How are you doing today? That is a legitimate question that is asked over and over again. The other day I was walking around the parish with a bit of a furrowed brow that was taken to me being “worried” or “angry” or “frustrated” and several people I encountered in my walk asked a little pensively…How are you doing today Fr. Mark?
In truth, I was a little frustrated with something I can’t even remember at this moment but my face and posture gave away an anxiety I was feeling for the moment. A lot of different things effect, “how we are doing” throughout the day some for the good some for the bad but each touches us and moves us in a direction of emotion we may not be able to control but we must not allow to act in a way that hurts others.

As Catholics we believe we are part of something much greater as St. Paul reminds us, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.“ (1 Cor 12:26) Pope St. John Paul II in his “Letter to the Families” reminds us of how we are called to the something greater both in the spiritual and the cultural seeing in being part of a greater civilization. Living in community and building a community is part of the greater plan of God. He writes, “Civilization belongs to human history because it answers man’s spiritual and moral needs. Created in the image and likeness of God, man has received the world from the hands of the creator, together with the task of shaping it in his own image and likeness.” (Letter to Families #13)
It is shaping the world around us, the civilization and our relationships with one another that is the work we are called to do; to shape them in the image and likeness of God. And this extends to the world, not just the human beings surrounding us, but the complete world where we hear the voice of God calling to us with those powerful words found in Genesis…”God saw that it was good.” (Gen 1:10) It is a reminder of how the goodness of God is found in the center of everything. The “how are you doing?” becomes “how are we being in the world?” as we look to care for one another but also for the created goodness we live in each day.

Pope Francis in the Encyclical Letter, “Laudato Si’ reminds us to beware the the hubris and false plans that exclude God. He writes, “Following a period of irrational confidence in progress and human abilities, some sectors of society are now adopting a more critical approach. We see increasing sensitivity to the environment and the need to protect nature, along with a growing concern, both genuine and distressing, for what is happening to our planet.” (LS #19)
Care for our common home is care for each other. In the family it would not make sense, for example, to spend hours and hours obsessing over the maintaining the backyard and allow the laundry and cleaning of the house to be abandoned or the trimming of trees to the detriment of fixing a hole in the roof.
In the same way each person within the family is cared for like a treasure, nurturing the soul, the mind and the body to grow together to be fruitful and abundant in producing both the good here and now and producing future generations to show forth the glory of God. In this, the question then becomes, “How are your caring for/serving the other?
In the Letter to the Family Pope St. John Paul continues, “The civilization of love, in its current meaning, is inspired by the words of the conciliar constitution Gaudium et Spes: “Christ… Fully discloses man to himself and unfolds his noble calling”.… The civilization is intimately linked to the love “poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (Romans 5:5)” (#13) The civilization becomes a civilization of love when the caring for and serving the other is at the heart of our relationships and interactions with family, community and the whole of God’s creation. We are called to “use” creation to grow and expand but in using we are invited to expand the generosity and abundance of life, through our self-gift to the other first and foremost. It is the recognition that this civilization of love is in direct opposition to the throw away culture and the culture of death that uses the destruction of life and goods as the solution to transitory happiness. We discover who we are when we choose to be in a relationship of sacrificial love, entrusting our life to the greater which can only be found in faithful relationship with God.

“The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes a concern to bring the whole human family together to seek a sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change. The Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us. Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home.” (LS #13)
How are you doing? A good question…
God Bless
Fr. Mark