Campus Ministries: Catholic Ministries

The New Asceticism - Walking Softly on the Earth

Simplicity, moderation and discipline, as well as a spirt of sacrifice, must become a part of everyday life, lest all suffer the negative consequence of the careless habits of a few

John Paul II, Peace With God the Creator, Peace With All of Creation, 13.

As wave after wave of poor immigrants pushed their way across the vast American continent, they thought they had discovered a land with unlimited resources. Through hard work and ingenuity, levels of comfort and luxury were gradually created that became the envy of the world.

During this struggle for a better life, people developed attitudes and expectations towards the earth, and towards "the good life." We came to view the earth as a depository of resources that we were entitled to exploit at will, and as a repository for all our waste. We began to measure an individual’s worth by possessions and consumption, and to equate human advancement with an ever-increasing Gross National Product.

Only recently have we begun to recognize the unintended side effects of our unbridled consumerism on the earth, and on ourselves. The earth, immense though it may seem, is exposing the limits of its resources, and of its capacity to absorb our garbage. Pollution of the air-water-land, global warming, and habitat destruction are shriveling this precious planet into a waste land. As for ourselves, our single-minded focus on material success, and our increasing alienation from the earth and its living things, are evaporating the fullness of life and leaving us with shallow lives. We rush towards our next deadline, blind to the awesome beauty of nature.

 I wish to repeat that the ecological crisis is a moral issue.

                                                                                    John Paul II, Ibid. 15.

Moral Decisions

Each one of us is responsible for our own choices, which either worsen or lessen the environmental crisis. How much we consume and waste are moral decisions, matters for thoughtful consideration. The cumulative effects of our individual actions, of our collective selfishness, are proving catastrophic for the well-being of the earth and its creatures.

It is hypocritical to bemoan the ravaging of the earth, to push for global environmental reform, without converting our personal habits of excessive consumption into habits of careful conservation. Love for the earth does not mean hugging a tree, but rather recycling the foot and a half high bundle of newspapers it takes to save one tree. We all want a healthy environment, but we want other things as well. Living more simply and wisely involves sacrifice and hard choices.

High Impact Choices

Each of us is morally responsible before God for the way we choose to walk the earth. There are many ways to live in closer harmony with the earth. However, some of our decisions, some aspects of our life style, have a much greater impact upon the earth than others. As important as it is, for example, to recycle, the following three choices have a much higher impact upon the earth:

#1 Cars and light trucks: The single most important decision we make is the fuel efficiency of the vehicles we drive, and driving less--using public transportation, carpooling, bicycling and walking. These latter two options are healthful not only for the environment, but for our bodies as well. How ironic and wasteful it is to have people drive a short distance to a gym, in order to get a workout! What ever happened to useful exercise?

#2 Meat: Cutting down on our consumption of meat is beneficial for our bodies, the environment, and the poor. Raising one pound of red meat requires twenty times the land that is needed to produce a pound of grain. In too many places, farm lands are being used to feed cattle, to provide beef for the rich, while the poor are left with no land on which to grow food to feed their families.

#3 Energy: We need to reduce our consumption of energy at home by choosing more efficient houses, bulbs and appliances, and by using less light and heat. To leave an unneeded light or air conditioner on, or the house or water hotter than they need to be, are moral decisions with consequences for the environment.

 

The New Asceticism

The hard choices listed above are designed to better care for the earth. The truth is, however, that it is not we who give the earth life, it is the earth and its living systems that give us life. The earth cares for and sustains us. Human arrogance needs to give way to a new humility.

Conversion, fasting, and asceticism have always been integral to the spiritual life. The ecological crisis is calling us to convert our life styles, to fast from consuming and wasting. The new asceticism needed today is to live more simply and wisely, to walk more softly upon the earth.

Ronald Stanley, O.P.

[This article was published in the February 26, 2000 issue of America magazine.]

For additional articles related to this topic see:

WHAT ON EARTH WILL WE LEAVE THE CHILDREN?

THE COSMIC STORY

AWE

THE DUST UNDER OUR BEDS HAS SOMETHING TO SAY

 

 

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