Earth Day wasn’t just another Monday for students, staff and faculty of Newman University — it was a day to recognize the sacredness of Earth, created by the heavenly Father.
Several Earth-themed events took place last week on the college campus, all culminating with an Earth Day Mass on Monday, April 22. Mass was followed by the planting and blessing of two butterfly bushes on Founders Plaza.
Father Adam Grelinger offered Mass and a reflective, creation-inspired homily in St. John’s Chapel.
An Earth Day homily
Written by Grelinger
There is always something surprising about natural beauty. It strikes us when we are attentive. Visiting Colorado and seeing the mountains or beholding the canyon lands or the ocean or even a stroll through a wooded area you are familiar with — beautiful and amazing!
Here it is. It exists, and it didn’t have to. It certainly didn’t have to exist this way. It could have been in so many different ways. But here it is and it strikes us.
St. Augustine pushes us: “Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing itself, question the beauty of the sky … question all these realities. All respond: ‘See, we are beautiful.’ Their beauty is a profession. Who made them if not the beautiful one who is not subject to change?”
This is what the natural world should do: Edify us with beauty, as God gave it to us to do, but also to proclaim him. It is the first way he calls everyone to know him.
This is what the natural world should do: Edify us with beauty, as God gave it to us to do, but also to proclaim him.
Father Adam Grelinger
And thus we should not brutalize, trash and pollute it. One of its missions is to enrich and lift our souls. But I think we also see here an important task for us who believe in God with regard to this work. An unbeliever can certainly see the importance of caring for the environment, but they lose something important. To see the natural world as just the result of random geological movements is to rob it of wonder and to rob it of its full power.
For example, think of the “Pieta” of Michelangelo. To talk just of the techniques Michelangelo used and the quality of the marble, you would be considering something interesting, but you’d miss the full force of the statue. What does it say of love? What does it say of that profound historical moment? You miss the purpose of it all.
To look at a mountain and see only shifting tectonic plates is to lose what the artist intended. To look at a canyon and see only incremental erosion is to lose the meaning intended by the artist. The real beauty of a thing is lost when we remove the meaning and spiritual significance given by the artist.
So, in our care for the earth let us always witness to the artist. It is from him, for us. May it always shock us with its beautiful grandeur, awakening in our souls wonder and profound questions. We should witness to everyone that these feelings and desires are not meaningless, but a call to the artist and a sign of our destiny.
Learn more about Newman’s commitment to sustainability
Newman University has committed to advance Pope Francis’ powerful Laudato Si’ message throughout its 7-year plan.
