Go Green! It’s a recurrent theme now, especially as we enter the summer months. I read in the paper that our local park district has adapted this theme for all of this summer’s classes. We can learn how to fertilize our lawns without dangerous chemicals, how to garden vegetables organically or build flower gardens for migrating song birds. Other interesting classes include ‘Creating Green Interiors’, ‘How to Avoid Toxic Toys’ and ‘Parenting Green 101’ for ‘reducing your family’s impact on the planet.’ This is all wonderful. Our family has been doing this for a long time by eating organic foods and avoiding packaged products. When our children in grade school were asked to save the earth by bringing all their pop cans into school to recycle, I had to explain to them that we were already a step ahead because we never drank pop and didn’t need aluminum cans in the first place! Ever since God put Adam in charge of the earth, with its fish, birds, cattle and all and creepy things, we should have been taking care of all of it. “Fill the earth and subdue it,” he said as he gave us all the plants and animals and told us to have dominion over all.
But why does our politically-correct respect for nature have to stop there? Let’s take our ‘going green’ to the next level! We can ‘go all the way’ to respect the souls of men and women who were made in the image of God and respect our natural powers to love and give life.
- If we think it’s wrong to pump chemicals on our lawn or in our food, why do we pump them into millions of single young women for fornication and birth control?
- If we know that it is against the law to torture animals, why is it still acceptable in our laws to torture and kill little babies in the womb?
- If we won’t test our shampoo on animals why would we choose to test out marital activity on an uncommitted human heart through cohabitation?
- If we avoid buying toxic toys for our babies to chew on, why would we buy spiritually toxic video games and movies for our preteens and teens?
If purity is good for our food and personal hygiene products, shouldn’t it be even more important for human hearts and our powers to love and give life?
Many Catholic schools and churches ‘go green’ by recycling pop cans or pulltops. What if every Catholic parish would start a campaign to ‘go green’ with family planning? They could advertise for weeks in the bulletin for everyone to get rid of all birth control chemicals and devices and hold natural family planning classes day and night until every couple knew their bodies and cycles well enough to plan the size family that God wanted them to have! They could have NFP couples mentoring and encouraging others new to the practice.
Many Catholic schools and parishes have had the asbestos removed from their buildings so the air can be pure and safe. What if every Catholic parish spent just as much time and money to keep everyones’ souls pure by advertising the benefits of the Sacrament of Reconciliation? The pastor could increase the confession hours and make the Sacrament available different days and times so everyone could receive God’s mercy conveniently. What if they ran support groups to educate people about mortal sin and help them avoid it, so the souls of young and old would be even more pure than the air?
Many Catholic parishes collect clothes and games for the poor. What if we opened our parish halls to collect impure items so that we could destroy all the immodest clothing, impure magazines, movies, and video games? What if we stood and prayed the rosary while the garbage truck chewed them up and then we sang songs of praise to God?
Okay, so it’s not a perfect world; it’s not the Garden of Eden. Precisely; it’s a better world. We have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. He has made all things new. He offers us His grace to restore all things to purity, goodness and truth. The Creator of all desires for us pure love, pure souls, pure minds and pure bodies.
Catholics can ‘go green’ all the way! The Church offers us the education and support we need to have the purest love, the most exciting family life, the greatest self-discipline, and the path to kindness and peace for all the living. Most importantly, to make up for our human frailty, the Church offers us the most pure food — the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ himself! Purity is great — but it’s not just for plants and animals, gardening and consumable products. What if purity of soul would be our goal?
