There are no more “in between seasons”!

Fr. Livio Tonello, director

This sentence alludes to a familiar language, to changing things: some changes are normal while others are radical such as the climate change that is worsening every year. In 2015 Pope Francis declared September 1 as the world day of Prayer for the creation inviting us to reflect. The ecological problems do not only concern the great of the earth but they are also the responsibility of each one of us.

Because we have arrived to a point of no return! And the consequences are already evident. If we can affirm that there are no more “in between seasons” we can affirm too that there is no time left for half measures. It is not possible to procrastinate any more but we must take action to save the Earth. In their message the Italian bishops say: “we encourage to make gradual and necessary changes in our life style and we commit ourselves to encourage them through our contemplative gaze on the creation and our daily life changes”.

For Christians it is important to respond to ecological issues that concern faith too. From the beginning of the Creation God has entrusted us to take care of the world “to cultivate and care for it” (Genesis 2,15). Progress has not taken account of this commitment. Nowadays before the environmental deterioration we must take action together; it is urgent to make significant life style changes to save the planet and to discern new social and economic models for the ecological transition. We must face a time of important decisions without regretting a past full of injustices, wastage and contradictions.

Christianity invites us to have a contemplative gaze on the creation, as a “good thing”, a starting point to protect the Earth. Plants are 85% of living things, (the biomass), animals (including humans) represent just 0,3% of living things. The disproportion is immense and we should learn life lessons from the plants as the collaboration and the resilience that helped them to grow at all latitudes with great varieties.

We are living in a time of transition and opposition between health, economy, environment, culture and the new possibilities of an authentic human development based on social ethic. From the Walnut Tree saint Anthony reminds us that who lives in accordance with nature is happy. But now we must protect and save nature to save ourselves. On June 29 of this year the world had already consumed the resources available for 2022 to guarantee a dignified existence to everybody.

To maintain our level of consumption until the end of this year we would need the resources of about 2,7 earths. The cry of the earth and the cry of the poor are rising... let’s not speak about “in between seasons”.