The central theological theme of Catholicism is to build up the Kingdom of God by becoming one body, one spirit in Christ with all of God’s children. We are all essentially connected. That easily expands to all of God’s creatures/creation. Building up the Kingdom is actually rediscovering the Divine order and harmony of creation and aligning ourselves to God’s Plan or God’s ‘flow’ as it were. God’s Plan is most fully revealed through the teachings, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God also reveals Himself to us through our guided study of the physical and social sciences, the arts, our intuitions and sometimes our common sense.
When God was creating the world, as depicted in the Book of Genesis, he periodically looked back on what He had done and pronounced, “it was good.” This implies a certain order, harmony and complementarity which were inherently good and necessary. When humans were given dominion over creation they were assigned as stewards and caretakers. They could modify, but only in a constructive, sustainable way, to cultivate responsibly. Real stewardship requires an extraordinary level of mindfulness and sensitivity.
One of the surest signs that we are not following the Plan and order of God is that we have pushed the natural world beyond its natural carrying capacity. This is perhaps best illustrated by the large number of species, which have gone extinct in the past 200 years, presumably by other than natural causes. Part of the Plan is that humans are to restore the world to the Divine order with the help of Divine grace. We do this when we willingly subordinate our will to God’s will and God’s Plan. The more we divest of our human will (and all the accompanying distortion) and replace it with God’s will, the more we realize the natural flow and harmony of God’s design. We realize that the major impediments to harmony of all kinds are Pride, Greed Anger, Envy, Lust, Gluttony and Sloth (the Seven Deadly Sins) and their derivatives.
From a Catholic perspective, we need the Divine grace that comes most powerfully through the sacraments to overcome these Deadly Sins. Sacrament is about transformation at the deepest level of soul and necessary since human intellect and volition have always proven inadequate for changing hearts and behavior. Some moderns might cringe at the word “sin”; however, most people would probably agree that the “phenomena” of Greed, Envy, and Gluttony (to mention the most obvious sins) drastically contribute to environmental devastation. To overcome or even temper these inclinations (which are only exacerbated by much of consumer marketing) we need a profound sense of transcendence and a covenant relationship with God, each other, and all of creation.
Much of the preceding is at significant odds with the mores of modern western culture, which is so largely predicated on individual rights, freedom of expression and privacy. Any restriction on how we consume, recreate or treat our bodies is considered a grievous offense. Inevitably we live in a society of profound ambiguity. For instance, many people are passionate (and rightly so in my opinion) about not altering the natural flow of America’s wild and scenic rivers. On the other hand, many of the same people are almost dismissive of the impact of altering the natural flow of a woman’s menstrual cycle with artificial contraceptives.
Part of the contention with rivers is that we cannot know the full impact of such large-scale alterations of nature. We may not know for decades the true extent of damage we have done to riparian systems and surrounding life communities. We should approach such tampering only with a great humility and respect for the grand mystery which is our natural world. Everything is connected in a more elaborate web than what we might initially suspect. Certainly women and men are at least as complex and mysterious as river systems. It seems reasonable that we approach human complexity and mystery with as much sensitivity and humility as we would a wild river. Issues of intimacy and human sexuality are essential to the Catholic understanding of right relationship and a true environmental spirit; however, that is a subject for another essay.
Much is debated about the origin of humans and their connections with the rest of the natural world. It is widely held that we somehow flow out of this natural rhythm and order of life (evolution). Catholics wonder whether we can alter our own bodies and not expect it to affect our relationship with the order of the world out of which we flow.
Catholics believe that God’s Plan and order for us is most accurately revealed to us in the Bible. Catholic social teaching provides a sort of middle language to help apply the biblical messages to the issues of our modern times.
Fr. Rick Sherman is the pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Church in Moab (and St. Joseph’s in Monticello). He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood at the Cathedral of the Madeline in Salt Lake City in May of 2000 and has served in Ogden, Park City and various mission parishes throughout the state of Utah prior to moving to Moab in 2004. He holds a BS in Finance from Arizona State University, an MA in Theology and a Masters of Divinity from Mt. Angel Seminary in Oregon. Prior to being a priest Fr. Rick served in the U.S. Air Force, worked in banking for several years, taught school briefly and worked in factories. He grew up in Iowa and has lived in Arizona and Wyoming prior to moving to Utah in 1985. He has been an avid supporter of preserving wilderness in Utah and around the country and has in the past volunteered extensively with the High Uintahs Preservation Council and its predecessor, the Utah Wilderness Association.