Now & Then Podcast | "Faith, Action & the Future of Our Planet"
John Mundell
Original Release Date: October 16, 2023
In a hope-filled conversation about the future of our planet, guest John Mundell, environmental engineer and director of Laudato Si' Action Platform, calls us to put our faith in action. This episode of Henri Nouwen, Now & Then, challenges us to address the damage caused by human negligence and abuse of God's creation.
Links & References
John Mundell, Laudato Si´, Laudato Si´Action Plan, Laudate Deum, John's article, The Economy of Francesco, Run4Unity, Follow Laudato Si´Action Platform on Facebook, Twitter, LinkIn & Instagram
"In recent decades we have become particularly aware of the crucial importance of our relationship with nature. As long as we relate to the trees, the rivers, the mountains, the fields, and the oceans as properties we can manipulate according to our real or fabricated needs, nature remains opaque and does not reveal to us its true being. When a tree is nothing but a potential chair, it ceases to tell us much about growth; when a river is only a dumping place for industrial wastes, it can no longer speak to us about movement; and when a flower is nothing more than a model for a plastic decoration, it has little to say about the simple beauty of life. When we relate to nature primarily as a property to be used, it becomes opaque – an opaqueness that in our society manifests itself as pollution. The dirty rivers, the smog-filled skies, the strip-mined hills, and the ravaged woods are sad signs of our false relationship with nature. Our difficult and urgent task is to realize that nature is not primarily a property to be possessed, but a gift to be received with admiration and gratitude. Only when we make a deep bow to the rivers, oceans, hills and mountains that offer us a home, only then can they become transparent and reveal to us their real meaning." - Henri Nouwen, Clowning in Rome
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Karen Pascal: Hello, I’m Karen Pascal. I’m the Executive Director of the Henri Nouwen Society. Welcome to a new episode of Henri Nouwen, Now and Then. Our goal at the society is to extend the rich spiritual legacy of Henri Nouwen to audiences of around the world. We invite you to share these podcasts and our free daily meditations with your friends and family. Through them, we can continue to introduce new audiences to the writings and the teachings of Henri Nouwen, and we can remind each listener that they’re a beloved child of God.
Today, I have the privilege of speaking with Dr. John Mundell. John is the director of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform. John is trained as an environmental engineer, scientist, and his company is in Indiana, but his workplace is essentially worldwide. John is calling us to a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. Everyone’s talents and involvement are needed to redress the damage caused by the human abuse of God’s creation.
Dr. John Mundell, welcome to Henri Nouwen, Now and Then.
John Mundell: Thank you very much. It’s great to be here with you.
Karen Pascal: John, what is Laudato Si’? This is what we’re going to talk about. Tell us what it is.
John Mundell: Well, Laudato Si’ is the environmental encyclical or letter, if you will, from Pope Francis that came out in 2015, that was very focused on the condition of our planet and what we should do about it. And in that letter, which was by the way, addressed to everyone, not just Catholics or not just people of faith, but really everyone, to step back and take a look at the condition of the planet, to recognize that it’s under assault, that there are many things that are damaging it. Everything from global development to the use of fossil fuels, which resulted in climate change, to, really, events that result from climate change like floodings and droughts and forest fires. All those things are really putting an assault on the earth.
And the Pope really wanted to raise the awareness that this is a major concern and that our response as people of faith and people of goodwill is to do something about it. Not just to watch it happen, but to work together, to bring about, really, a change in culture, a change – he called it an “ecological conversion.” That’s the strong language he used in Laudato Si’ in 2015. He thought everyone – everyone – needs to undergo an ecological conversion, a change in lifestyle, the choices we make, in order to really, to stop this kind of spread of impact on the planet. So, the why: so that the next generation can have a place to live. So that God’s creatures and the plants and the animals and the landforms can go on and be available, ad infinitum, to the end of the world, you know? So, that was what it was.
It was a landmark in the sense that there was never a letter like this that had been written for just the environment. Previous Popes – Pope Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict had written about Creation and about the environment, as well. They just had not addressed it in a long form, in a letter, but they certainly all had mentioned the need for a moral response, as part of our faith tradition, to this concern for the planet.
Karen Pascal: Something I have loved about it, in reading the introduction, it was very clear that it was broader than just a Catholic audience. It was really speaking to people of faith who believe in this being God’s Creation, and people who maybe don’t, but still have a deep concern for the planet that we share and want to be responsible. I loved the fact this is invitational to a much bigger audience. And it really, to me, expresses the kind of moral leadership that we have seen coming from Pope Francis to our world, and something we’re very, very grateful for, I think, on the broad scope of faith.
