Ecological Conversion: Making a Commitment to Institutional, Systemic and Lifestyle Changes
A conviction shaping all of Laudato Si’ is that the environmental crisis demands nothing less than a full-scale conversion in the attitudes, priorities, habits, and overall lifestyle of the wealthy for the sake of the poor and planet Earth. In this final chapter, Pope Francis highlights what some of those changes must be.
First, he insists there is no way beyond the environmental crisis unless a consumerist lifestyle is wholly rejected.
Second, the wealthy must become less self-centered and greedy, giving priority instead to the common good.
Third, the vice of extreme individualism must be replaced by the virtue of solidarity, carelessness by responsibility, and indifference by compassion. Perhaps most importantly, we must learn to appreciate beauty (LS 215).
In the third part of chapter six, Francis outlines an “ecological spirituality.” Among the many components of this spirituality, these are especially urgent:
- Every Christian should see caring for creation as a vocation (LS 217).
- We should confess and repent of our sins against other creatures and the natural world (LS 218).
- Instead of grasping and possessing the good things of creation, we must develop the spiritual vision by which we see the world as a gift.
- We must deepen our awareness of the communion that exists between ourselves and all creatures (LS 220).
We Passionists should be especially adept at contributing to this ecological spirituality. After all, St. Paul of the Cross declared that even the flowers spoke to him of the love and goodness of God!
