LIFE IS ONE!
DISRESPECT FOR ONE IS A DISVALUE
FOR THE REST OF THE LIVING.

By HIS EMINENCE GAUDENCIO B. CARDINAL ROSALES

“The forest is one big thing --- it has people, animals and plants. There is no point in saving the animals if the forest is burned down. There is no point in saving the forest if the animals and people are driven away.  Those trying to save the animals cannot win if the people trying to save the forest lose”.

-- (BEPKOROROTI quoted in the Amazonian Oxfam’s Work in the Amazon Basin).

CREATION --- A  NETWORK OF LIFE

 It is obvious that in the interconnectivity of life, one life cannot escape being entwined with another. Clearly all earthly life depends on the energy of the sun which is absorbed by plants and microorganisms through photosynthesis. Through photosynthesis green plants (containing chlorophyll) use the sun’s energy to convert water and carbon dioxide into (life-supporting) oxygen and produce energy-rich carbohydrates. [Green Encyclopedia]. The primary consumers of photosynthetic organism (grass, herbs and trees, etc.) are the herbivores (grasshoppers, goats, cows, etc.). The secondary consumers are the carnivores that consume the (primary consumers) goats, cows, etc. These secondary consumers that eat the primary consumers are carnivores-predators. But humans are unique consumers; they eat all, including also the photosynthetic plants (vegetable, salad) and the primary consumers (fried chicken, “baboy, baka at iba pa”. (Please see sketch.)
 

The logic that science used in order to explain the dependency and interconnectedness of life in the original and natural food chain coincided with the narrative of creation in the Book of Genesis where God was mentioned as having started first with the creation of light. If that was the “Big Bang”, then, let it be. Following it was the creation of water (Gen. 1: 9-11); then vegetation, plants and trees (Gen. 1: 11-13); then living creatures on land, animals; fish in the sea; on air, birds (Gen. 1: 20-23).

Last of all, the holy and good God had in mind to put a crown on creation with his genius --- the creation of humans, the ones who would take care and protect the planet earth, above all the ones who should value life, its support and the wealth of earth for generations to come, wasting and destroying nothing. Humans would be made in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1: 26-27).  And when God thought that He had made the first humans and had entrusted to them the care, the use of everything on earth, “God looked at everything he had made and He found it very good”. (Gen. 1: 31).

Although God loved and valued all His creatures, there was a certain hierarchy in the treatment of the things He made. The gradual creation in “six days” emphasized to us that there was an intentional increased growth in the importance of His creatures. (CCC, 342). Humans came last not only because they were last in the phase of evolution, but also because as creatures closest to the Creator, as beings sharing in the dignity as “images and likeness of God” they could also be entrusted with the responsibility of caring for, and not just be consumers of, the limited resources the world reserved for its inhabitants.

EVERYTHING HAS LIMITS.

Every resource in the planet earth is contingent --- that is, limited and controlled. The more important ones, although limited, are renewable, like the grass, herbs, trees, air and water. Given the chance and the time, the trees and forests --- minus the carbon monoxide and the toxic chemicals released in the air --- can easily give back the oxygen in the air. By allowing the trees to re-grow, the forests can give us back the fresh water we need coming through aquifers leading to the springs, rivers and lakes. Everything we use on earth is limited. It may not be clear to everyone but even fresh water is limited. Every drop of water is numbered! If properly cared for, water is, by nature, renewable, but it is not inexhaustible.

The nonrenewable resources are the mineral and inorganic resources in the likes of crude oil, ore, iron, gold, steel, etc. The nonrenewable resources are normally mined. Thus the extraction of the mineral wealth (before the refining process) would require very delicate care lest lives, livelihood and the environs be endangered like what had happened through the unconscionable mining endeavors in the past. Now we understand why the Church always exercises great caution and care and puts so many conditions before every mining exploitation proposals.

Because of the limited (contingent) resources we have remaining on the planet earth there are now many attempts to tap the use of renewable resources, like solar energy, water resources, wave energy and wind energy. The whole idea underneath the conservation of resources is the sustainability  of the resources whose purpose is to allow us, humans on earth, to live (survive) within the limited less harmful energy, thus allowing the (total) resources to recover, recuperate and replenish itself for the future. It must be remembered that this planet earth is not only for us to enjoy or live in. The entire creation is also reserved for future generations, including many of your children’s grandchildren.

