The Pope, The Poor, and The Planet (Overcoming an Insularity via Internal Ecology: Pathways of Hope)
Summary
TLDRThis lecture discusses four pathways to address the environmental crisis: viewing nature holistically, leading beyond personal communities, transforming mindsets through education, and rediscovering spirituality. It emphasizes interconnectedness, caring for the commons, and cultivating social love. The speaker highlights the importance of humility, repairing what is broken, reconnecting with children, and appreciating sacredness in everyday life. Concluding with 10 practical steps, the message calls for action to protect and cherish our world, using examples like a young boy’s donation after a typhoon as a symbol of hope and responsibility.
Takeaways
- 🌍 Embrace a holistic view: We must look at environmental and climate issues in an integrated way, recognizing the interdependence of ecosystems like forests, rivers, and reefs.
- 👥 Lead beyond the self: True leadership extends beyond personal communities, guiding collective efforts for the common good and protecting shared spaces, like natural environments.
- 🎓 Education transforms: Education should not only shape individual minds but also transform cultures, promoting critical thinking and a love for learning and the world.
- 🙏 Rediscover spirituality: Reconnecting with God and spirituality can help us understand our role in caring for the Earth, as both stewards and workers of creation.
- 🍽 Practice gratitude: Simple acts like saying grace before meals remind us of our dependence on others and the interconnectedness of life.
- 🏞 Gain perspective: Activities like climbing a mountain can evoke humility, giving us a sense of scale and our smallness in the larger context of the universe.
- 🔌 Unplug and find silence: Disconnect from technology to find peace, reflect, and reconnect with your inner self through quiet, prayer, or solitude.
- ⚒ Repair, don’t replace: Fixing broken objects teaches resilience, embracing imperfections and valuing the history of things rather than discarding them.
- 👫 Connect with the marginalized: Get to know those living in poverty and learn from them, recognizing selfishness as a cause of both social and environmental poverty.
- 📦 Value what matters: Create a physical or symbolic space for what you treasure, reflecting on what is truly important in life and what you wish to carry into the future.
Q & A
What are the four pathways suggested for addressing the environmental crisis?
-The four pathways are: looking at things whole, leading the commons, transforming education and mindsets, and discovering spirituality and God again.
How does the speaker suggest we should 'look at things whole' in the context of the environmental crisis?
-The speaker suggests that the environmental crisis requires us to see the interconnectedness of systems, such as understanding that planting mangroves by the sea is ineffective if forests in the mountains are neglected.
What does 'leading the commons' mean in this lecture?
-'Leading the commons' refers to leadership that extends beyond individual or community interests, caring for shared resources like lakes, forests, and public spaces, and understanding the impact of collective actions on the environment.
Why is education seen as crucial in addressing environmental and social issues?
-Education is seen as crucial because it transforms mindsets, fosters critical thinking, communication, and social love, and encourages a holistic development of individuals beyond just professional skills.
What role does spirituality play in addressing the environmental crisis according to the speaker?
-Spirituality is important because it helps people reconnect with a deeper purpose, seeing the world as God's creation to be worked on and protected, encouraging responsibility toward nature and fostering a sense of stewardship.
What lesson can be learned from the speaker's reference to the Bible's 'cultivate and care for the garden' passage?
-The lesson is that humans are tasked with both working on and protecting the Earth, balancing action with responsibility. This balance is seen as a divine mandate to actively nurture the world while safeguarding it.
Why does the speaker encourage people to 'climb a mountain' as one of the 10 steps for environmental awareness?
-Climbing a mountain helps people gain a sense of scale and humility, realizing their smallness and dependence on the world. It evokes gratitude and an understanding of how fragile and precious the environment is.
What is the significance of 'repairing something broken' as mentioned in the lecture?
-Repairing something broken, inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi, teaches us to value and preserve objects, acknowledging their history and imperfections. It symbolizes care for what we have rather than replacing it.
What does the speaker mean by 'unplugging' in the context of environmental care?
-'Unplugging' refers to disconnecting from technology and the distractions of modern life to find silence and inner peace. This helps individuals reconnect with nature, their spirituality, and their purpose in caring for the world.
Why is fasting suggested as one of the 10 steps, and what can it symbolize beyond physical discipline?
-Fasting is suggested as a way to practice self-control and mindfulness, symbolizing a break from the consumption-driven habits of modern life. It can apply to reducing materialism, shopping less, or resisting unnecessary indulgences.
