Exhorts Archbishop-Patriarch in his Pastoral letter this year
“NATURE IS AT OUR DISPOSAL NOT AS ‘A HEAP OF SCATTERED REFUSE,’ BUT AS A GIFT OF THE CREATOR”, exhorts Archbishop-Patriarch in his Pastoral letter this year.
“Nature is at our disposal not as ‘a heap of scattered refuse,’ but as a gift of the Creator”, this quote from Pope Benedict XVI animates the Pastoral Letter of Archbishop-Patriarch, Most Rev. Filipe Neri Ferrão, for this Pastoral Year 2011-2012. Decrying the consumerist and exploitative attitude towards the environment and human persons, the Archbishop exhorts quoting again the Pope: “Every violation of solidarity and civic friendship harms the environment; just as environmental deterioration in turn upsets relations in society.”
This Letter of the highest hierarchical authority for the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman was released with the theme “Covenant Between Human Beings And Creation Divine Love’s Manifestation.” And it has three parts besides the Introduction and the Conclusion.
The issue, taken in the context of the Silver Jubilee of Goa’s liberation, is meant precisely to acknowledge “the great strides in our own development” and at the same time to call upon all concerned to reflect on “the ever growing progress taking place in our country and in our state.”
The exhortation is based on the attitude of God with His creation; it is an attitude of very deep and intimate bonds expressed in the word “covenant” which has its image only in the marital love – a love which gives husband and wife power to say to each other “I am yours, you are mine” in the equality of their beings. And this understanding is proclaimed by our own Indian concept Vasudhaiva Kuttumbakam.
This first part is precisely a development in the whole process of creation, where God creates, He is delighted and He redeems; it is an unveiling of Divine Love’s manifestation in the Covenant between God and Creation, focussing on Christ who is the summit of this process. Right from His birth till He went back to His Father, He never ceased to use the elements of creation to proclaim His Good News. And the Church, in the footsteps of Her Master, has continued this Mission.
The second part of the Letter Divine Love’s manifestation in the Covenant of Man with Creation is a call to mould our attitudes towards the environment on the standards God established and revealed in Jesus Christ. By analysing the five elements of water, earth, air, fire and ether – life-giving and strengthening elements as found in the Indian tradition – our Pastor, unveiled its potential from the Christian point of view as revealed by Holy Scriptures and taught by the Church. In this regard, he based his teachings extensively on the Bl. John Paul II’s Message for the 1990 World Day of Peace and Pope Benedict XVI 2010 World Day of Peace besides this Pope’s Encyclical Charity in Truth.
Our Pastor emphasised the role of human persons as stewards, co-creators and co-redeemers of creation rather than its masters even when the goods of nature are owned by him. Recalling what Pope Benedict writes in his Encyclical, he asserts that “creation contains ‘a grammar’ which prevents its misuse by human beings.” He also quotes Bl. John Paul II who wrote: “Theology, philosophy and science all speak of a harmonious universe, of a ‘cosmos’ endowed with its own integrity, its own internal, dynamic balance. This order must be respected.” He places in the right perspective the most misunderstood andcommand of God “subdue it and have dominion.”
Indeed, he does not mince his words while denouncing the misuse of this command. He writes: “In our ‘language,’ the more work we can extract from those under our dominion the better it is. Such becomes also our relationship with the created world. In this perspective, the environment is valuable in the measure it is useful. From this standpoint, if our fields, our land, our houses are not profitable, they are to be sold, our old houses are to be replaced by huge building projects or sold out indiscriminately to anyone, thus upsetting the social environment: this is actually an immoral master’s behaviour. Further to sell land for illegal mining and for mega projects, to bring in haphazard industrialisation, without checking the needs of the environment and the preparedness of the local population for it and to encourage large-scale migrant labour without providing without adequate facilities – all this defaces the environment.”
Finally, in its third part Mary, the Ark of Covenant between God and Man, the document proposes Mary as a paradigm of this covenant as she mapped the stewardship of creation on the response she gave in the silence of her heart by always remaining obedient to her God and in this loyalty served the ‘grammar’ of creation as embedded in her. Affirming that she revealed the principles of Kingdom (of God), the Archbishop wrote: “One is respect for life; if we speak about the progress of the people, we need to address this issue. Mary respected the human environment; and deeper that respect the deeper its impact on creation.
The document does not give concrete steps in the process of development but offers principles on which it could be mapped and criteria to judge whether there is a balance within those five elements. It is hoped that this document will remain primarily a gift of the Church in Goa, for her members as a tool of self-examination about the steps taken to make our Goan community a vibrant community, in this world and the world to come, in the true sense of the word. It is also a gift of the Church in Goa to a wider community so as to create a wider awareness of the understanding the Christians have of God’s creation with the consequent response to it. It is a gift to the powerful in Goa as a sign of our partnership in this journey on earth.
Copies of the document are available at the Diocesan Pastoral Secretariat, Instituto de Nossa Senhora de Piedade, Near the State Bank of India, Panjim Branch, priced at Rs 30/- only.