[Sundaycommunity] Integral Ecology, Laudato Si movie, "The Letter"and fear based naratives.

[Jean Leahy]

Thanks, Art. Jean

On Thu, Nov 3, 2022 at 3:48 PM Arthur Blomme via Sundaycommunity <
sundaycommunity at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:

> Hi all
>
> I just polished up  the reflection I rushed of for the community three
> weeks ago.
>
> Arthur Blomme
>
>
>
> Integral Ecology, Laudato Si movie, "The Letter
> <https://youtu.be/Rps9bs85BII>"and fear based naratives.
>
>
> In October 2022 on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, a documentary
> inspired by Laudato Si, *The Letter* was released.  The authors intended
> the documentary as a call to action on Caring For Our Common Home which is
> the English title of Laudato Si.  One of the primary actions promoted is
> reading and reflecting on Laudato Si in a group. Hence to  only watch the
> documentary "The Letter" would not give you the best view of Laudato Si.
>
> When initially I looked into this documentary and saw that it was an
> original production of Youtube I was suspicious of the slant the movie
> would take.  For me it is hard to understand the position of the Pope as he
> is so often portrayed by a media that is deeply immersed in a narrative
> which seeks to control our beliefs through fear.  I find it unsettling that
> for the past two years we have been bombarded with fear messaging from
> legacy media that has been used <https://youtu.be/Rps9bs85BII> to drive a
> giant wedge between the left and the right wings of our culture. The fear
> of Covid has morphed into fear of the unvaxed to fear of Russia and nuclear
> war.
>
> With this back drop in mind I wondered why Google/Youtube would
> produce(pay for ) "The Letter" which heralds the Popes message to love the
> earth.  Perhaps I am paranoid in concluding how this documentary fits
> into the fear based dominant narrative by characterizing the film with the
> opening frame of the film draws us into the fear of sea level rise caused
> by climate change.   In contrast Francis message in Laudato Si Is the
> positive message of Caring for Our Common Home which he calls Integral
> ecology.  In this regard  Francis quotes the Eastern Right Patriarch
> Bartholomew: Integral ecology “entails learning to give, and not simply
> to give up. It is a way of loving, of moving gradually away from what I
> want, to what God’s world needs. It is liberation from fear, greed and
> compulsion.”
>
> The notion of Integral Ecology weds together two complex concepts.  I
> believe that they both have emerged from a systemic view of the world. The
> first concept, integral has the same route as integrity and integrated.
> The dictionary meaning is possessing everything essential; entire. While
> ecology according to its Latin roots is the Study of Consequences.  It was
> originally coined in biology as the interrelationship of organisms and
> their environments. But Ecology is not limited to the biological sciences
> as there is also the field of human ecology. In Human Growth Therapies an
> ecology check is usually done to see if the desired outcome of the therapy
> is positive for the whole personality. In Gestalt therapy the therapist
> asks the client if there are any parts of the personality that are in
> disagreement with the desired change.
>
> Putting these two concepts together Francis states the following  “We are
> faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social,
> but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental.
> Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating
> poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting
> nature.”
>
> For me Integral ecology requires us to take a page from Human Growth
> Therapists.  When we want a change to our global society we must pose the
> question ;  Are there any parts of our global society for which this change
> would not work.  The current method of impulsive change where we create
> fear to impose rules on the unwilling is doomed to failure.
>
> The change needed is the cal to action encouraged by the authors of the
> The Letter.  We must reflect and orient our value systems to Care for Our
> Common Home.  This is a positive mystical task .  A task that is
> encapsulated in passage 11 of Laudato Si that defines Integral ecology
> through the life of St. Francis as beyond the language of mathematics and
> biology..
>
> 11. St. Francis helps us to see that an integral ecology calls for
> openness to categories which transcend the language of mathematics and
> biology, and take us to the heart of what it is to be human. Just as
> happens when we fall in love with someone, whenever he would gaze at the
> sun, the moon or the smallest of animals, he burst into song, drawing all
> other creatures into his praise. He communed with all creation, even
> preaching to the flowers, inviting them “to praise the Lord, just as if
> they were endowed with reason.”19 His response to the world around him was
> so much more than intellectual appreciation or economic calculus, for to
> him each and every creature was a sister united to him by bonds of
> affection. That is why he felt called to care for all that exists. His
> disciple Saint Bonaventure tells us that, “from a reflection on the primary
> source of all things, filled with even more abundant piety, he would call
> creatures, no matter how small, by the name of ‘brother’ or ‘sister.’ ”20
> Such a conviction cannot be written off as naive romanticism, for it
> affects the choices which determine our behaviour. If we approach nature
> and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no
> longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with
> the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless
> exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs. By contrast, if
> we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will
> well up spontaneously. The poverty and austerity of Saint Francis were no
> mere veneer of asceticism, but something much more radical: a refusal to
> turn reality into an object simply to be used and controlled.
>
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