A Salesian religious sister gives us a meditation on the beautiful world we all desire in her column in the Catholic News Papers.
“The world that God first created was so beautiful. The moon, stars, and sun shone day and night in the sky, and the mountains and fields provided us with food in the form of trees, flowers, and fruits. However, these precious friends are now suffering. ... Let us befriend these friends so that the world can become beautiful again. Let us share our friendship with these friends.” (For a Beautiful World, lyrics by Lee Mi-young, music by Kim A-ram)
This song is a children's song that remembers the beautiful world created by God, overcomes the climate crisis, and dreams of restoring the order of creation. To realize this dream, we need people who recognize the situation and take action. At the wedding feast in Cana, the Virgin Mary noticed that the wine was running out and brought about a miracle through her son. When a crisis approaches, if there is one person who can see what others cannot, the situation becomes an opportunity.
The “cry of the earth and the poor” is an urgent signal that the wine is running out in the world, so we need someone like the Virgin Mary who can recognize this and run to Jesus. Climate crisis and war are the crises and challenges facing humanity today. We are God's stewards who must hasten to “rebuild the ancient ruins, restore the foundations, and repair the broken walls and restore the streets” (Isaiah 58:12) rather than “live in houses of paneled wood while the Lord's house lies in ruins” (Haggai 1:4).
We introduce “ecological spirituality friendship education” to restore the order of creation through the eyes of the Virgin Mary in this age. The purpose of education is to nurture spiritual sensitivity to find God in all things, to cultivate and care for a sustainable “common home” where all creatures are united in familial love, and to accompany the cosmic family as they are filled with joy, gratitude, solidarity, and sharing. This is an “education of the heart” based on the Word of God, which speaks of the “story of creation,” the “first and second commandments of love,” and the “new heaven and new earth.”
Specifically, it is a story of love that creates friendship in relationships with nature, objects, people, and God. The story of creation tells us that all beings are a family that began with God. The concept of “ecology,” which has the meaning of ‘home’ or “dwelling,” is also in line with the story of creation in that it is a story of family members who are all connected to each other.
Education involves encountering the things around us with kindness, forming friendships, and finding stories of love connected to God within them. Through communing with nature amid the changing seasons, we learn gratitude and encounter the invisible mystery of God, sharing love with nature and meeting God.
Relationships with others begin with recognizing that I am a precious being, and then realizing that those closest to me are also precious beings. This leads to prophetic missions of justice and peace, which involve solidarity with social issues, the poor, refugees, those suffering from natural disasters, and the hungry.
All these relationships are connected to friendship with God. The development of civilization has brought material abundance, but it cannot fill the emptiness within. The longing for the source of human love can only be fulfilled through friendship with God.
