March 6, 2011 – Sirach 41-42

The thing I want to focus on is the end of chapter 42. The idea of God’s creation, the beauty in nature is such a powerful thing to let us know God exist. The number of different things in existence and their dependence on each other is something that cannot be explained absent God. God made nothing in vain. Everything has its purpose, its place.  Sometimes a Catholic might not be seen as an environmentalist because they do not stand up for animal’s rights as much as some people. But God calls a Catholic to help protect the environment because it is His creation. I am not the expert on ozone layers and green house gases, but I understand that the Earth is a fragile thing.

What really scares me is the talk of a point of no return; the idea that we will get to a point when the damage that we have done will be so severe that there will be no coming back from it. I think people see this as an end of the world issue. I do not see it that way. I see it as a changing of the world we know today. If we have forced things beyond a certain point, that does not mean we will not be able to live on Earth, it just means we may have to live differently. What if we are not able to grow the massive amounts of crops in the Midwest that we do right now? What happens if places like New Orleans and Florida become uninhabitable because of the severity of storms? These types of events are not unforeseeable. I think we hear a lot from people that say the environmental issues are bringing the end of the world and those that say they are all just science hoopla. I think the answer is somewhere in the middle and we need to prepare ourselves that things may be changing.  But we must protect God’s creation. He made it all and He never makes junk.