We are God’s Stewards

February 7, Tuesday, 5th Week in Ordinary Time
Genesis 1:20 - 2:4a; Mark 7:1-13

God kept the best of His creation for last! Only on the 6th day, as the book of Genesis reveals, did God create man. When the setting has been arranged man is created. And God gives all created reality to the care of the one created after the image and likeness of God. Of all creatures man alone is the image of God. Man alone has the gift of reason and is given the authority, the responsibility over creation. Man is God’s steward over creation. God has put his trust and confidence in man.

Unfortunately, we have not always been responsible stewards of creation. We have been domineering over creation. Pope Francis, in “Laudato Si,” laments that in the last 200 years man has tended to simply treat all created reality as objects to be used with a disregard for the unique order of nature God had designed for all creation. The disruption of the rich biodiversity of our planet has caused the extinction of various species.

Pope Francis reminds us that we must remember that when we harm creation, we are bound to suffer dire consequences! Indiscriminate logging, for instance, not only affects our watersheds and the loss of habitat for various creatures. The loss of watersheds leads to flooding. In the end we all suffer the consequences of “battered mother earth.”

We ought to be more sensitive for our environment. We ought to ensure that we do not endanger the so many creatures good God has created in the world.

Pope Francis calls us, in “Laudato Si,” to cut down on our consumeristic habits and learn to “reduce, reuse, recycle.”