Maxim Monday: Earth Day... Contradictions... Maxim 97

When you meet contradictions, strengthen yourself against human fears, continuing to hope when everything seems to throw you into hopelessness regarding the success of your undertakings. Maxim of the Little Institute, 97

This week we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. In preparation for this anniversary our Justice and Peace Director sent an email to all our sisters and associates with prayers for earth day. Her message began with these words:

April 22nd marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day -Forty years after the first Earth Day, the world is in greater peril than ever. While climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, it also presents the greatest opportunity – an unprecedented opportunity to build a healthy, prosperous, clean energy economy now and for the future--Adapted from Earth Day Network. There are also dozens of excellent resources at the “Earth Watch” page on our Boston CSJ website.

I selected Maxim 97 for this week because it alludes to the challenges and opportunities – the contradictions, if you wil – that we witness in terms of climate shifts in today’s world. Since the first news of the earthquake in Haiti on January 12, it seems that every couple of weeks there is another – a second big one in Haiti, then onto Chili, China, and smaller quakes in California and elsewhere. These have been accompanied by several volcanoes in other parts of the world – the most recent being that in Iceland which is still crippling world-wide air travel and commerce. I was not the least bit surprised when I googled “connection between earthquakes and volcanoes” and found dozens of references. Add to these, unprecedented snow falls in Washington, DC,  record cold temperatures in Florida coupled with unseasonably warm temperatures in the Northeast these past months, and contradictions abound.

Yesterday’s New York Times reported that the earthquake in China "killed at least 1,900 people… With hundreds of people still buried under rubble, the toll is expected to rise.” Yet we seem to hear a whole lot more in the media about how the volcanic ash from Iceland is crippling commerce and international travel during school vacation week in the Boston area. I don’t mean to minimize the effects of this volcano on our travel plans and on the economy, but can’t help but wonder if we’re becoming almost numb to toll on human life caused by one more earth quake – another contradiction.

It is with all this in mind that I pray Maxim 97. As we celebrate the 40th Earth Day in the midst of news reports that have the potential for throwing us into hopelessness, may we continue to hope that our actions on behalf of the earth still have the potential to heal the planet.

Yet there is hope...there is a lot going on throughout our world. A simple google search yields hundreds of sites where you can learn more and become involved. I offer two:

The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change The home page of this site begins:
What are the moral implications of climate change? Who is most impacted? What should the Catholic community do? The Catholic Coalition on Climate Change was launched in 2006 to help the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the Catholic community address these issues.

Change for Global Change
is a fund-raising project to address the ecological crisis — especially the global problem of water scarcity —by providing grants  for sustainability projects in areas where the Sisters of Saint Joseph and our Associates minister.

Change for Global Change connects neighbor-to-neighbor across the street and around the world – in the spirit of the Sisters of Saint Joseph – working together to make life-sustaining changes in areas of greatest need.

Exploring these...acting on their suggestions is one small step toward healing the contradictions we witness as we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day.