Finding certainty beyond Lima's climate pact

There is a joy when the thing you anticipate is, through faith, already present.

Catholics celebrated this joy today on this third Sunday of Advent—“Gaudete Sunday”—a day to relish a taste of the Christmas Season—and the Second Coming—now. It was a fitting day for environmental advocates to celebrate an international climate agreement forged in Lima last night.

But where the joy of Christmas is for believers a lasting promise of God’s reign in the human heart, those applauding the Lima agreement weren’t applauding very loudly.

There had rightly been high hopes in the days leading up to the United Nations event. But today many environmentalists are expressing disappointment that what governments agreed to is mostly voluntary rather than required compliance.

Still, some are confidant that the Lima pact will be enough to get us to more definitive discussions next December in Paris. “It’s the bare minimum of what we need, but we can work with it to get the pressure on,” said Alden Meyer, president of the group Union of Concerned Scientists, in the New York Times.

Others are less hopeful.

“The thing that we’re not seeing in here and that we’re not seeing at the highest levels of government is the commitment we saw mobilized when we wanted to save the global financial system,” said Samantha Smith of World Wildlife Fund in Bloomberg’s Business Week. “If we don’t get stronger actions, we will get very dangerous climate change.”

The final hours of discussions appear to have been somewhat heated in a perennial debate between developed and developing nations. Breaking the stalemate were edits in a final draft that changed “shall” to “may.” While this switch keeps the words on either side those modal verbs exactly the same, the meaning of everything around them shifts abruptly because there is no certainty in “may.”

I couldn’t help but contrast all this with the certainty of today’s readings at Mass.

  • From Isaiah: “As the earth brings forth its plants, and a garden makes its growth spring up, so will the Lord GOD make justice and praise spring up before all the nations.” (Is. 61:11)
  • From St. Luke: “[The Almighty] has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy.” (Lk. 1:53-54)
  • From St. Paul: “May the God of peace make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it.” (1 Thess. 5:23-24)
  • From St. John: “John answered them, ‘I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.’” (Jn. 1:26-27)

There are no qualifications when it comes to the activity of God. As we hear repeatedly in sacred scripture—whether from Christ or from the messengers of God—“fear not.”

For those of us who labor for healthy ecosystems, economies, and political structures, here is the message: Human governance and agreements are necessary. But they are always limited by sin and uncertainty. And so as we continue our Advent journey, we will do well to consider where and in Whom we shall place our ultimate faith.

Because if we as individuals and nations place our trust in God first, we will be delighted to see how we grow and what happens next.

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Catholic Ecology posts my regular column in the Rhode Island Catholic, as well as scientific and theological commentary about the latest eco-news, both within and outside of the Catholic Church. What is contained herein is but one person's attempt to teach and defend the Church's teachings - ecological and otherwise. As such, I offer all contents of this blog for approval of the bishops of the Church. It is my hope that nothing herein will lead anyone astray from truth.