Of Blossoming Deserts

The oracle from the prophet Isaiah links the first reading to the Gospel selection today through this pronouncement: “Then will the lame leap like a stag, . . .” (Isaiah 35:6a)  The Gospel tells us the story of the paralytic who was brought to Jesus and lowered through the roof. 

However, most of the oracle from the prophet Isaiah which we read today speaks of the “redemption” of nature, and in particular, the desert.  Southern Israel is comprised mostly of desert waste dominated by the Dead Sea, a salt waste that makes it almost impossible for any kind of vegetation to grow.  Isaiah tells us that the coming of the Messiah will be heralded by streams and rivers bursting forth causing the desert and the steppe to bloom. 

When we think of the redemptive death of Jesus, we usually apply the benefits of that sacrifice to the human race, to the human family.  St. Bonaventure of Bagnoreggio and other Franciscan philosophers, however, apply the grace of redemption to all of creation, animal, vegetable and mineral.  They reasoned that the universe was just as surely part of God’s creation as were men and women.  If we read the first chapters of Genesis carefully, we quickly learn that God pronounced all of the created universe as “good.”

Sadly, our common home, as Pope Francis calls earth, is bearing the burden of sin just as surely as humankind.  Our environment is suffering from the greed and avarice of the human family just as surely as are the poor of the world.  Without thinking of the consequences of our actions, we have created a crisis of enormous proportions.  Deforesting, strip mining, and the unlimited use of fossil fuels have fouled our air, our water supply, and the land on which we depend for food and sustenance. 

When we think of the end of the world, we generally think in terms of the destruction of the universe.  Once again, Franciscan theologians point us in a different direction and ask us to realize that God would no more destroy His created universe than he would destroy the entire human race.  The Day of the Lord, the day on which Christ returns will bring redemption and salvation for all of God’s created universe.  Until that day, it is our responsibility to care for it.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator