Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre celebrated a special Green Mass — the first in the Archdiocese of Louisville — in observance of the Season of Creation Oct. 2 at St. Francis of Assisi Church in the Highlands.
The Archdiocesan Creation Care Team organized the Mass and offered various activities to mark the season — observed from Sept. 1 through Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. The team also hosted a poster contest for students from kindergarten through eighth grade. The winners were announced at a reception following the liturgy.
During his homily, Archbishop Fabre reflected on how a disregard for creation affects humanity’s relationship with God.
He drew the congregation’s attention to the first reading from the Book of Joel, when the prophet says that God’s presence with the people of Israel is a result of the harmony between God, humankind and creation.
“This refusal to see ourselves as caretakers of creation not only affects the natural world but has an even more direct spiritual effect on us,” said Archbishop Fabre.
“Perhaps one of the reasons we struggle so profoundly today with the perceived absence of God rests squarely on our disregard for creation,” he told the congregation, which included clergy, religious, teachers, members of the Creation Care Team and archdiocesan staff.
Archbishop Fabre said humanity tends to put itself at the center of everything, which leaves no room for God or respect for creation.
“We fall into the belief that nothing should stand in the way of what we understand to be the limitless and unbridled possibilities for the advancement of human intellect and knowledge, certainly not God or creation,” he said.
The late Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis connected the faithful’s ability to speak authentically about God to their efforts to care for creation, he noted.
Pope Benedict reflected on this in a November 2021 general audience, posing the question, “How can we talk about God in our time?” He offered a few answers and Archbishop Fabre highlighted one of them:
“One of the ways we can talk authentically about God today is through our concern to safeguard creation,” he said.
Pope Francis, through his encyclical “Laudato Si’,” supports this notion, the archbishop said.
“Pope Francis challenges us to rise above our tendency to self-importance and self-indulgence and to be concerned with safeguarding creation to bring authenticity to our speech about God,” the archbishop said.
