Tuesday of the Thirtieth
Week in Ordinary Time
(Romans 8:18-25; Luke 13:18-21)
The window of the car on the highway opened and out went
an object – perhaps a plastic cup – littering the road. It was a small act of defiance of both law
and public decency indicative of a careless people. But little things add up. An estimated fifty-one billion articles of
litter are deposited on the roads of the United States alone every year.
Nevertheless, would it be that litter were today’s
biggest environmental problem! In truth
there are many greater worries. The burning
of fossil fuels creates pollution and likely contributes to global
warming. The depletion of forests ruins
the habitats of most of earth’s animals and causes the land to dry up. What St. Paul writes to the Romans in the
first reading today about the creation groaning makes perfect sense to
environmentalists.
Yet Paul also extends a signal of hope. He says that creation will be set free by a
redeemed humanity fully in the grasp of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will change our hearts to value
the environment as a common patrimony. All
good people will cooperate to protect natural resources so that future generations
may know the wonder of otters, ocelots, and
owls.
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