choir" of creation that constantly sings and praises the Creator.[3]
Yet, for Marie Eugénie, to give glory to God is also to act. Following a priest's advice, Marie Eugénie teaches us: "When one seeks the glory of God, the good of humankind is always included in it… Every kind of good that can be given to a person comes of its own accord when, above all, one seeks the glory of God."[4] This is the active and committed dimension of our charism, which makes us part of the flow of life that springs from the Source of Living Water who is God himself. Speaking of the heart of Jesus, Marie Eugénie says: "Everything in his heart was in harmony with the glory of God, which was the centre both of his thoughts and of his feelings."[5] To be in harmony with God, seeking his glory, configures us to Christ and makes us resemble Him. "The interior life is transformation," she tells us. To give glory to God, then, is to live as Jesus lived. "To glorify God, it is enough that Jesus live in you and act in you," writes Thérèse Emmanuel in her Colloquies. In these same texts, we find the spiritual experience she lived: "I have made you a channel for watering. I am a spring within you…" In this Season of Creation, we may ask ourselves: is our life a channel of God's infinite goodness, spreading through our actions and gestures?
Inspired by Saint Marie Eugénie, in this Season of Creation, let us reflect:
Alicia Privado
Notes