Outlines
🌍 Holistic Approaches to Addressing Environmental Crises
This section introduces four pathways to addressing the climate crisis: viewing the environment holistically, leading communities beyond personal interests, educating to transform mindsets and cultures, and reconnecting with spirituality. The speaker emphasizes the importance of seeing the environment as interconnected systems, using the example of planting mangroves while considering the health of upstream forests. Effective leadership should transcend personal or community gain, focusing on the collective good. Education must nurture critical thinking and communication, aiming to transform mindsets and foster a sense of responsibility towards creation.
📚 Education for a Greater Purpose
In this paragraph, the speaker emphasizes a comprehensive educational approach that goes beyond professional development. Liberal arts education should cultivate critical thinking and communication, encouraging students to think holistically about their responsibilities beyond their careers. Education also plays a vital role in fostering love for something greater than oneself, such as country, community, and creation. Pope Francis calls this 'social love' — a love for the larger human community, which is crucial in forming individuals who contribute positively to society.
🙏 Rediscovering Spirituality and Stewardship
The speaker discusses the spiritual mandate to care for the Earth, contrasting it with the misinterpretation of humanity’s dominion over nature. The true mandate is to both work and protect the environment, drawing on Biblical teachings from Genesis. Spirituality involves recognizing the divine in the world and working to sustain it. The speaker encourages a deeper spiritual connection that aligns with environmental stewardship, reminding us that spirituality is found not just in remote places but in everyday life, even in the midst of noise and complexity.
💡 Simple Steps for Caring for Our Shared Environment
This section lists 10 practical steps for environmental care and spiritual reflection. These steps include expressing gratitude before meals, climbing mountains to appreciate nature's scale, unplugging from technology to find silence, and repairing broken items as an act of renewal. The speaker also advocates for connecting with the poor, fasting from consumer habits, reading to children to rediscover what truly matters, and caring for shared spaces. Communion and creating a box for personal treasures are also suggested as ways to cultivate spiritual mindfulness and responsibility towards the world. The example of a Japanese child donating his savings during a typhoon is highlighted as a symbol of hope and shared humanity.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Whole
💡Commons
💡Education
💡Spirituality
💡Environmental Crisis
💡Social Love
💡Sacrament
💡Fasting
💡Unplug
💡Repair
Highlights
Introduction of four ways to address the climate and environmental crisis: holistic view, leading the commons, education, and rediscovering spirituality.
Holistic perspective: Looking at things whole, understanding the interconnectedness of different parts of nature like forests, rivers, and seas.
Leading the commons: Emphasizing the importance of leaders caring for shared resources beyond their personal communities.
Example of fishermen in Lake Palak Pakis learning to consider the health of the entire lake rather than focusing only on their individual fish pens.
Education to transform mindsets and cultures, not just individuals, encouraging people to love learning and critical thinking.
Social love: Pope Francis emphasizes cultivating a love that extends beyond personal connections to society and the world.
Rediscovering spirituality: Finding God in everyday life, not just in abstract or remote places, and embracing the responsibility to care for creation.
Reflection on Genesis: Humanity's responsibility to both work and protect the Earth, balancing cultivation and preservation.
Importance of recognizing the sacredness of the world: Acknowledging God's presence in the physical world and its material elements.
10 simple steps for caring for the environment, starting with saying grace before meals as an act of gratitude and humility.
Climbing a mountain to gain a sense of scale and recognize human smallness and dependence on nature.
Unplugging from technology to savor silence, visit meaningful places, and reflect.
Repairing broken objects to appreciate imperfections and value the history of items, drawing from the Japanese art of Kintsugi.
Engaging with the marginalized: Getting to know a poor person and recognizing the connection between social and environmental poverty.
The story of Shuichi Kodo, a six-year-old Japanese boy who donated his savings to the Philippines after a typhoon, illustrating the power of small, selfless acts.
