Season of Creation - Opening Hearts, Opening Minds

By Heidi Schewel, Parishioner of St. Pius X in Tucson

This year’s Season of Creation Theme is “Listen to the Voice of Creation.” This drew my attention the first time I heard it. 

Since I was a child, Nature has been my Grand Passion. I grew up listening to the voice of Nature in the wind singing through saguaro needles, howling coyote packs, rippling waters in flowing washes, in the voices of my family and friends enjoying time together outside. I knew that this was good, and was thankful for my appreciation. I also heard that voice in despair through destructive actions like carving initials in trees, littering, setting fires, or pulling other pranks. And I knew balance was needed.

Years later, working for the U.S. Forest Service, I listened to the voice in the flutelike song of the hermit thrush, the soft flutter of aspen leaves quaking in the breeze, the voices of volunteers working on stewardship projects, and families enjoying their time in the Great Outdoors. I knew that it was good, and felt fortunate to work at caring for the land and serving people. I also heard the voice in despair in the roar of extreme wildfire, and downed trees crashing together as they swept down mountainsides when floods resulted from vegetation being burned and soil damaged. 

During my career, I have seen and worked with effects of climate change. I’ve seen wildfire season grow from a few months in summer to year-round in duration. Wildfires that were once frequent, slow-moving, low-intensity fires that kept forests clean and open are now unstoppable infernos of extreme fire behavior, reducing mixed conifer forests to black toothpicks and ash. I’ve seen mountain landscapes converted from pines and firs, replaced by scrub oak and locust, and invasive buffelgrass replacing desert scrublands. Watersheds that provide urban water supplies being severely damaged by fire and the following floods. Landscapes being eroded away. Extended drought wringing life from the land. Rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall driving forest plants and animals higher in elevation - when they reach the summits of the sky islands, there will be nowhere else to go. And invasive plants moving in, some of which are so flammable and fire-adapted they have the potential to convert our iconic Sonoran Desert to an African grassland.

And I know there will always be more work to be done.

As a newcomer to the Catholic Faith, I now listen to the voice of Nature in a new and broader scope, as the Voice of Creation. I listen through birdsong, raindrops, and the sounds of silence. I listen through the words and voices of others, prayers, stories of God’s glory, and creation songs. I listen with my heart and my ears and my eyes, with all of my senses. I hear accounts of lands and people, near and far, who are also suffering the effects of climate change, and I hear a call to action spanning the globe.

Participating in the Laudato Si’ Movement (On Care for our Common Home, Pope Francis, 2015), I hear that same call to action. Climate change and our unsustainable lifestyles are causing great suffering for our Earth and her inhabitants.  
 
I see Laudato Si’ and the Season of Creation as parallel, complementary to each other and merging, raising our awareness and calling us to act during this time of climate crisis. Taking small steps or leaps and bounds, whatever we can do, each in our own way, and by the pooling of our efforts.

This Child of Nature then Forest Ranger now Catholic hears the Voice of Creation with a keener ear and an open heart, listening earnestly to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor calling us to ecological conversion and decisive action. With an active mind open to the possibilities that can come from working together for the common good, I know we all have a role in caring for our common home.