Good Friday

Good Friday
And what is good about it besides having some time off from school or work?

It is a time of sacrifice for Christians. Remembering the suffering and death of Jesus Christ whose enemies called him King of the Jews.

His kingdom was not and is not of this world. They did not understand that.

"Our sins were carried to the tree that we might die to sin

and be set free from death."

Psalm 88

O God, I call for help by day;

at night I seek your presence.

Let my prayer come before you.

Turn, hear my pleading.

Today, in a contemporary Cry of Passion, I turn to the Passion of our Earth.

What is it that we do to crucify our home?

Christians and people of faith have a responsibility to care for the environment. God calls us to be stewards of the Earth, and taking care of creation is both a sacrament and a duty of religion.

In the words of Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ:

In our day the human race is inflicting deadly damage on the life systems that keep this planet a habitat for life. The twin engines of destruction are over-consumption and overpopulation. In 1950 the world numbered two billion people; now, at the turn of the millennium it numbers six billion; and by the year 2030 there will be ten billion persons on the planet. Think of it this way: the Earth's population will have multiplied five times during the lifetime of someone born in 1950.

To translate these statistics into a vivid image: another Mexico City is added every sixty days; another Brazil joins the planet every year. Our species now uses up resources faster than Earth's power to replenish itself. By a conservative estimate, in the last quarter of the 20th century, 20 percent of all living species have gone extinct. We are killing birth itself, wiping out the future of our fellow creatures who took millions of years to evolve. We live in a time of a great dying off.

I invite you to another view of this Passion.

http://www.stgertrudes.org/Monastery/Passion/passion_of_earth.htm

Peace be to you.