Headlong rush towards the future

Every one of us is caught in the immediate and demanding present. From one present moment to another, we have to decide what to do and how to do it: what to eat and when, what to wear, how to reach the place of work, which newspaper to read and which part and how to manage to sail through the travails of one day after another by steering around the everyday problems of normal living.

Very few of us have the skill to stand back from this headlong rush of daily living to contemplate the whole picture and ask ourselves some basic questions. Perhaps only real artists (and saints?) are capable of doing this!

Where am I heading, as an individual? Where is my family heading? What is in store for me and my family (some of us may even be able to extend such horizon to the whole country) in a few decades from now? Will I be better off… not only economically but socially and (why not) culturally? Will my quality of life be better or worse?

You will rarely have sufficient time to really try to come up with some honest answers for yourself… before the present and its demands catch up with you again. Lucky are those who come to realise in time that it is their everyday actions and choices that will ultimately determine such long-term destination.

Over the past decades, one tool that has been increasingly employed to enable us to stand back and take in some basic idea or belief is to dedicate a day (or even a year) to that idea. That is why we have Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Independence Day, Earth Day, and so on.

The Church in Malta has recently introduced Creation Day in its diocesan calendar, to be celebrated on October 4. This should provide Christians in Malta with at least a moment of reflection (hopefully more) about the basic belief and truth that if we really believe in, love and respect God the Creator, we must necessarily respect all His creation.

All Christians (both practising or not) must come to realise that we have been elected as stewards of this creation and, as such, must be held responsible for the management and sustainable use of all environmental resources. It should not take much mental effort to make the connection between the way our daily actions and choices ultimately determine the level of our stewardship towards the whole of creation.

Evidently, the idea of taking care of all creation has more than just a whiff of rosy poetry with little or no practical backbone to it. Not so. It is in the type of lifestyle we adopt every day, in the short-term and long-term choices that we need to make in our headlong rush towards the future that we can determine our future.

If I make no effort to reduce the solid waste I produce every day. If I use water as if was an inexhaustible resource always available whenever I turn the tap. If I keep forgetting to send my car to the mechanic for a proper service that would put an end to the belching of toxic fumes as I drive through the streets every day. If I support short-term economic solutions proposed by my favourite politician(s), which may not necessarily be sustainable in the long run. If I turn a blind eye to cases of social injustice often involving unjust exploitation of the common good(s)… then I am not taking care of all creation and neither am I collaborating with the plan of the Creator.

If I am a priest and still struggle to see the direct connection between my love towards God and my responsibility toward His creation. If I am a devout and practising Christian and still fail to see why the Church should be directly involved in environmental issues and problems affecting our islands. If I spend much of my free time assisting in preparations for the village or town feast in honour of our patron saint without helping to ensure that such feasts will indeed achieve their aim but, rather, lead to a number of undesirable economic and/or environmental impacts on my neighbours and my own family. If I choose to kill all flying creatures rather than marvel at their continuing existence. If I have no qualms building in ODZ areas and do not realise that this is another form of stealing… then, in my rush towards a better future… I have lost it.

Creation Day will be celebrated on Thursday. Evidently, this is also the feast of Saint Francis. Whatever they tell us about him, he was no day dreamer, nor a romantic good-for-nothing. He made his own choices and developed his own lifestyle (and that of others) on the understanding and belief that if he responds to the needs of creation he would be responding and collaborating with the Creator.

The Church Environment Commission will be celebrating this day with Mass at the Capuchin church (church of the Holy Cross), Floriana, at 6.30pm. You are invited to join us.

Victor Axiak is chairman of the Church’s Environment Commission