April 1, 2024
/Blessed Eastertide! Thank you to all who bore witness to this year’s candidates (10) and the Elect (8) being fully initiated into the Church on Easter Vigil - may we continue to help them sustain their faith and integrate meaningfully into the life of our beloved community. In celebration of Earth Day this month, we feature a few links on the topic of ecological care as a Catholic responsibility that is rooted in the scriptural and theological vision of human flourishing - may we heed the collective call to take action.
—Oriana Li Halevy
on behalf of the Intra-Community Council’s CATH-Links and RCIA teams
If you are interested in submitting reflections, meditations, articles, book reviews, etc., see Submit Resources for Publication for submission guidelines. We look forward to your participation!
THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION
Easter, Creation, and Holiness [firstthings.com] “What came first: creation, or God’s covenants with the People of Israel and the New Israel, the Church? The question may seem odd, even silly. Chronologically, it’s obvious that the divine act of creation preceded the divine acts of covenant-making: no creation, no “People” with whom God could enter a covenant relationship. But our sense of time is not God’s. For as St. Thomas Aquinas taught, all that we know as “time” is an eternal present to God . . . The Redemption wrought in Christ is not, therefore, some sort of addendum to creation. The paschal mystery of Christ’s passion, death, resurrection, and ascension is the axial point of the entire drama of creation: the decisive, definitive turning point that reveals why there is “creation” at all. Thus, the answer that Christian faith, which is Easter faith, gives to a question philosophy has pondered for millennia—Why is there something rather than nothing?—is, in a word, holiness. The Thrice-Holy God created so that the holiness shared among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit might be shared ad extra: in a world brought into being to experience the eternal giving-and-receiving of love that is God’s inner-trinitarian life . . . Easter faith—the faith that the Incarnate Word overcame death and was raised to a new and superabundant form of life—confesses we live in a cosmos that is purposeful because it is Christocentric: ‘In him all things were created . . . and in him all things hold together’ (Col. 1:16–17). Easter faith summons us to think of ourselves as creatures capable of eternal life, for that is what Christ promised to those who embrace his cause (John 3:15, 17:3). And in friendship with him, the Risen One, we can experience that life, that holiness, here and now.”
NEW BOOK RELEASE
Life: My Story Through History [amazon.com] Pope Francis has unveiled a new memoir, Life: My Story Through History, which offers a unique perspective on his faith journey intertwined with global events. The book, translated from the original Italian by Aubrey Botsford, explores the Pope’s memories and observations spanning over eight decades, delving into significant moments that have shaped the world. From the Holocaust to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the moon landing, the 1986 World Cup, the 9/11 attacks, and the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis reflects on these events and their profound impact on humanity. In the book, the Pope addresses major crises today, including war, climate change, racial discrimination, and various social and cultural issues. Amidst these weighty topics, he shares candid and heartfelt stories highlighting his humanity.” --Kiefer Jones, Books & Review
CARING FOR OUR COMMON HOME
The Pope, the Environmental Crisis, and Frontline Leaders | The Letter: Laudato Si Film [youtube.com] Released in 2020 on the Feast of St. Francis, the film was inspired by Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si [vatican.va], a letter written to every person on the planet. The film features five people representing groups most affected by the climate crisis who travel from different countries to meet with Pope Francis in the Vatican and share their powerfully moving stories. “The theology in Laudato Si’ is in dialogue with science. Today, you could never practice theology without a dialogue with science. More than that, God gave us the capacity for investigation, the intellectual capacity to look for truths. Obviously, the biblical story of creation is a mythical form of expression to explain our history . . . You know those biblical images are historical with mythical meaning, that is, to help us understand values. ” ~Pope Francis
Caring for creation and caring for the poor have long been part of the Catholic story, but in recent years Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and especially Pope Francis have added a sense of urgency to their call for Catholics to act on climate change. The Catholic Climate Covenant theme for 2024 Earth Day is Healing Our Throwaway Culture: A Focus on Plastics. This 5-minute video shows how plastic production, consumption, and disposal are impacting our own health and the health of our planet: Healing Our Throwaway Culture: A Focus on Plastics [youtube.com]. Learn what you and our parish can do to reduce our consumption of plastic: Commitments Handout [catholicclimatecovenant.org].
COP28: US Bishops call for socially sustainable decarbonization [vaticannews.va] “U.S. bishops have joined worldwide calls urging the over 90,000 leaders and participants in the COP28 in Dubai to commit to a decisive acceleration of the transition from fossil to clean energy to contain the devastating impact of climate change, and to supporting the most vulnerable in the process . . . The statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) referred to Pope Francis’ recent Apostolic Exhortation ‘Laudate Deum’ (Praise God) in which the Pope urged world leaders to act on climate change as the planet nears the ‘point of no return.’”
Chicago Archdiocese to power parishes, schools with 100% renewable energy [ncronline.org] The power of the wind will soon fully power the Catholic Church in the Windy City. The Chicago Archdiocese announced on December 17 that beginning in January its nearly 400 parishes, schools, cemeteries, and offices will switch to 100% renewable energy sources for its electricity needs.
