3 minute read
From the Provincial
I grew up in rural New Brunswick, with its abundance of forests and rivers, as well as the ocean within easy reach. Thus, from an early age, I developed a deep appreciation for unspoiled nature. I reminisce fondly about the times when, with siblings and friends, I could take off for days at a time to the beautiful island in the middle of the river, a half hour’s sail from where we lived. I’m amazed to recollect that 10- and 12-year-olds were permitted to do such things in those days. Being from the country, I was doubly appreciative that we were far enough away from the city of Saint John not to pick up the sulfur smell that emanated from the local pulp mill. I ask myself the question today: Did it really sink in during those salad days that many others were less fortunate than I, knowing as I did even then the stories about vulnerable residents in the city whose health was affected by those toxic fumes?
Youthful memories run deep, yet I am grateful to have learned that to appreciate the beauty of nature unspoiled is not enough in an age fraught with the preoccupations of ecological crisis and climate change, and the unavoidable and difficult question: What kind of world do we want to leave for those who come after us? The imperative to better care for our common home needs to be heard and acted upon, especially by those of us who live in the so-called First World. We need to acknowledge the fact that at the root of the current crisis is the truth that Western industrialization and the exploitation of natural resources have aided the prosperity and privilege of our beautiful country. Equally crucial is the fact that our comfort and flourishing has been too often at the expense of fellow human beings in other parts of the world who struggle to find food and clean water, often as the result of the abusive practices of multinational companies.
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Pope Francis wrote his celebrated encyclical Laudato Si’ five years ago and most recently Fratelli Tutti. Both of these inspired writings challenge Catholics, and indeed the whole world, to wake up to the reality of our suffering biosphere, to gain a greater sense of engagement and responsibility for the care of our common home, and to develop a deeper sensitivity to the common good associated with the deeply Christian truism of the brotherly and sisterly love among all human beings. Good Pope Francis reminds us that this is God’s deepest desire for the world. Shouldn’t we all want what God wants?
The Jesuits of Canada and our partners are doing our utmost to live out the sacred and human values that are at the root of the founding desires of the first Jesuits almost five hundred years ago and that resonate so forcefully with the prophetic leadership of our brother Jesuit, Pope Francis. No less does the contemporary articulation of Jesuit values as espoused by the Universal Apostolic Preferences and our own recent Canadian Jesuit document Pilgrims Together express our hope for a world where alle Menschen werden bruder (Beethoven’s setting of Schiller’s poem in the Ode to Joy of his Ninth Symphony); a world where all people will recognize their common origins that connect them with each other and with the Earth. The Jesuits came to this country in the seventeenth century, naively displacing the healthy and established cultures of our Indigenous brothers and sisters who, we are only beginning to understand, have so much to teach us in terms of respect for nature and the best qualities of human collaboration. I encourage Jesuits, our coworkers, and you, our friends, to make every effort to listen, to dialogue, to learn, and to emulate God’s great desire for healing and peace among peoples. We need you. God needs you. AMDG
Erik Oland, SJ
