This essay was awarded third place in the 2019 Catholic Seminarian Essay Contest on Sustainable Behavior which was organized by The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development. To read more about the contest, click here.
BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE ECO-BEHAVIOUR IN THE LIGHT OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHINGS
By Henry Chukwuebuka Ezeala
Seat of Wisdom Seminary, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria
Between the months of July and August 2018, I was sent on six weeks pastoral work to a very remote village in the eastern part of Nigeria called Awba-Ofemmili. This village was experiencing its first anniversary of electric power supply courtesy of the Parish Priest. More than most parts of Nigeria, the village enjoys average of 24 hours per week electricity. The indigenes were predominantly rice farmers and fishermen inhabiting an unimaginably vast land. Amidst the wonderful hospitality and hard work of these people, I could not but appreciate the lush greenery around the village like a forgotten paradise. However, the villagers had recently engaged in a violent dispute with their neighbors which led to the destruction of rice farms worth millions of naira. One could also notice high level of illiteracy, and lack of hygiene among the people. There was no medical center at the time after the last one was vandalized. The violence, lack of education, and poverty that I witnessed in this village are part of the global factors militating against sustainable ecological behaviours. In fact, a good number of the youths as a result of these challenges no longer find pride in either fishing or farming. For many of them life in the urban area is a better option.
There is a growing anthropological irresponsibility which fosters poverty, ignorance, violence and underdevelopment. These vices which militate against the common good have engendered ideologies and lifestyles that are against ‘God, our neighbor and the earth itself.’1 The promotion of secularism and consumerism have led many people in the world today to live in ways which are highly inimical to their spiritual, mental and physical welfare. The result is a widening global injustice, hostility, squandering and mismanagement of social resources, a sense of emptiness and purposeless in the souls of those who follow these shallow lifestyles. Unfortunately none of these things can provide the true peace and joy which the human soul seeks, only the gospel message of Christ can do this.2 There is an urgent need for a global ecological conversion flowing from an ecological spirituality.3 Pope Francis in Laudato Si avers that “a change in lifestyle could bring healthy pressure to bear on those who wield political, economic and social power.”4 Before Francis, St. Pope John Paul II already argued that every effort to protect and improve our world entails profound changes in “lifestyles, models of production and consumption, and the established structures of power which today govern societies.”5
In the Old Testament, we find the divine mandate for an ecological behavior not just in God’s command to Adam to take care of creation (Gen.2:15), but also in the clarion call of the prophets to the people towards social justice and socio-economic virtues. The prophetic ideal city is one in which the rich do not oppress the poor nor grab their lands. It is a city where fairness, equity and social justice are considered paramount. Thus the prophet Isaiah attacks those who grab lands or deprive the poor of their inheritance (Is. 5:8).6 In the New Testament, Christ commands us to ‘be perfect just as our heavenly Father is perfect.’ (Matt. 5:48). A concrete expression of God’s perfection is found in the orderly arrangement and sustenance of his creation. Thus an ecologically-sustainable behaviour could be a pathway to Christian perfection and holiness. St. Francis of Assisi in his holy splendour provides an example of concrete behaviours that promote ecological sustainability. His generous self -giving, simplicity, open heartedness, and love of nature are important ecological behaviors worthy of emulation.7 Pope Francis explore the link between the will of God and eco-behaviours by arguing that our identification with Christ and his will involves a commitment to build with him that kingdom of love, justice and universal peace.8 He equally affirms that concern for the environment ought to be joined with love for our fellow human beings and an unwavering commitment to resolving the problems of society.9 It is therefore necessary that the Church which is the universal sacrament of salvation, in fidelity to her missionary mandate, must concretely witness to the world a pattern for positive ecological behaviours. Through such attitude believers become witnesses and not merely teachers. Pope Paul VI argues that the “modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.10 A sustainable ecological behavior which witnesses to the Christian faith could begin with such little acts like avoiding wastage of food, cutting down on meat, carbonated drinks and confectionaries, re-using used products, recycling non-degradable waste, and living modestly.
Eco-behaviour generally involves cultivating a green lifestyle.11 This implies; staying rooted in the community, cultivating mental and physical awareness, practicing mental prayer, observing the Lord’s day of rest, minimizing purchases, resisting consumerism, conserving water and electric energy, listening to understand, tilling the earth, planting trees, keeping and taking care of animals and eating healthily. Those who follow the path of sustaining the eco-system must make decisions that are always beneficial to others, cultivate new relationships and remain committed to old ones, learn to spend less times with electronic gadgets, learn to spend time alone listening to their heart beats, try as much as possible to use locally made goods like oil, cream, soap, and foods, see if they can make the things they need by themselves before going to the supermarket or buy the raw materials. They can begin the day by making intentional decisions to learn names of people around them, to be kind, patient, less abusive, and to listen more attentively to others. They should also critically question the news they read especially via social media. These behaviors are capable of creating the internal renewal which can bring people to the path of ecological sustainability, which invariably is not about a static world out there, but about the world inhabited by living creatures.
