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INTENTION : |
That respect for nature may grow with the awareness that all creation is God's work entrusted to human responsibility.
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Born in 1962 I grew up in a village in Tamilnadu, India, where my parents were farmers. Every morning as a child I used to go along with my father to the fields to see the crops or to watch him ploughing or to join him in various other works in the field. As we would reach the field, I remember how we would remove our sandals and keep it on the field dividers and would never step into the field with the sandals on, just as we do when we enter a Church. I never asked him then why we removed the sandals. My father never uttered a word, but I imbibed naturally the respect for the land that provides food, and it got deeply engrained that the land we cultivate, the land that gives me life is a sacred place. Even today when I step into the farmland, I often remember the words that Yahweh uttered to Moses, "Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."(Ex. 3:5).
Today when I go back to that same village where my parents live, I see that the tractors have replaced the bullocks; farmers hardly ever step into the field without the special farming boots; chemical fertilizers have replaced the natural manures; and cash crops and high yielding paddy varieties have replaced the traditional variety of paddies and food grains which were well known in that area.
The land that gives us life, water that refreshes us, food grains that nourish and sustain us, forest that purifies the air and everything that is on and under this earth and also in the universe has become a marketable commodity that fetches money and profit. They have been used, abused, polluted and destroyed. In the name of development the global economic forces are buying up the rich natural resources of land, water, forest, minerals and everything else, and exploit them. These economic forces have played havoc on families, communities, agriculture, and eco-system and also our own mindset. We as human beings have caused enormous violence to this earth, have created wars and human destruction and have usurped these resources from the people who have been protecting them for centuries.
The number of environmental refugees or 'envirogees' have increased manifold in the last 4 decades, caused by human made 'slow acting disasters' such as global climate change, land submersion due to large reservoir projects or as a result of spontaneous disasters like earthquake, hurricane, flood, tsunami etc.
Is there a hope of creating a world where everyone can live in peace and harmony? Can we conserve our biological diversities and restore the eco-systems? Can we think of our future generations who will ask us, 'what have you left for us?'
I go back to that village where I lived once, and I do see a few older farmers coming together and beginning to speak of the days when the land was so fertile and how they all had enough grains, lived happily and peacefully with one another. Some of them, realizing how the modern crops, fertilizers and pesticides have destroyed the fertility of the soil, have slowly begun to cultivate the traditional varieties of food grains, at least for their own consumption. They have begun their journey of restoration and respect for nature.
Let us pray along with our Holy Father that we may protect our mother earth and all her creations. May we learn to respect and appreciate God's wonderful creation! May we become the caretakers of this universe for everyone to live peacefully on this earth!
Xavier Jeyaraj SJ
Assistant Secretary for Social Justice and Ecology of the Society of Jesus
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