Go out to all the world, proclaim the Good News to all creation

 The missionary impulse to tell the Good News is not confined within the walls of our Churches but seeps out into the whole of the created universe. Often we can become comfortable in familiar environments and beautiful places designed for worship. Yet I remember being present in York Minster Cathedral in  December, amidst a snowstorm. The yellow light created through the stained glass, and illuminated this sacred place in a way that was hard to describe. It was like being enveloped in a golden pall that sustained me in a deeper appreciation of God's goodness.

It is these moments of grace where creation seems to shine through our lives' windows to appreciate our salvation. Creation is that unwritten Gospel that speaks in a language echoed by poets, musicians, and artists. Yet even these cannot contain the reality of who God is for us. We need to discover and believe in something greater than ourselves. This is the God whose love initiates all that brings life into our world and hearts.

In our modern age, we can see belief poisoned by demons who seem to corrupt and pervert what was created to sustain all life. It takes people of many languages to raise our voices in a common language that renews and recreates our environment. It calls us not to be afraid of what seems to poison or corrupt us but to discover ways that bring healing to our world. This common language is not to deify creation but to recognize our common call to be stewards of the life entrusted to us.

The Good News we are called to proclaim does not place us at the heart of creation but God who seeks to sustain all life. This is especially important in how we walk gently on our earth rather than seeing us at war with nature. Like St Francis, we are called to seek a communion with God that engages us with the whole of creation as a gift and not as our private possession. That helps us to engage with the gift of creation and the work of human hands. We are called to be people of thanksgiving who sustain this gift in how we seek to be present to God and each other. We are called to rejoice in how we live not just consume the life gifted to us. To proclaim with our lives what we witness in our hearts.