Faith in Place
By Nick Blattner, OFM Cap.
Memories have immense power. They have the ability to stir up emotions in ourselves at any moment. It was a memory from my youth that awakened a desire to discover more about care for creation. My family and I used to hike the sand dunes of Kohler-Andre State Park in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Several times a year we would find ourselves at the dunes in order to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life. I have such fond memories of hiking the dunes in the hopes of spotting a deer or some other wildlife with my siblings. One time my Uncle found a crawfish and decided to chase us kids around the beach with it. We were terrified of the odd-looking creature! The very thought of these memories brings a smile to my face.
(Br. Nick with fellow Faith In Place volunteers and staff at the October 2017 Green Team Summit in Chicago. Photo courtesy of Faith In Place) However, there is one memory in particular of hiking the dunes with my family that transformed me for the rest of my life. There was a tree along the dune trail that my family grew attached to. It grew in such a way that it split down the middle, causing the tree to look like two trees in one. My family would always stop by this tree to rest from our hike. I don’t remember the name now, but we even had a name for our tree. One day as we were hiking we came upon the place where the tree should have been; but it was gone. It seemed that the tree had fallen over due to high winds. All that was left of our family favorite tree was the scarred stump from a chainsaw. That day was a sad one for my family. It almost felt like a member of our family had been removed from our lives. It was at that moment that I realized the powerful connection possible between human beings and all of creation. Our tree was not just another tree; it had a relationship with my family.
This memory caused me to seek out ministry with a focus on fostering the relationship between humanity and all of creation. For the past few months I have been working at Faith in Place in Chicago. Faith in Place is an interreligious organization focused on building environmental awareness within worshipping communities. For myself, and the other Catholics at Faith in Place, Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si has become a springboard for us to become involved with care for creation. We work with several Catholic parishes who want to live out the principles of Laudato Si within their worshipping communities. The work has been slow, but it seems as though more and more Catholics are becoming aware of their call to care for all of God’s creation. Like the story about my family hiking the dunes, we have tried to help other Catholics become aware of their inherent relationship with all of creation. In a city inundated with cement, this can be difficult. But seeds of hope are being planted daily.
As Franciscans, we have a special call to live out Laudato Si in the most prophetic of ways. The great thing about caring for creation is that it does not take much effort. Simple acts like taking shorter showers, wearing heavy sweaters during the winter, turning off lights in unoccupied rooms, installing programmable thermostats, and using reusable shopping bags are but a few ways we can show our care for creation. Every little bit helps. Mother Earth cries out for justice. Will we sons of Francis answer her call? Will we raise our voices for the voiceless? Generations of future Franciscans will judge us on the type of response we will have today. May the future Franciscan history books be filled with words of praise and not words of condemnation for our lack of action.
