Julie Dougherty, St. Ignatius Catholic Community, Parishioner
September 28th, 2020
On September 1, 2016, Pope Francis introduced a new work of mercy: care for our
common home. If the Church has acknowledged the traditional fourteen works of mercy
for over seven hundred years, why does this generation require a new one? In his 2015
encyclical, Laudato Si, Pope Francis exhorts us to address what he calls the ecological
crisis: “Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last
two hundred years” (LS 53).
In the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas enumerated the traditional sets of seven
spiritual and seven corporal works for mercy. The corporal works of mercy include
feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, harboring the
harborless, visiting the sick, ransoming the captives, and burying the dead. The spiritual
works of mercy include instructing the ignorant, counseling the doubtful, comforting the
sorrowful, reproving the sinner, forgiving injuries, bearing with those who trouble and
annoy us, and praying for all (ST II-II, Q 32, A 2). The Catechism sums up these works
of mercy as “charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his
spiritual and bodily necessities” (CCC 2447).
Urgent as the ecological crisis may be, what is merciful about caring for the earth?
Shouldn’t our neighbors, and not the environment, be the objects of our mercy? In the
Gospel of Luke, just after reciting the command to love your neighbor as yourself, an
expert of the law asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus responds with the parable of
the Good Samaritan, and in doing so, he expands the concept of neighbor from those of
the same Jewish society to those of a different culture who were considered enemies.
Until the last few hundred years, most individuals had a local sphere of influence. It was
sufficient to love your neighbor (or anyone one you encounter) as yourself. In our current
global economy, we purchase items and participate in systems that affect our brothers and
sisters in the farthest reaches of the planet, most of whom we will never meet. Pope
Francis points out the ecological debt between the global north and south caused by “the
disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods of time”
(LS 51). We seldom see the environmental degradation caused by our wasteful lifestyles,
and seldom hear about ways in which the poor and vulnerable suffer the consequences. In
proposing care for our common home as a work of mercy, Pope Francis is inviting us to
expand our concept of neighbor yet again. “We are called to be instruments of God
our Father, so that our planet might be what he desired when he created it and
correspond with his plan for peace, beauty and fullness” (LS 53).
During his September 1st address, Pope Francis explained that care for our common home is both corporal and spiritual in nature. We live out care for our common home
corporeally through “simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence,
exploitation and selfishness” (LS 230). As a spiritual work of mercy, caring for our
common home, including all of its inhabitants, “allows us to discover in each thing a
teaching which God wishes to hand on to us” (LS 214). So how many works of mercy do we have now? Given that we started with fourteen, and the new one is both spiritual and
corporal, do we now have fifteen, sixteen, or somehow still fourteen?
For a partial answer to this question, it is worth nothing that Pope Francis introduced this
new work of mercy as a ‘complement’ to the two traditional sets of seven. This word
comes from the Latin root complere, which means to fill up, or to complete. In a sense,
care for our common home is the seed-bearing fruit of all the other works of mercy. The
other works of mercy are not complete without it. We cannot give drink to the thirsty if
we have contaminated our water supply. We cannot welcome the stranger if our house is
in disarray. We cannot comfort the sorrowful if they have no choice but to stay and watch
as their homeland is destroyed by violence and war. We cannot counsel the doubtful if we
continue to live unsustainable lifestyles with blind trust that some future technology will
capable of dealing with the consequences. Although “we still lack the culture needed to
confront this crisis” (LS 53), we can foster a culture of care in our own homes.
Regardless of how you choose to enumerate the works of mercy, there are many ways
that we can live out the work of caring for our common. Go out of your way to pick up
that stray wrapper on the side of the road. Pause to contemplate the dewfall on blades of
grass in the morning. Sit outside at night and listen to the symphony of insects. Start a
Creation Care Team at your parish. “Love, overflowing with small gestures of mutual
care, is also civic and political, and it makes itself felt in every action that seeks to build a
better world” (LS 231). By transforming our own homes, parishes, and cities into places
of peace, we lay the groundwork for the other works of mercy to grow in the hearts of
those who dwell here and bear fruit.
Link to Laudato Si
https://w2.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_2
0150524_enciclica-laudato-si_en.pdf
Link to the 2016 Message on World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation
http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/pont-messages/2016/documents/papa
-francesco_20160901_messaggio-giornata-cura-creato.html
Link to the Summa Theolgica, Second Part of the Second Part, Article 32
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3032.htm