Remembering Grace: A Proposal for a Busy Time

@Pontifex: “I pray every day for all who are suffering in Iraq. Please join me.”

Pope Francis sent this Tweet yesterday to engage the sins that we see with the power of prayer that we don’t. He did not demand that we march, sign petitions, or publish lengthy treatises. He simply asked that we turn to our Father for help.

There is nothing wrong with marches, petitions, or treatises. And certainly, the pontiff doesn't expect us to only pray passively in light of the violent sins of others. Activism is necessary for life in our fallen world. But marches, petitions, and what have you are not ends to themselves. Nor are they effective without the credentials of holiness and the grace of God.

With the coming this month of another United Nations conference on climate change and other international and local environmental activities, many in the environmental community—Catholics among them—are gearing up for a worldwide series of climate marches and other events that seek to slow the accelerating erosion of our planet’s ecosystems and its climate.

God bless all these activities and all who sacrifice to make them possible. But I must suggest that those of us who engage in these activities—Catholics especially—first root our worldly activity in God.

A few years ago after a lively conference at Providence College on Divine Impassibility—that is, the mystery of how God could suffer for another—the event’s coordinator, Dr. James Keating (who would later become my graduate advisor) said something that I will always remember. He wrapped up the gathering by announcing that evening prayer was scheduled at the college’s chapel. “Now let us go worship the God whose mysteries we have labored to explore.” And then he went to the chapel.

The need to balance activity and quiet receptivity is shown to us rather directly in Luke’s account of Christ’s visit to Martha and Mary.

As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary [who] sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” Luke 10:38:42

A few months ago I posted on what I called “Eco-Pelagianism.” I followed that with a proposal for spiritual approaches to ecological health.

I’d like to underscore this again.

I urge that all eco-events sponsored by Catholics include not just the necessities of the worldly but also the more necessary transcendence of God—that is, some liturgical event that roots our activity in the mysterious, transformative love of the divine.

There are many examples to follow, like the inspired work of the Archdiocese of Manila and their ongoing Season of Creation. There is also the Catholic Climate Covenant’s St. Francis Pledge—which asks first that we pray. (Have you taken it yet? You should!)

No matter how we go about working to better the world, let us answer the pontiff who took Francis’s name. Let us engage evil—whether it be wars, terrorism, hatred, environmental destruction, or our own choices—with our prayers to God. Then when we do march, petition, advocate, and in every way engage the things of the world, we will do so without forgetting the better part of what it takes—and Who it takes—to renew face of the earth.