Transcripts
[Music]
welcome to the second part
of our lecture in this part i will
share with you some possible pathways
and end it with 10 simple steps that we
can
reflect on so for these for these
pathways i suggest four ways of
addressing the climate or even the
environmental crisis
the first is to to look at things whole
again
to learn to look at things whole an
integral way of looking
second is to help or at least to begin
to learn how to lead others
not just our own communities but to lead
the commons
the third is education
which is what we're trying to do these
days
it's to transform mindsets
but not just individual minds
hopefully we can transform cultures
fourth and last is to discover god again
spirituality so on the first well
i hope that since
since uh this crisis was has been
spawned by
our myopic or narrow views
on on nature our partitioning
of life i hope that we can begin again
to look at things whole this picture
is an example these are people who are
planting
mangroves this is uh mangroves are
forests actual forests
along the seashore but they know and
this is
in mindanao actually they are they're
planting forests
here by the seashore but
understanding also that this effort
is useless if the forest in the
mountains
is not taken care of so
this ridge to river to reef project
actually acknowledges for example that
we need to look at
creation whole i cannot just
clean the ateneo campus if i
if i'm not cleaning also c5
or i cannot just clean c5 i have to look
at things whole
so the environmental crisis has actually
forced us
is compelling us to look at things whole
second to lead the commons a leader
does not just lead his own tribe
uh his own uh his or her own fraternity
or sorority a leader looks beyond
beyond the boundaries and these days
i think what we've been seeing is that
someone has to take care of what is
called the commons
the commons is anything we share it can
be
a cr it can be a corridor a street
lights street lights etc
a forest this picture
of our own professors working in lake
palak pakis
is really just an example of fishermen
not just worrying about their little
fish pens
but being asked to look at the whole
lake
you know this is an example for instance
where they were wondering how come the
fish were dying
well it was because they were over
feeding but they did not realize that
someone had to tell them someone from
outside telling him look look at the
whole lake
we are sometimes just trained to look
within a small circle well if it's an
entire league
then yes we need leaders and leaders are
those people
who worry not just about their own but
worry about the welfare of others
because worrying about others will also
affect your own
third well here in the ateneo at least
and in many liberal arts universities we
are trying to form
not just the professional side of you
yes you will be a good psychologist or
economist or manager someday
we want you to learn more than just your
own profession
we don't want you partitioned we want
you to
love learning we need to cultivate these
habits of critical thinking
of this this facility to communicate
now these are so-called liberal arts
skills
that are very much in demand actually
today
and so we need to look at the entire
person which is something that is
you would say the ateneo way
part of this is really educating persons
and cultures i see this picture and i
ask myself
how did she learn this how do you learn
to love
something bigger than yourself
family school friends
perhaps we need to educate
persons and cultures as well love of
country does not just come
automatically love of creation love of
the world
they're not automatic they have to be
worked at
and and education is key
is key to that cultivation of this love
pope francis calls this social love
so it's not just personal love it's it's
love of a bigger group
fourth and last well can we discover god
again
now there is a part in the bible that
has been misinterpreted
in genesis this command to go forth and
multiply and to subdue everything
and again that's a misplaced sense of
our centrality
right that you know it's it's this view
that
i am here i'm special and therefore i am
supposed to
you know i'm supposed to use you
for for my own benefit well
if we recover again the divine mandate
if you go back to genesis
if you look at this part of the story
where the lord tells adam
the man tells him puts him in a guard
and tells him
you are there to cultivate and to care
for this garden
two verbs about shamar to cultivate to
work to work at it to work the earth
these two verbs are two can be two polar
opposites
first you're asking me god you're asking
me to to work on the garden and then at
the same time you're telling me
not to touch it to protect it
we're not just to you know protect
but we're actually there our mandate is
also
to to work to work at it because if i
don't do anything
the garden will also die so it's also
important for us to be part
of the growing of this garden and i
think that's a powerful
it's a powerful mandate from from the
lord that i'm not just here to enjoy
to enjoy the garden i'm also here to
work on it
but at the same time protect this garden
saint ignatius loyola also
has a contribution you know when when
when he
came into the world he actually told us
that you know it's also important to be
immersed in this world
because this world is good this world is
god's creation
and therefore we need to find god moving
in this world as well
and so with this kind of spirituality
i hope i hope that we can deepen our
spiritual connections
spirituality is not just some abstract
thing that you go
to some remote place to find god
no you can find god even
in the heat and noise of the marketplace
and and this revolutionary idea i think
is something very difficult for us to
practice even in
in daily life but that is that is that
is because of an abiding faith
that god is not just a god of the spirit
or a god of souls he's also a god of
human bodies
a god of matter a god of the universe
