5^th Sunday of Easter

1. The latest of the great insecurities to torment the developed world is the state and the future of the environment. Awareness is at an all-time high of the dangers of global warming, of climate change, of the melting of the polar ice-cap, and of the disappearance of the rainforests. These threats to what we call the planet have brought with them a whole raft of practical moral imperatives for modern life: everything from re-cycling of waste, to the saving of energy, to the preservation of vegetation and of animal and aquatic species, to the reduction of our carbon footprint. Sometimes I wish that people knew the Ten Commandments as well! The fact is that human beings have become deeply concerned about the future of the planet.

2. As I say, this is the latest of the great insecurities to torment the developed world in my lifetime. The others have been the threat of nuclear holocaust and the danger that every other person would contract AIDS. And now it is the environment, the planet. I have never been in a position fully to judge the evidence which lies behind the growth of these insecurities. However, I have generally accepted like most people that these concerns are justified. And so, I wish every nation would decommission its weapons of mass destruction and that warring nations would lay down their arms, stop killing, and live in peace. I long too for the eradication of AIDS and of all illness. And I believe that human beings and governments should exercise a wise and humble stewardship of the earth and of its resources for the sake of humanity and of all species now and in the future.

3. During this Easter Season, the Church proclaims that Christ is risen from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus and his victory over death gives us the hope of a new humanity, a new heavens and a new earth. This is the vision of the New Jerusalem which today’s second reading puts before us. And the characteristics of this new creation, this new world, are these: “Here God lives among men. He will make his home among them; they shall be his people, and he will be their God; his name is God-with-them. He will wipe away all tears of from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no mourning or sadness.” And surely part of the new world, the new creation, the new humanity is Jesus’ commandment in today’s Gospel: “I give you a new commandment: love one another, just as I have loved you, you must also love one another.”

4. I wonder if you agree with me that the solutions proposed to the great insecurities of our time are for the most part godless. They are solutions which prescind from God’s purpose for humanity and for the created universe. We seek peace without God and without love, and we wonder why more wars break out. We seek health and wholeness without God, and we wonder why human beings are ever more broken. We seek a perfect world without God and we wonder why the world is threatened by environmental catastrophe.

5. The new heavens and the new earth will be the gift of God and of God alone. The new Jerusalem, the new home of human beings is where God dwells with us. The new humanity cannot emerge without loving one another as Christ loved us. We will not solve fully the problems of the environment without God, just as we have not solved the problems of war and conflict without God, and the problems of health and wholeness without God.  The Christian word for this environment in which we live is not the planet, but is the creation, the created world, the created universe, because life is always the gift of God and will not find its fullness except in God.

6. In this Mass, we believe that bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. In this mystery, we can perhaps catch a glimpse of the new creation, of the new heavens and new earth, where the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven and where God dwells with men.

St. Mirin’s Cathedral,

6^th May 2007.