Going back to Mother Earth

By Anthony Gathambiri IMC

Our Earth is a mother who nourishes us. So we need to be friends with this mother, lest we hunger, thirst and die of fatigue.

Befriending the Earth is possible if only we are in touch with it. I have early childhood memories of climbing trees, making ugali (samp) from mud and constructing grass houses. Today fewer children sprawl on the grass. Instead they are climbing on chairs or sprawling on carpets. Parents perhaps fear that their kids might soil their clothes or be bitten by insects. Contact with Mother Earth is diminishing. Our don’t-care attitude is feeding the lurking giant of global warming.
All are to blame for this climate change, and consequently we have to cooperate faithfully in caring for the Earth.  Irrespective of our faith, language or colour, we drink water from the same source (I have never heard of a Christian or Buddhist forest or a Muslim river). No one can step aside and say that they are off the hook.

What the world needs are engineers, town planners, technicians, architects and a host of experts from other fields who have a wide vision of what is required to address and reduce climate change.

The question of which faith is best equipped in the matter shouldn’t arise. Sean McDonagh, a renowned Catholic theologian, once wrote: “We should forget which institution should have precedence, and other ecclesial niceties”.

Above all, we must necessarily have a change of heart if we want to curb climate change — and we will see how much of a change of heart there’ll be at the COP17 meeting that starts in in Durban this month.

It’s crystal clear that consumer habits are spiralling and diets are becoming more animal-based. It takes people of courage to challenge themselves on these things.

Besides pointing fingers at polluters when they litter our unkempt compounds, we need to work on our habits too. In the words of local academic Sr Susan Rakoczy IHM, a new kind of asceticism and self-denial is needed.

I am not sure when last I heard a Christian pray for our sick Mother Earth. We pray for the Church, families, the nation and so on, but often forget that there is no heaven without the Earth. Surely issues such as climate change, air and water pollution, desertification and the environment in general should be part of our prayers, in the liturgy or in our private devotions?

The People of God need to be conscientised about their responsibilities towards the Earth. Evangelisation is about the whole person, not only about saving souls. Without good air, drinkable water and favourable weather conditions, priests would be preaching to sick people only.

There are little things that we can do to make a difference, things like sharing lifts, switching off electrical appliances and making use of natural light as much as possible. Let us form communities that will conscientise this wasteful generation on the need to care for the wounded mother, like Abalimi Bezekhaya (Planters of Earth), a Catholic movement that enriches townships by planting trees.

The Church could be one of the greatest instruments in healing this sick Earth if it has the collective will to be so.