This article is part of a series of reflections written by our International Board of Directors to celebrate the 800 year anniversary of the Canticle of Creatures
• • •
Praised be You my Lord through our Sister Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, producing varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs.
– St. Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Creatures
These words from the Canticle of the Creatures – or the Canticle of Brother Sun – composed by St. Francis of Assisi in 1225-26 reveal his understanding of a universe created in and for love, one that is deeply interpersonal, interrelated, interconnected, integral. As Pope Francis, reflecting on the origin and meaning of creation, and inspired by St. Francis’ Canticle, reminds us: “the universe did not emerge as the result of an arbitrary omnipotence, a show of force or a desire for self-assertion. Creation is the order of love. God’s love is the fundamental moving force in all created things” (Laudato SI: 77).
When reflecting on Mother Sister Earth, we recognize the planet as a single, complex, interconnected system. This integral perspective recognizes the intricate relationships between Earth’s physical components (geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere), its living organisms (biosphere), and humanity’s powerful and often damaging impact. Earth provides fundamental resources essential for all life: a continuous flow of energy source; liquid water; a stable and suitable atmosphere with vital gases; organic compounds and nutrients; moderate temperatures; and vital chemical ingredients. Mother Sister Earth also provides us with a magnetic field that shields life from harmful solar radiation, and plate tectonics and seasons that contribute to the planet’s habitability. Seen in this way, the Earth is a living organism that provides conditions necessary for the survival of all of life’s inhabitants.
St. Francis’ breaks new ground within Western Christianity where he speaks about Sister Mother Earth bearing a double role of both sustaining and governing all members of the Earth community. First, St. Francis recognizes personality and agency within all creatures – “Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Mother Sister Earth. But St. Francis goes one step further. According to Christiana Garzena, “The Franciscan revolution consists in the affirmation that the earth sustains and governs…Biblical exegesis prior to Francis argued that human beings must dominate the earth…He is the first person to challenge this” (see Jacques Delarun, Il Cantico di Frate Sole, Assisi, Biblioteca Francescana, 2015:55). It is not the mission of human beings to control, dominate, disfigure, destroy, and discard whatever we find useful within the natural world. We are called by God and St. Francis to recognize our place as co-creatures and fellow sojourners with Sister Mother Earth who, ultimately, provides all we need to survive.
If there are any doubts about who governs whom, we have only to look to increasingly violent and destructive weather events – heatwaves, droughts, floods, wildfires, hurricanes, etc. – nature’s way of reminding us that we are, in fact, not the masters and gods of our own destiny. We are dependent, interdependent, co-responsible partners with all of creation, called to respond to our specific vocation to love, respect, and care for all members of the Earth community, non-human and human. When we accept the nature of our identity as dependent and interdependent creatures; when we recognize our Sister Mother Earth and all of creation are graced with personality and agency; when we open our lives to a life-long process of ‘ecological conversion’; we will find ourselves on the road to authentic wisdom, a wisdom that is deeply spiritual but also one that calls for urgent, concrete, united efforts to address the drivers of climate change and threats to biodiversity and to the future existence of countless millions of human beings and innumerable other life forms (cf. Pope Francis, Laudate Deum; Franciscans International, The Right to a Healthy Environment).
But how might the way of wisdom lead us to a new relationship with creation. Pope Francis, in Querida Amazonia (42), reflects on the many global indigenous cultures that continue to follow a wisdom approach in their relationship with creation. He writes: “The wisdom of the original peoples of the Amazon region “inspires care and respect for creation, with a clear consciousness of its limits, and prohibits its abuse. To abuse nature is to abuse our ancestors, our brothers and sisters, creation and the Creator, and to mortgage the future.” For St. Francis and Pope Francis, this relational way of wisdom wherein all members of creation are recognized as brothers and sisters is the only path capable of restoring right relationship and full communion with God, with one another, and with all of creation. If we follow this path, allowing an ecological conversion to take root within us, we will find ourselves capable of recognizing the “cry of the earth [and the] cry of poor [brothers and sisters] (Laudato Si’:49) and our responsibility to respond.
Let us unite in prayer and action. May our efforts leading up to and following the 30th meeting of the UN conference on climate change (COP-30) in Belem, Brazil in November 2025 serve to promote a deep and lasting ecological conversion, and the inauguration of a process of healing and restoration. Let us embrace our vocation and mission to give praise to God through love and care for all of creation. May our Sister Mother Earth teach us the way of wisdom, unity and harmony. Laudato Si’, o mi Signore! Praise be You, my Lord!
– By Brother Michael A. Perry OFM