Season of Creation: Blessing of the Animals for 10/5/14 by Cynthia Stengel
And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the sea, and let birds multiply on the earth. . . . And God said, “Let the earth bring forth creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good (Gen. 1: 20-25).
The Story of Creation sounds like a children’s book, full of delightful abundance, told with appreciation for earth’s wonders. We’ve all had times when the natural world fills us with awe and we think, “What a wonderful world!” I grew up in the country with farm animals--cows, horses, pigs and chickens, geese and ducks; lakes full of fish and frogs and turtles, woods that sheltered deer and bears and foxes and all manner of small furry creatures, with the music of birdsong and twittering of insects calling from trees and fencerows.
Now I live near a forest preserve where the deer come out to the roadsides to graze in the evenings, and even watch the softball and soccer games in the afternoons. I’ve even seen a coyote running there, woods at one flank, four lanes of traffic at the other. The squirrels in my neighborhood run along the wooden fence that divides city lots and check out my garden. They add my tomatoes to their diet, and one year when I went on a late vacation, they harvested every last apple from my young tree (though they left the one they dropped). My grandson, Aiden, has raised moths and butterflies, praying mantises, turtles, snakes, fish, and hamsters, in addition to the parrots, dog and cat that share his home. Even though we’ve become an urban people, living in our concrete jungle, there is something that draws us to animals, and we learn a lot from living with them and caring for them. Americans spent $56 billion on pets last year, $2 billion more than the year before, an indication of the importance of animals in our lives.But on the other hand, there’s Martha
(named for Martha Washington), the very last passenger pigeon in the world. Once the most abundant bird on earth, a migrating flock of some 3.5 billion pigeons was described in 1866 as being one mile wide and 300 miles long, taking 14 hours to pass over southern Ontario. On September 1, 1914, one hundred years ago, Martha died—less than 40 years after that amazing migration.. An extinction not resulting from disease or climate change or any natural cause, but from human predators. Each year the World Conservation Union publishes its Red List of threatened species. This year the list covers more than 12,000 species. It makes one wonder whether humans might actually be the most dangerous animals on earth.St. Francis, the patron saint of animals and the environment, believed we could learn about creation from animals and the environment. He is credited with creating the first “living nativity” after a visit to the Holy Land, and we’ve been singing the story and setting up crèches with animals ever since. Churches have for some time been blessing animals (usually pets) on the Feast of St. Francis, October 4, though the ceremony dates back to the 4th century San Antonio de Abad, the patron saint of animals, who led priests in blessing animals for fertility and health.
As we bring our own pets to St. Luke’s for a blessing this year, let’s also remember farm and service animals, and the creatures of earth and sky and the waters who need our watchful care and protection. Perhaps we can learn from the animals who are near, so that we can also care for those far from us—just as we do with our human relationships. Each has its own place in the ecology of earth. Not only is the quality of our lives diminished when species disappear, but the very web of life itself is endangered. It’s our calling and duty to be stewards of God’s good creation.This is not a recent idea; in 1952, Albert Schweitzer, a Lutheran theologian, humanitarian and missionary to Africa, won the Nobel Peace Prize winner foe his “Reverence for Life” philosophy. He wrote the following prayer:
Hear our prayer, O God, for our friends the animals, especially for animals who are suffering, for any that are hunted or lost or deserted or frightened or hungry; for all that must be put to death. We implore for them all your mercy and pity, and for those who deal with them, we ask a heart of compassion and gentle hands and kindly words. Make us, ourselves, to be true friends to animals and so to share the blessings of the merciful. Amen.