“With All of Your Creatures”: Ecology and Economics
God is beauty, as is revealed through the images of nature and the human person. Things do not “belong”, but “are to be used”: Only God is the master of the world.
San Bonaventura
The Canticle of Creatures (or of Brother Sun) is the only text Francis wrote in Italian and dates back to two years before his death. Francis’ use of the vernacular was a choice of great importance, not so much as a literary tool, but rather, reveals his desire to communicate in an era that, like ours, was characterized by great and multiple changes. He thus offered to the listening and understanding of his audience, one that was secular and illiterate, a hymn of praise and gratitude to the Lord. The Song is a "thank you" to God in which creation participates; at the same time it is a penitential work – the "woe ..." which in Latin during the Middle Ages, did not express menace, but rather remorse, before the stark reality of death and one’s final destiny. For Francis, all things were a reflection of the Most High; he did not remain at the level of appearance, but rather discerned deeply and in everything contemplated God and God in all things.
Environmental ecology, as well as economic and human ecology walk together: air pollution corresponds to the heart of man, who is responsible for an economy that kills. A complex socio-environmental crisis demands "an integral approach to combating poverty, in order to restore dignity to the excluded and at the same time take care of nature" (Pope Francis, Laudato Si', 139).
The poverty lived and taught by Franciscans throughout history, (even with many avoidable, as well as unavoidable contradictions), embodies the dynamic and logic of love: those who love are poor and make themselves poor, because the other person constitutes his wealth; likewise, they know how to recognize the signs of God's love in every created reality. Today the educational challenge is to reflect upon the concepts of sobriety, relationship and service: we need "a different way of looking at things, a different thought, politic, educational program, lifestyle and spirituality, which together form a resistance in the face of the advancing technocratic paradigm." (Pope Francis, Laudato Si, 111).
Avarice (always wanting more than you have) goes along with greed (passion for possession and accumulation), the most "economic" vice of the seven capital sins, which for Saint Bonaventure constituted "the root of all evils" (De Superfluo). Today these are the overriding stimuli for the market and the economy, with the resulting phenomenon of an increase in the gap between the rich and the poor of the world; thus 26 ultra-billionaires own the same wealth as the most poor half of the planet (cf. Report Oxfam 2019).