This reflection was written as an introduction to a roundtable discussion for Catholic organisations, networks and groups on Jubilee and the environment. It is applicable to everyone in our daily life, so we thought we would share it.

All Quotations from “‘In the Beginning…’ A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall” By Cardinal Josef Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)

Why do we have the sabbath?

“To celebrate the sabbath means to celebrate the covenant. It means to return to the source and to sweep away all the defilement that our work has brought with it. It also means going forth into a new world in which there will no longer be slaves and masters but only free children of God – into a world in which humans and animals and the earth itself will share together as kin in God’s peace and freedom.”

“It is from this law that the Mosaic law developed, which has as its foundation the idea that the sabbath brings about universal equality. This is extended beyond the weekly sabbath in such that every seventh year is also a sabbath, during which earth and human beings may rest. Every seventh year times seven there is a great sabbath year, when all debts are remitted and all purchases and sales annulled. The earth is to be received back from the creating hands of God, and everyone begin anew.”

This jubilee year should ask us as organisations, networks and groups to assess our activity in how we proclaim to Gospel to the whole creation. This requires us to ask questions about our society and economic systems, the effect these have on the earth and subsequently its peoples. Particularly it asks us to look at the underlying spirituality or vision of life that perpetuates the current system. 

why do we need the Jubilee year and indeed the sabbath?

“people had rejected God’s rest, its leisure, its peace, and its freedom, and so they fell into a slavery of activity and thereby enslaved themselves. Therefore God had to give them the sabbath that they denied themselves. In their “no” to the God-given rhythm of freedom and leisure they departed from their likeness to God and so did damage to the earth. Therefore they had to be snatched away from their obstinate attachment from their own work. God had to begin afresh to make them his very own, and he had to free them from the domination of activity.”

So the Jubilee is an opportunity to return to the source, to God and to primordial knowledge of ourselves as human creatures. Limited , fragile, yet dignified as creatures of God. A reset

“The danger that confronts us today in our technological civilization is that we have cut ourselves off from this primordial knowledge.”

As a result…

“God’s creation and “nature” are having to defend themselves against the limitless pretentions of human beings as creators. Human beings want to understand the discovered world only as material for their own creativity.”

When we ignore the limits set on us as created beings, we no longer recognise the other as limited, only as fuel for our own ego.

Note that Pope Benedict purposefully uses inverted commas to separate God’s creation and “nature”. How often we do this everyday without realising it. “I’ve just gone for a nice walk in nature.” Where were you before? Where are you now? Do we make pretences at being gods by separating ourselves from “material for our creativity”

“humans are sawing off the branch on which they sit.”

The question relating to our manipulation of the environment; our activity in the world and what we perceive as rest, focuses on two questions.

“what can I do?” i.e. what is technically possible for me to do?

“Who are we?” i.e. What is good for me as a creature of the creator?

“ ‘what can we do?’ will be false and pernicious while we refrain from asking ‘who are we?;”

For if we simply think “what can I do?” Rest can become looking like consumerism, our activity an accumulation of power, influence and wealth.

This Jubilee year should be an opportunity for us to pause and to think about our activity in life

• It should help us to recognise that ‘environment’, whether built, natural, social, economic, ecological, are all interconnected, and different distinctions that we make to divide creation i.e ‘nature’, ‘society’ or ‘economy’ are all parts of a relational whole. We shape the environment. The environment shapes us. Where is Christ in our shaping?
• How can this jubilee be a springboard to help us on our journey? A reset.
• How can this Jubilee help catholic organisations, networks, groups and individuals to recognise themselves as different parts of the same body, thus recognising the interconnection of all our work towards a common vision of a relational whole, or, ‘integral ecology’. What is that common vision? What is the shape? How does working towards this shape, shape us as people?

To further simplify, how does the Jubilee year help us recognise:

1. The interconnection between all our sometimes polarised objectives.
2. The need to use the jubilee as an opportunity for change, not simply a holiday.
3. The need to help us work together better and recognise a common vision.