September 4.  Relationship breakdown and sin.   One Saturday the Houghton family decided to go, camping to experience nature, as they did from time to time. They had put up their tent and as everyone was hungry they all helped to put together their simple meal. As they ate and shared they considered how the natural environment had changed over the years. Mom commented, “In creation and in daily life there must be a right order of doing things. God created everything and, from the beginning, gave to mankind the task of caring for creation. This does allow people the freedom to use but not exploit and abuse nature and the environment.”      

The disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and took and ate the showbread, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat. The Son of man is lord of the sabbath. From Luke 6:1-5.   

 Pope Francis:   Human life is grounded in three fundamental relationships, with God, with our neighbour and with the earth.  According to the Bible these vital relationships have been broken, both outwardly and within us. This rupture is sin. The harmony in creation as a whole was disrupted by our presuming to take the place of God and refusing to acknowledge our creaturely limitations. Today sin is manifest in all its destructive power in wars, the various forms of violence and abuse and abandonment of the most vulnerable, and attacks on nature.  LS66. For human beings to destroy the biological diversity of God’s creation and to degrade the integrity of the earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the earth of its natural forests or destroying its wetlands, contaminate and pollute these, are sins against the natural world, against ourselves and against God. LS8.   

ECO-TIP AND PRAYER:  Do an examination of conscience. How have I degraded my own immediate environment? What can I do to fix it?   Pray for forgiveness and make a promise to do what is needed.