Liturgy News

In the summer of 1225, Francis of Assisi wrote a poem in the Umbrian dialect – among the oldest poems written in a modern vernacular. The Canticle of Brother Sun is not just beautiful poetry, it is a profound prayer of praise of the Creator. All things – sun, moon and stars, wind and water, and even sickness and death – sing praise just by being what God created them to do. Human beings are included, those who grant pardon, who endure in peace. The words were written by a human being (holy Francis), but they articulate the wordless praise offered by everything that has come from the hand of God.

In May 2015, Pope Francis took Francis’ Canticle as his starting point for a Christian reflection on ecology: Laudato si’: On Care for our Common Home. He set out how the Gospel of Creation is not only about preserving the environment but ensuring respect and justice for all, especially those who are left on the margins and excluded from full participation in God’s creation.

This year, 800 years since Canticle and 10 years since Laudato si’, the Holy See has provided us with liturgical texts for a Mass for the Care of Creation. It is recommended for use on 1 September, a day which is shaping up to be a new addition to the liturgical calendar honouring God the Creator. The idea for this feast originated in Eastern Churches and has already been widely adopted in other Western denominations. Adding a day to the General Roman Calendar takes a bit more time. Note that, while we have been celebrating creation as a prayer intention for some years, a solemn feast is new and shifts the focus. Most of our liturgical feasts celebrate the mystery of redemption; we do not have a feast to rejoice in the work of God as Creator. So it is deeper than praying about the earth and climate change, recycling and the environment.

This opens up two different approaches to our liturgical understanding of creation. The first is what we might call a stewardship model. This is the most familiar and perhaps the easiest. It puts the emphasis on the first part of Pope Francis’ subtitle: ‘On Care For…’ The fourth Eucharistic Prayer refers to Genesis and God’s creation of the human being, entrusting the whole world to their care, so that in serving… the Creator, they might have dominion over all creatures. The word dominion is not domination but does mean rule or authority. It is softened a little from God’s injunction in Genesis, Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures (Gen 1:26). It has been suggested that this mindset has led to exploitation of the world’s resources. At least the word stewardship normally contains some idea of responsibility.

This dimension is important because the equitable distribution of the riches of creation is a matter of justice. An integral ecology looks to supporting the marginalised today but also to providing a good earth for future generations. Our ecological conversion calls us to respect and protect God’s handiwork and to fight consumerism, deforestation and pollution. It gives us a huge range of activities to tackle in parish and other groups from controlling our plastic waste to planting trees. This is a significant theme in our new liturgical texts for the Care of Creation: grant, we pray, that docile to the life-giving breath of your Spirit, we may lovingly care for the work of your hands.

However, there is a second approach to creation which we also need to explore. It may be called a kinship model. It recognises that human beings are also God’s creatures. Rather than setting ourselves ‘over’ creation as its caretakers, we begin to see that we are part of creation and all God’s creatures are our brothers and sisters. It is true that human beings are unique in their language and their ability to think and reason, remember and plan. But all parts of creation are interdependent. Human beings receive as much as we give, for we depend on the rest of creation – for air to breathe, food for nourishment, provisions for clothing and shelter. Non-human creatures care for us as we care for them, and so we strive to live together in harmony and respect.

This approach puts the emphasis on the second part of Pope Francis’ subtitle ‘…our Common Home’. It also makes us appreciate the radical insight of St Francis’ Canticle. His vision recognised the Sun and Moon, Water and Fire, Earth and Death as our brothers and sisters. Each in its own way expresses the praise of the Creator for they have been wondrously made. We see the same approach in many of the psalms, for example, Ps 148: Praise God, sea creatures and all ocean depths, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy winds… mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, beasts both wild and tame, reptiles and birds on the wing, kings of the earth and all peoples… Let them praise the name of the Lord.

It is also found in our liturgical texts. At the end of the Preface of the fourth Eucharistic Prayer, as we praise God with the angels and saints, we say, we too confess your name in exultation, giving voice to every creature under heaven. Later, as we look forward to entering our heavenly inheritance, we say, there, with the whole of creation, freed from the corruption of sin and death, may we glorify you… The third Eucharistic Prayer expresses the same thought: You are indeed Holy, O Lord, and all you have created rightly gives you praise. This approach is not entirely absent from the new Mass texts for the Care of Creation. The Prayer after Communion reads, as we await the new heavens and the new earth, we may learn to live in harmony with all creatures.

The new Mass for the Care of Creation is only a start. We really need a Preface as well, and we need to get on board with other Churches in establishing a Solemn Feast of the Creator God. Then our Eucharist can truly be the song of thanks and praise of all creation, offered on the altar of the world, joining heaven and earth, and embracing and penetrating all creation.