Caritas Internationalis President Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga says failure
at UN climate talks in Durban is a “moral apartheid” that cannot be allowed to happen.
On Sunday, thousands of people representing the nations most affected by increasingly
erratic weather conditions marched peacefully on Durban, South Africa, to bring the
focus of UN Climate Change talks back to the human toll of a global politics that
puts industry before lives.
During a special Mass at Emmanuel Cathedral in
Durban, Cardinal Rodriguez noted “Just as South Africa’s Apartheid era policies sought
divisions along race lines, today the world’s environment and energy policies divide
man from nature”.
On Saturday the U.N.'s climate chief Christiana Figueres
said she believes countries can snap the deadlock that has lasted for years and sign
up to fresh and binding commitments to cut greenhouse gases, after a week of climate
talks between nearly 200 countries.
The main issue still on the table after
one week of talks is the extension of the Kyoto protocol which sets legal limits on
green house gas emissions. The world’s two major economies – and two biggest emitters
- China and the United States, who are not signatories of the protocol have yet to
commit to agreeing to a binding deal.
Canada, Russia and Japan meanwhile
have said they will not renew the 1997 Kyoto Protocol pledges that expire next year,
while the European Union wants to broker a new, global pact. However, China, has
helped revive the troubled Durban talks by saying it could join a legally binding
deal to cut its emissions of the heat-trapping gases.
But the head of Brazil's
delegation, Andre Correa do Lago, cautioned the focus on a legally binding deal may
distract from what could be achieved, if it means concrete action is delayed. "Legally
binding may at the end be more an obstacle than an advantage”.
Three U.N.
reports released in the last month showed time is running out to curb emissions of
the heat-trapping gases that have led to rising sea-levels threatening to erase some
island states, crop failures, amplifying droughts and intensifying storms.
Below
the full text of Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga’s homily:
“Prepare a
way for the Lord, make his paths straight ” (Mark 1:1-8)
The liturgy of this
Second Sunday of Advent seems to have been designed for this COP17 we are attending.
The first Reading already called on us to “Console my people, console them”. Barely
a week ago, torrential downpours caused a great deal of suffering and death in Durban.
Don’t we realise that the climate is out of control? How long will countless people
have to go on dying before adequate decisions are taken?
It’s true that in
faith we wait “for the new heavens and the new earth” as the second Reading told us,
but this does not mean indifference or complicity with those who destroy this land
where we live. “Living holy and saintly lives” means living in justice with creation
and the environment, and especially with the poor people who are the primary victims
of this serious problem.
In the desert John “cried out” the need to prepare
a way for the Lord. Today, in the desert of our planet Earth, and in the desert of
our hearts, the same voice is ringing out. This conference of delegates from so many
countries cannot remain as a voice silenced by economic power.
It’s a voice
that cries out and calls on us to: “Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.”
At least for the moment, we should set aside our lists of pending tasks to listen
to this voice that is clamouring within us: “Console my people, console them.” Powerful
nations of the world, we are expecting from you the courageous decisions the world
needs to live in peace and solidarity. We need to listen to this voice crying out
to all of us: “Prepare a way for the Lord.” This means getting rid of the obstacles
that hinder God’s arrival in our lives, so that we may keep the gates of our hearts
open to His presence. Most important is to open up new paths to God, who always comes
to us.
Currently, many men and women don’t know which path to follow in order
to meet Him. For many, life has turned into a convoluted maze. Others live in the
froth of outward show, focusing on their image, appearance, social success and the
quest for power.
As John told us: the Lord is coming, and we need to prepare
a way for Him. It’s very easy to carry on living without paths to God. We don’t have
to consciously reject God. All we need to do is follow the current general trend and
ensconce ourselves in superficiality.
Little by little God disappears from
the horizon of our lives, and interests us less and less. Today, can we prepare a
way to God, who comes towards us?
We’re filling up our lives with things, but
remain empty inside. We’re informed about everything, but we have no idea where to
direct our lives. Today, how can we prepare a way to the Lord, who comes to us? When
we focus our lives on outward things, distracted by the countless forms of escape
and enjoyment our society offers us, can we really confront ourselves and mull over
the meaning of our lives? Are we capable of questioning ourselves about the senseless
development that is destroying the environment?
“Prepare a way for the Lord.”
John’s cry hasn’t lost its relevance. Whether we are aware of it or not, God is coming
to us, but first of all we need to encounter ourselves deeply before being able to
open ourselves up to Him.
“John wore a garment of camel skin, and he lived
on locusts and wild honey.” John seems to be man who isn’t integrated within society
and far removed from social conventions. This is borne out by the place where he is
(the desert) and how he feeds and clothes himself.
Today’s Gospel reminds us
of John’s food and clothing so that we may eliminate all the superfluous things our
excessive consumer society offers us and encounter the only necessity, which suffices
for us for life.
Then John, referring to Jesus, says some beautiful words:
“Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I… I have baptised you
with water, but He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.” John wants to say that
his baptism is only with water, namely a symbol of rebirth, a new start, which leaves
behind fatalism and injustice.
It isn’t possible to be pessimistic and say
that COP17 will end in failure. “He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit,” meaning
that Jesus comes to baptise us with the force of life and the Love of God. Jesus will
not immerse humanity in the waters of the river Jordan, but rather in the depths of
God’s Love, which is symbolised by the Holy Spirit.
No one can quash the force
of the Holy Spirit. This is Jesus, God’s Messiah, who comes to save all peoples. Blessed
are we if we open ourselves to His presence.
In these times of crisis we’re
living through, today’s Gospel reminds us in a special way of the need to be supported
and guided by the Holy Spirit. We should be more like Jesus, and let ourselves be
imbued by His Spirit of Love; this Spirit is Fire.
At this dark and desolate
time for our culture, God Himself is preparing the way in our hearts to enter into
our homes. He is the key that opens what no one may lock, the shepherd who watches
over our lives, the hand that cures our wounds, the love that is always awake and
dispels our fears and makes us glimpse the clarity of hope.
Today, we only
have to open our hearts to Him and say to Him: Lord, transform our lives and lead
us along the path of Peace and Love. May we learn from John to zero in on the only
essential element of our lives. May this conference be a success for global solidarity,
and embody a desire to make a better world for future generations.