"Renew the face of the earth!” This cri de coeur bookends the Easter season. It is the first psalm that we sing at the Easter Vigil, after we have listened once more to the story of the blessed beginnings of the cosmos. Resurrection newness embraces all creation, not just humanity, for in Christ everything is made new. And, as we conclude the season, we once more invoke the Spirit of renewal on everything that God has made and called good.

We know that Earth groans under the burdens we have imposed; like us, it needs deep  renewal. We may not, however, recognize how deeply the renewal of both is linked. Pope John Paul described it in this way: “Care for the environment is not an option. Not to care for the environment is to ignore the Creator’s plan for all of creation and results in an alienation of the human person” (World Day of Peace, 1990).

Like many other aspects of the church’s teaching that are labelled “social,” this teaching on the environment is often marginalized or overlooked until it hits the secular media, where it generates controversy, surprise that the Church is interested in the topic, indignation that the Church dare to speak on “politics,” and yes, even real insight.

Earlier this year, Bishop Luc Bouchard published a pastoral letter on economic  development in the Fort McMurray region of his diocese. The Diocese of St. Paul in north-eastern Alberta is home to one of Canada’s most controversial industrial developments, the Athabasca Oil Sands, considered an indispensable energy source for the world, and a source for jobs for people from across Canada and around the world. Bishop Bouchard’s pastoral letter, with its respectful invitation to dialogue, articulate theological reflection and probing ethical questions, based on sound theological and ethical principles and solid scientific research, awakened many people, Catholic and not, to Church’s ability to say something credible about the environment.

His was not the first Canadian episcopal voice to raise concerns about the environment. In 2003, the Social Affairs Commission of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops published a pastoral letter entitled “The Christian Ecological Imperative.” There the Canadian bishops, quoting Pope John Paul, write: “The ecological crisis is a moral issue” and “the responsibility of everyone.” It’s a marvellous document, but has languished largely unread.

“The ecological crisis is a moral issue.” Just over a year ago, when the Vatican issued an updated list of sins for our time, a certain amount of chuckling emanated from some quarters: such a quaint notion, updating a list of sins. But that list included polluting the environment. Think back to our Lenten penitential celebrations. Did our relationship with the environment figure in those examinations of conscience that we proposed? How would confessors welcome someone who confesses running the shower too long, failing to recycle, refusing to turn the lights off when leaving a room or consuming in a way that squanders the earth’s resources? It’s fairly easy to confess impatience with a spouse, but we need to adjust our imaginations and consciences to recognize that responsibility for God’s creation falls on each and all of us.

Lots of small initiatives can make a difference. The Alberta Knights of Columbus changed the prizes in their provincial Charities Appeal Raffle from a Hummer to a Smart Car Cabriolet and a Prius. Parishes have invested in inexpensive mugs instead of styrofoam cups, and encouraged parish groups to use fair-trade coffee, which does justice to both the growers and the environment. Parishes that are building a new church or renovating existing ones can go green. As alternative power sources become more affordable, consider harnessing the power of the sun and wind to provide some of the energy needs of your parish. Encourage people to carpool or bike to church in good weather.

Our sacraments depend on natural symbols: baptism on water; confirmation and anointing of the sick on oil; Eucharist on bread and wine; marriage, reconciliation and ordination on human beings. We often muse that many people have never seen the cow that provides their milk, the pig that provides their bacon or the glacier that provides the drinking water that they take for granted. Let’s make similar connections with our sacraments. Even the River Jordan no longer runs deep and wide. Clean water, in fact, water itself, is endangered around the world, and with it the world’s peoples. Yet the story of water is as much a story of salvation as of cultivation. What about the effects of pollution on the olive trees that provide oil for our chrism? Anointed with the oil of salvation, ours lives are woven into the reality of those precious olives. Do we likewise acknowledge as a gift that “earth has given and human hands have made” the bread that becomes Christ’s body and blood? Do we remember, with gratitude, the gifts of soil, rain, and sun that have nourished the grain, and at the same time, recognize that ecological problems compromise this process? Do we recognize our responsibility to protect these gifts of creation through which Christ continues to act in the Church?

Clearly, our own prayer echoes the Earth’s cry for renewal. As the Easter season draws to a close, let’s pray for the creativity and will to turn that prayer into action—for the sake of all creation that bears the imprint of God’s love.