Care for creation

Richard A. Sokerka

In his message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Sept. 1, Pope Francis announced that he was adding the care of creation as a complement to the works of mercy.

“We usually think of the works of mercy individually and in relation to a specific initiative: hospitals for the sick, soup kitchens for the hungry, shelters for the homeless, schools for those to be educated, the confessional and spiritual direction for those needing counsel and forgiveness,” he said. “However, when we look at the works of mercy as a whole, we see that the object of mercy is human life itself and everything it embraces.”

Since human life itself and all that it entails naturally includes caring for creation, the Holy Father proposed “a complement” to the two traditional sets of seven Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.

“May the works of mercy also include care for our common home,” he said, explaining that care for creation “calls for a grateful contemplation of God’s world which allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us.”

In “Laudato Si,” the Pope writes: “Nothing unites us to God more than an act of mercy, for it is by mercy that the Lord forgives our sins and gives us the grace to practice acts of mercy in his name.”

So for Pope Francis, caring for creation clearly is a work of mercy.

And because of that, the Pope is inviting us all to put care for creation into action in our daily lives.