SUSTAINABILIITY -- A REVERENTIAL PREFERENCE FOR THE NATURAL VS THE ARTIFICIAL.

The proper management of limited resources on earth should always call for the careful attention of both the exploiter-producer and the prudent user-consumers. Just how much of people’s needs are sustainable by the limited resources should always be factored into the equation of life to be sustained by limited resources. Here the catechesis on sound ecology will have to differentiate between natural needs and artificial needs. The need to survive includes the consumption of food, the use of a house, the ordinary health and education requirements; these are what we call natural needs. When comfort, style or status, etc. are appended to what should satisfy an insufficiency or need, these are what are called artificial needs. Sometimes the objects are not needed at all, the urge to possess or use them are simply influenced by a created need born of a borrowed desire. Most of these influences come from the new science called “advertising”. We have to be careful of today’s advertisement; they do not only give information about a novel product’s usefulness. Advertising can sometimes make people want what they really do not need.

Given our understanding of the fragility of nature’s resources, in sustaining the integrity of God’s creation greed must never be allowed to outweigh needs. God made the whole world and its resources as sufficient for the all humans who will populate the planet. To think otherwise is to believe in an unintelligent God. On this earth there will be enough for everyone. How beautiful is the counsel given in the Bible regarding the “manna” (bread) that must be gathered every morning for every person’s daily provision at the time of the great escape in Exodus. “This is the Lord’s command: Everyone must gather enough of (it) bread (manna) for his needs. One omer a head, according to the number of persons in your families. Each of you will gather for those who share his tent… They gathered it, some more, some less. When they measured in an omer, what they gathered, the man who gathered more had not too much, the man who had gathered less had not too little. Each found he had gathered what he needed” (n).

The key in the management and use of natural resources is to take and consume only what one needs.

A new and radical catechesis on how to live as humans on this frail earth awaits all of us. The themes that could be covered on this catechesis on life on earth are:

1. The love of a continuously creating God.
2. The providence of the God of love.
3. Sustainable consumption, an art of provident living?
4. Life style: a fashion or a need? Simplicity or impressive status.
5. The human and the Christian as harmonized/integrated by love

LIFE HABITS THAT DESTROY --- WASTE THAT POISONS.

People living in urban areas or (even while still) living in barrios but adopting the lifestyle of the cities, including entertainment, food, wrappers, etc. take with them the modern curse of having to contend with tons and tons of improperly managed waste. The main source of the problem is not waste itself, but uncaring man himself. Some people simply do not care as to what happens to a neighbor in the backyard.

Humans have metamorphosed into another kind of animal. Most animal waste adds fertility to the earth. For thousands of years people had helped to upgrade the fertility of the earth by the way they disposed of their trash. Most of human wastes were biodegradable which meant it was easily broken down into its primal elements and eventually joined the ashes and dust of the earth. Today with the use of chemicals and synthetic rayon, insecticides, plastics, etc. waste produced by humans became hazardous.

Plastics and chemical waste are non-biodegradable. They clog the canals and cause floods. Plastic wrappers, bags, etc. are thrown in the streets and choke canals; they are found in rivers, lakes and the seas and they strangulate the fish. They come as industrial, agricultural and mining waste. Plastics and rayon find their way into homes and streets as municipal waste. The most we can do to help this earth to breathe a little freely is to universally practice segregation of waste into (a) biodegradable, (b) slowly degradable and (c) non-biodegradable (waste). Government is supposed to provide either processing plants for the recyclable waste or set up giant landfills which are sanitary and capable of safely sucking leachate (fluid waste) for treatment and producing methane gas for (domestic or) commercial or industrial use.

In the care for the environment which is the world’s precious gift for us we see that beyond understanding the interconnectivity of life on earth, and despite the fact that the human being is the highest of all possible life on earth --- humans must in practice accept that although they are at the top of the hierarchy of earthly life --- they cannot extricate themselves from any of its parts. This is the reason why God said to humans, “Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, birds of the air and cattle and all that crawl on the land” (Gen. 1: 26). There is nothing on this earth that is not man’s.

