Cultivating happiness by caring for creation
Monday, October 28, 2013
*Nelson Araque
In my last article, “Show your Stewardship of Creation,” I presented my reflection on Pope Francis’ Tweet, "Seeking happiness in material things is a sure way of being unhappy.” In my reflection I said, “Those who cultivate and take care of God's creation will live happy lives, because through their stewardship the beauty of the natural earth is maintained not just for us but for future generations. Such was the lifestyle of St. Francis of Assisi.”
On October 5, a group from the Hispanic Youth Ministry of the Archdiocese of Miami, led by representatives from the Catholic Climate Covenant and the Southeast Pastoral Institute (SEPI), accepted the challenge of seeking happiness through the stewardship of God’s creation. We met at Crandon Park in Key Biscayne around 9 a.m. Before our formal work began we prayed the St. Francis prayer and we listened to the representative of the park management who gave us some instructions about what we should target for our clean-up. With a pair of gloves and a bottle of water for each of us, we began our work.
It was a perfect sunny day as we walked to the beach assigned to us and collected cans, plastic, and glass that others had left behind. We walked in groups of two or more. Some were sharing about their lives and all of us enjoyed the sea and landscape. We ended up tired and thirsty but happy because we had cultivated and taken care of God's creation. Through our stewardship the beauty of the natural earth represented in this beach was maintained, not just for us that day, but for so many others who will visit it to enjoy the surroundings as we did.
We concluded with the St. Francis Pledge — a promise and a commitment by Catholic individuals, families, parishes, organizations and institutions to live our faith by protecting creation and advocating on behalf of people in poverty who face the harshest impacts of global climate change.
That day, as we celebrated the feast of St. Francis of Assisi by cleaning the beach, we all found the happiness our pope had described.
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