so i hope we can we can recover these
treasures in our spirituality
let me end by well
telling you or sharing with you these 10
steps
these are 10 steps that i've sort of
generated and i encourage you i
encourage you to please
list your own 10 simple steps
that will help us well care
and protect this garden the first is
this
this picture of pope francis actually in
tacloban
and he tells us he has
so many messages for us but he says let
us i hope
have this habit of saying grace before
and after meals
this moment of blessing he says
however brief reminds us that we
are not independent that we depend
on others we depend on god we depend on
the farmer
we depend on the fishermen who
who provide us what we need and so this
act
of saying thank you is actually an act
of humility
it is not an act of entitlement
when you say thank you you
realize that you are not self-contained
you can never be self-made second
or number nine i'll go ten to one
allah david letterman if you still
remember david letterman
number nine
climb a mountain i've done this i hope
you
you will someday but the point really
here is
to get a sense of scale a sense of
size when you climb a mountain
you realize how small you are and the
point is to evoke a sense of radical
dependence
and contingency that things are not
really needed
we are not needed but we're here that's
one of the greatest mysteries of all
things are difficult to control i am
small
so this sense of size this sense of
scale will hopefully
lead us to a sense of gift and gratuity
that's number nine number eight
unplug unplug let's savor the silence
let go of the wires let go
of the wireless even go to a place
where you can find inner quiet
visit the grave of someone dear to you
go to a chapel learn to pray again and
when alone are quiet try not to wallow
or mope
don't yield to a lot of rewinding and
regretting just relish
and rest and breathe
number eight of seven nepal
repair something broken
can be a bicycle can be a coffee mug
anything of value to you learn the
japanese art of
kitsugi this art
is the art of repairing something broken
and and lacing or dusting the the cracks
with
precious metal like gold or silver or
platinum
it flows from the philosophy of
wabi-sabi where which values the whole
history of the object
places them with these things and
but that's the whole that's the whole
you that's the whole me
we're not perfect we have all these
dents and imperfections
resist something resist the temptation
to buy something just because it is
broken
number six get to know a poor person you
have you have them everywhere
you can go to a hospital a waste dump
any place that is
on the margins peripheral to wealth and
power there will be poor people there
poor people become poor when they are
marginalized and they're shunting
to the physical environmental and social
margins
share something with them yes learn to
receive from them
there are many causes of social and
environmental poverty selfishness
is the biggest cause of them all
number five try fasting try fasting not
just to lose the calories
you might wish to fast on shopping
as well or any of those subtle
compulsions of modern life
or if fasting is difficult for you
try gluttony try to
eat a lot and feel the empty
number four go read a book to children
reconnect with children
you know children have a way of
reminding us of the things that are
important
in life that's why when you become a
parent
someday you will discover you will
discover the things that
should and truly matter
children remember help us remember that
life is a gift
life is delicate is vulnerable and that
we are responsible for each other
a child has a way of awake awakening us
only to not only to the future or the
things that matter but
also to the things that need to be made
whole
care for some space that belongs to
everyone
no you don't need to guard the whole
forest
or become a street sweeper
you can join groups that strengthen
social love
through the various ways they protect
and beautify some space that belongs to
everyone
that space can be vast as vast as the
climate
or it can be as small as a corner of a
park or a piece of public art
it would be better if it were shared if
this space
were something that was shared a shared
space
that matters not just to you but to the
poor
or to children or to old people
and number two
for all your sophistication if you're
catholic please
try to receive communion
you might wish because you are educated
you might
say that wafer that white
circular piece of bread is just carbon
hydrogen oxygen a piece of carbohydrate
just remember even the scientists of the
world they still do not know what
matter is all about what is it
composed of we do not know
the point of the bread actually is to
recover our sense of sacrament
our sense of the sacred in matter
in ordinary things the hope is that we
will be fed by our host
and brought hopefully closer to holiness
and number one make a box make a box
for your valuables not as big as those
balikbayan boxes
a thin box used for candy
will do place your most treasured in
that box
money if it's important to you
mementos you keep remembrances not just
of what you have gotten but what you
have given
since persons are too big to put in this
box maybe a picture of them
will do the point is to keep knowing
what you treasure
what is important to you and what you
wish to bring with you
to eternity
let me end with this picture
in november 2013
the strongest typhoon in the world
made landfall here
in the philippines when that happened
massive amounts of relief aid
came to us
among the smallest donors was a
six-year-old
japanese boy shuichi kodo
he broke his piggy bank took out all his
savings
and gave his savings to us
seeing this picture i say
if children from far away can know what
needs to be broken
i think we're not far from redemption
we can be trusted to take care
and protect this wonderful gift
of a garden thank you
[Music]
you
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