David Zuzuki, world acknowledged geneticist and environmentalist, expressed the truth of our earthiness this way. “Earth is both the planet we live on and the material we live from”. (D. Zuzuki, The Sacred Balance, p. 114). The earthiness of humans is inescapably described in the narrative in Genesis, “The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being”. (Gen. 2: 7). Humans did not only come from the earth’s clay; he will one day return to clay. (Gen. 3:19). He came from the earth, thus he would care for the earth which belonged to him.

Beyond being the owner of the earth’s resources he is the steward of everything in the created world. “Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and all living animals on earth”. God ordered him. (Gen. 1:26).

Man cannot speak of creation without accepting a basic relationship with it. And we do not relate with anything by owning it. Relationship with anything entails reverence and protection of the object or the resources.

TECHNOLOGY LESSENED REVERENCE FOR NATURE’S GIFTS.

Because of the advances made in science and technology humans have somehow lowered their respect for nature and its gifts for all. With the marvels of modern technology coupled with man’s unbridled cupidity, humans have now broken the barriers that nature is provided with in order to protect itself. Greed has not only outbalanced needs. Man is today strangling the much needed resources that feed his hunger and his needs. Anyone can put a tag or a name on the culprit. Is it greed, overuse, abuse or consumerism?

THE CHURCH REVEALS MAN’S MISUSE OF NATURE’S GIFTS.

The teaching of the Church for us on the integrity of creation is both beautiful and encouraging for those who can and should understand it. “At the root of the senseless destruction of the natural environment lies an anthropological error, which unfortunately is widespread in our day. Man, who discovers his capacity to transform and in a certain sense create the world through his own work, forgets that this is always based on God’s prior original gift of the things that are. Man thinks that he can make arbitrary use of the earth, subjecting it without restraint to his will, as though it did not have it own requisites and prior God-given purpose, which man can indeed develop but must not betray. Instead of carrying out his role as a cooperator with God in the work of creation, man sets himself up in the place of God and thus ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature, which is more tyrannized than governed by him”.  (Centesimus Annus, 37).

Humans have overused and abused the wealth of nature, forgetting its God-given intention in the resources that can be seen on the planet earth. “Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present and future humanity” (CCC, 2415). It will be a very selfish idea to think that we, the present generation, are the only ones entitled to live and enjoy human life on this temporary and only safe and healthy home, called earth.

Living on earth is like reverentially entering a home. Parents and their children together protect, clean and respect their abode, no matter how simple or even poor. They keep the surrounding clean, safe and healthy for tomorrow, for their grandchildren. If the house is mansion-like the care and protection are equally given. If it happens that the house is only a “kubo or “payag”, still the protection and cleanliness are maintained for the day, and for the morrow. The habit or virtue of care and respect is passed on to the future generation.

Wisely does the Church situate the care for the integrity of creation and reverence for the earth’s resources (and its teaching on a healthy ecology) in the doctrine of the Seventh Commandment, “Thou shalt not steal”.  How evident it is now that since the right to use the resources of the earth is not absolute but conditioned too by the rights of other generations who will one day replace us. Any attempt to abuse and overuse the resources of the earth is to steal from the future generations some of whom will be your grandchildren and great grand children.

As we come to the end of this reflection care for the world’s resources is both approached with reverence and affection. We do more than just talk about it. We live the commitment to care for the resources of the planet. We respect nature and its resources and its given final destination, but we also love the people of future generations (our brothers and sisters, grandchildren).

PRAXIS!

• Be interested in Ecology. Listen! Watch! Ask.
• Study and read more about Ecology. Care for the environment.
• Compose a prayer, a poem, a song, hum a tune related to the environment. Write an essay on the network of life.
• Practice Recycling of things. (Discuss, share and cooperate).
• Reduce your (artificial) needs that others may live!
• ETC.. atb...

+G. B. Rosales
MAGPAS VISION –II-G
September 07, 2008