Day 24 Lenten Reflection

“The climate crisis should be viewed with urgency because it is a matter of survival. One thing we can gather is that the Oceania people are facing great uncertainties. Sea level rise has forced people to relocate. Extreme weather conditions affect human security, economic sustainability and their future survival. The decisions made today will be important for the region’s future tomorrow. …We are called to have compassion, and empathy like the one who stopped to help in the parable of the wounded one, and to be vulnerable like the vulnerable. To be moved with compassion is the story of the cross. It is to be Christ-like, reflecting his self-emptying (kenosis) and self-humbling (Phil 2:7-8); God becoming human, becoming a slave and accepting death on a cross. Pope Benedict sees God as suffering with us in the Word made flesh. To be vulnerable like Christ, who [Elizabeth] Johnson describes as taking a ‘tremendous swoop from divine form to crucified human form” tracing ‘an arc of divine humility, …credits the incomprehensible God with having a seemingly non-godly characteristic, especially when seen against the model of an omnipotent monarch, namely, the ability to be self-emptying, self-limiting, self-offering, vulnerable, self-giving, in a word, creative Love in action.’”

(~ Donato Kivi, SM, Care for Our Oceans, March 6, 2023)