Giving thanks for God’s Creation

By Barb Arland-Fye
The Catholic Messenger

DAVENPORT — From the Mississippi River to St. Anthony Catholic Church less than a mile away, a small group of Catholics embarked on a Pilgrimage of Hope for Creation Sept. 6, focused on the sacred relationship between humanity and creation.

The pilgrimage on a crisp, sunny Saturday morning culminated with Mass for the Care of Cre­a­tion, which Pope Leo XIV approved for the universal Church this year. Bishop Dennis Walsh presided at the Mass at St. An­thony, which em­phasized the way in which “nature is taken up by God to become a means of mediating supernatural life” (Laudato Si’, No. 235).

Both journey and liturgy answered the Church’s invitation to commemorate the Season of Creation, which takes place Sept. 1-Oct. 4 (the feast of St. Francis of Assisi) and focuses this year on “Peace with Creation.”

“A Pilgrimage of Hope for Creation may take a variety of forms, from short walks around parish grounds to longer treks through mountains or forests,” Deacon Kent Ferris, diocesan director of Social Action and Catholic Charities, told the pilgrims gathered near the Davenport riverfront. The pilgrimages, he said, “share the same mission: to restore our relationship with God, with each other, and with the Earth, and to cultivate a renewed commitment to caring for Creation.”

Deacon Ferris included four pivotal stops along the short pilgrimage, making the connection between being a person of faith and living out that faith in the community in which each pilgrim lives. “Pray. Learn. Act, is a call to action… that encourages individuals and communities to engage in spiritual reflection, acquire knowledge about important issues, and then take tangible steps to enact positive change,” he said.

At the crossroads

The pilgrims’ first stop, across the street from the historic First National Bank Building in downtown Davenport, houses the district  offices for U.S. Senators Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa and U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa’s First District. Deacon Ferris and other Social Action Office representatives have visited these congressional offices many times to advocate for laws and policies that serve the common good, with an emphasis on meeting the needs of the poor.

“Our message about caring for our common home has included the important point Pope Francis stressed in (his encyclical) Laudato Si’, that environmental degradation most impacts the poorest of our brothers and sisters all around the world,” Deacon Ferris said. Last month, he and other advocates met with a staffer at Miller-Meeks’ office to request her opposition to a pending bill that they believe would harm Iowa’s rivers and lakes, wetlands and streams, drinking water and water-related recreation.

At each stop, following a reflection, the pilgrims prayed to God, “… As we continue on our journey, help us to grow in our care for your creation.”

The second stop, at an intersection, represented a crossroads. “If for a moment, we use our imagination, what might turning left or right here represent? Might making a turn mean we would briefly have a less challenging path? Might there be something more attractive going in a different direction?” Deacon Ferris asked. “Pope Francis’ admonishment (in Laudato Si’) is our ‘Walk signal,’ to cross the street of our journey, continue directly towards what our faith calls us to do, and to care and protect the Earth.”

Outside the Davenport Public Library, the third stop, Deacon Ferris reflected on this “accessible source of credible information, including those who work there, prepared to help those seeking knowledge …” He observed a parallel with parish personnel “who are prepared to help those on a faith journey.” The Catholic faith places great value on an intelligence that respects the laws of nature and the laws in the Bible that “dwell on relationships among individuals and with other living things” (Laudato Si’, No. 68).

The pilgrims’ final stop was St. Anthony Catholic Church, to celebrate the Mass for the Care of Creation. In the Eucharist, “all that has been created find its greatest exaltation” (LS, No. 236).

Giving thanks

“We have been blessed with a magnificent gift, a home in a vast and beautiful universe. We call this gift ‘creation,’” Bishop Walsh said in his homily. Like the nine lepers in the Gospel reading who failed to give thanks for their healing, “We, too, have been blessed and touched by the Lord and have never given thanks.”

Pope Francis “teaches us that the Earth is our ‘common home,’ a beautiful mother who cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted upon her,” the bishop said. “He tells us that the ‘cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor’ are one and the same, because a heart that is callous toward creation will not be long in showing cruelty toward others.”

“This is not a new idea, but one deeply rooted in the heart of Catholic tradition,” Bishop Walsh said, referencing Rerum Novarum, the encyclical that Pope Leo XIII wrote to address the social upheaval of his time (1891).

“The Earth and its resources are a gift from God, given for the good of all, not just a few. We are the stewards, not absolute owners …” That gift must be used for the common good and shared with those in need and that gift “applies equally to the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the soil that feeds us,” Bishop Walsh said. “Our liturgy itself is a ‘Mass of Creation.’ As we process to the altar, we are reminded of the grandeur of God’s handiwork.”

“In this place, in this time, living incarnationally means living sacramentally within creation,” pilgrim Jeff Mason of St. Anthony Parish said afterwards. “We accomplish this with Gospel nonviolence and divine, unconditional love.”