Our planet is in crisis. And while there are a number of important responses to pursue — economic, technological, political — Pope Francis has said, “The best antidote against this misuse of our common home is contemplation.”
If we see contemplation as a singular act isolated from action, this statement could seem like an escape. However, if one understands contemplation as a way of being to receive and respond to God’s love in each moment, then the pope’s statement begins to make more sense.
This week, we will be celebrating Laudato Si’ Week, nine years since Francis signed the encyclical on integral ecology. One of the hallmarks of “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home” was that it helped reframe the ecological crisis as a spiritual crisis. Francis quoted Pope Benedict XVI: “The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast.”
The reasons for these internal deserts are numerous. Our overuse of technology keeps us from being aware of the gifts of life and creation and the sufferings of our kin and our Earth. We get caught in the epidemic of indifference, numbing ourselves with overactivity while turning away from the suffering of those both near and far.
Despite these addictive and destructive habits, we know that things can change. As Francis has shared, the antidote is to nurture contemplation: “To contemplate is to grant oneself the time to be silent, to pray, to restore harmony to the soul, the healthy balance between head, heart and hands, between thought, feeling and action.”
To continue reading this article, click here.
With thanks to Earthbeat, a project of National Catholic Reporter, where this article originally appeared.