A positive eco-behaviour must also fight for the preferential option of the poor.12 It must seek ways of responding to the humiliating and violent conditions of those oppressed by corrupt and faceless social structures. This is the point where a theology that focuses on the plight of poor people,13 would be immensely effective especially in Africa. Amidst the squalor and abysmal poverty, there are still many Africans who are taken up in the culture of ‘consumerism and throwaway,’14 or are involved in the illegal trade of mineral resources.15 Such attitudes breed violence and corruption. Laws and policies must be set in place to check these evils, especially by politicians, economists and multinational companies.
My pastoral experience at Awba-Ofemmili inspired my thesis for Bachelors in Divinity on the theme The Holy Spirit as the Divine Principle of Integral Ecology. My field analysis revealed that there is still a great lack of awareness on ecotheology and sustainable eco-behaviours in Africa especially among the youths. There is an urgent need to begin ecological discussions and pastoral plans both by the Church and State. This would help in providing both a more holistic analysis and solution to complex ecological challenges in the continent. If we do not imagine ourselves as part of creation, if we globalize the eco-crisis and deny its impact our local communities, and if we do not live in relationships of accountability, we might as well fail to see the mandate of “keeping” Creation as a call to solidarity and action on behalf of the garden.16 All of us are sons of God imbued with the Holy Spirit when we cooperate with the divine actions in creation, for how best can we explain the divine action in creation on behalf of all creatures than to create, liberate and redeem life.17 We must always recognize on one hand, the Spirit of God which dwells in our hearts and inspires us to do that which is good,18 and on the other hand respond to it through manifesting ecologically sustaining behaviors.
END NOTES:
1. St. Pope John Paul II, Message for the 1990 World Day of Peace, 15: AAS 82 (1990), 156.
2. Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium: On the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World, no.1, 3.
3. Pope Francis. Laudato Si: On the Care of Our Common Home, no. 216, 135.
4. Pope Francis. Laudato Si: On the Care of Our Common Home, no. 207, 130.
5. John Paul II. Centesimus Annus (1 May 1991), no.38. (Quoted in Laudato Si, no.5, 9).
6. John Barton. “Reading the Prophets from an Environmental Perspective.” Ecological Hermeneutics: Biblical,
Historical and Theological Perspectives. Ed. D. Horrell, C. Hunt, C. Southgate, F. Stavrakopoulou. New York: T&T Clark International, 2010, 47.
7. Pope Francis, Laudato Si: On the Care of Our Common Home, no. 10, 12.
8. Pope Francis, Laudato Si: On the Care of Our Common Home, no. 25. 6.
9. Pope Francis, Laudato Si: On the Care of our Common Home, no. 91, 61.
10. Pope Paul VI, Address to the members of Consilium de Laicis (2 October 1974): AAS 66 (1974). 58.
11. Green is an almost universal symbol or metaphor for ecology and the earth. It speaks to newness and nourishment, verdancy and vivacity, freshness and fecundity. In the twelfth century Hildegard of Bingen coined the term viriditas, meaning ‘greenness.’ Daniel L. Brunner, Jennifer L. Butler, and A.J. Swoboda. Introducing Evangelical Ecotheology: Foundations in Scripture, Theology, History and Praxis. Michigan: Baker Publishing Co., 2014, 218.
12. Pontifical Council for Justice and peace (2004), Compendium of the Soccial Doctrine of the Church, 182-184.
13. Leonardo Boff. Ecology & Creation: A New Paradigm. New York: Orbis Books, 1995, 8.
14. Pope Francis. Laudato Si: On the Care of Our Common Home, no. 204, 129.
15. Pope Francis, Laudato Si: On the Care of Our Common Home, no 123, 81.
16. Daniel L. Brunner, Jennifer L. Butler, and A. J. Swoboda. Introducing Evangelical Ecotheology: Foundations in Scripture, Theology, History, and Praxis. Michigan: Baker Publishing Co, 2014, 12.
17. Sigurd Bergmann. Creation Set Free: The Spirit as Liberator of Nature. Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005, vii.
18. Pope Francis. Laudato Si: On the Care of Our Common Home, no. 246, 153.