Earth, fire, air, water

In recent months our region has been horrified by images of destruction and heart-rending suffering caused by floods, earthquakes and tsunamis.

human and environmental devastation caused by floods in Australia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, and by earthquakes and their aftershocks in New Zealand, Japan and Myanmar is massive. Although Japan has the experience and technology to cope with earthquakes, this latest tsunami defied preparation. The consequent nuclear crisis brought the worst of nightmares into reality.

We know there will be more natural disasters in Asia Pacific. Indonesia, for example, is said to be the most disaster prone country in the world. Like Japan and Papua New Guinea, it is located within the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ where tectonic plates meet, causing frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In 2009, Indonesia suffered 469 earthquakes with a magnitude of five or higher. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami killed about 170,000 people in Aceh Province alone. Each year in Indonesia and the Philippines, hundreds of disasters such as mudslides are rarely reported because they may affect only a few families. But the cumulative impact is great, and the human pain and loss always immeasurable.

‘All creation groans as in the pains of childbirth’, says St Paul writing to the Romans. Paul urges us not just to be spectators of these dramatic events, but to engage as a part of creation. Media headlines draw attention to the impact of these disasters on people, and mobilise the responses on which the survival of whole communities depends. Stories of pain, loss and heroism inspire us. But headlines are short lived and stories can only move for a time. The communities themselves must struggle for years. So we are invited to stay in continuing solidarity with those who struggle.

Times of dramatic crisis also challenge us Jesuits to stay focused and to plan our actions in the light of our mission. We are to seek justice for all, and to establish right relations with God, with one another, and with creation. We are called to move from watching as spectators, to pray and act in ways that will change our world for the better.

The people most affected by human and environmental upheaval are often at the margins of society. So they are forced to live in the most dangerous places. Many indigenous people, who have previously been pushed to remote places such as forests and mountains, now find their livelihood threatened by a world hungry for resources.

We Jesuits have committed ourselves to live in greater harmony with our environment and to find practical ways to promote reconciliation with creation. For this we need time and experience. Our identity as a global body that is locally grounded gives us encouragement and insight, and leads us to cooperate in practical ways. Wherever we are present we must be more aware and caring of our environment. We must also work cooperatively, and challenge young (and old) to change the destructive ways we have all inherited. Then we will be alert to the effects on communities of dramatic disasters. We shall also attend to the abiding disasters created by our way of life, the pollution of our atmosphere, the consumption of non-renewable resources and the destruction of habitats.

When we witness these floods, tsunamis, landslides, wild fires and cyclones we breathe an incredulous sigh of relief that we are alive and safe. To be human is to be vulnerable. Our hearts go out to those whose lives have been torn apart by elemental forces. May this sensibility lead us to live lives that are reconciled with our world, with other people and with our Creator.

Mark Raper SJ