John Mundell: Absolutely. And it worked. I can tell you, after this happened, what happened over these last eight years is that our Protestant brothers and sisters, our Muslim brothers and sisters, our Buddhist brothers and sisters, recognized this moral leadership of the Pope, and they were excited to see such a strong statement. And that generated a lot of connections, on the local ground, people working together, beginning to dialogue.
You know, many times when you talk with people of faith, or even people with no particular faith, it’s nice to sit in a room and talk about what I believe or you believe, but this was a case where we could actually work together on something and make something happen together. There’s nothing better than a substantial project that you can sink your teeth into and see a difference.
So, what we’ve seen, we saw lots of those kind of activities across the planet. Everything from tree-plantings to cleanup of beaches and oceans, to recycling and reuse programs. All kinds of things like that.
Now, I will say this: There’s a second letter that just came out last week, and I’ll bring that up because it’s very pertinent. The letter’s called, and it’s Latin, it’s called Laudate Deum, Praise God. And we can talk about why he named it that, but why did Pope Francis come out with even a second letter? Wasn’t that first encyclical, that first treatise good enough to tell everyone his opinions about what we should be doing?
Well, it obviously wasn’t, because the Pope … how would I say? He’s recognizing things are getting worse. We are seeing on a daily basis – and having now been working with the Vatican on a daily basis myself, we get messages and communications from all over the planet – on what’s going on. Of course, right now, we also have wars and other things going on as well, but we have many events where you see the impact of climate change on people adjacent to the shorelines in Oceania around Australia or the Philippines. We have heat waves in Europe. We have forest fires in Canada. That smoke comes down into the Midwest. All kinds. We have loss of biodiversity because of taking down the rainforest.
So, he’s seen that, and he believes, really, we have to focus again on this idea of climate change. And so, he put it out for two reasons. One, it’s getting worse; and second, he doesn’t think we’re doing enough about it. And when he says that, he means everyone, but he is in particular pointing to his own church, the Catholic church here, about not getting on board and being concrete enough to begin having an impact on the way we live locally and also on global politics, on these big meetings we have annually, these COP meetings about climate change, and commitments of countries to reduce the use of fossil fuel.
So, that’s why he came out with the second one. And, I will say, it’s a doozy. It’s very exciting to read about. And maybe we can talk a little bit about that, as well.
Karen Pascal: Oh, I’d love to talk a little bit about it, but before we go too much farther, and I think the two maybe overlap, is that you’re in charge of this action plan. What exactly does that mean you’re doing? Tell me about your role in all of this.
John Mundell: Sure. Well, when Laudato Si’ came out, this letter in 2015, I was lucky enough to be invited to the Vatican a month afterwards, with about 150 other people. And the Pope simply asked when we came, “How can we implement what I’ve been talking about? How can we make this real?” He asked, “Please come with lots of ideas. because we don’t want to have these words sit up on a bookcase.” And he wants to put them into action. So, at that time… I’m a scientist and engineer by training, so I love ideas and solutions. So, I came with a couple of my ideas, and one of those was this early form of what now is called the Laudato Si’ Action Platform.
And what it is, it’s a Vatican-led, online initiative and community. And this initiative is this: It’s to encourage people to begin a journey of ecological conversion toward what the Pope calls “integral ecology.” In other words, the realization that we don’t just save the environment, the environment’s connected to the people, it’s connected to social relationships, it’s connected to the economy. It’s a multifaceted connection. So, what this platform does is simply this: We have various sectors that sign up to this platform. You can go online and sign up as an individual or a family. If you’re in a Catholic church or a non-Catholic church, you can sign up as a parish or a church or a diocese, which is a larger piece of land that contains many churches. You can sign up as a religious congregation like the Franciscans or the Dominicans. You can sign up as a university or as a school or as a business.
Anyway, you can sign up. And what’s there for you? What happens is we’ve done a lot of homework and we’ve provided resources, toolkits, templates. What for? To help people start to make very specific plans for action, to make a difference.
And so, if you’re a school, you might go in there and you might look and go, “Oh, here are some things I can do. And we’ll select those this year to do.” And you can make a plan. You publish a plan to share it with others. First of all, it puts a little pressure on when you publish something: “Oh, wow. I guess we now have to do that, right?” And maybe then a year from now, you say, “Well, how did we do? Well, we got half of it done. Well, we still have more to do.”
So, what’s happened is that all of these people, after we’re coming on two years of this, after this was implemented, we have 8,000 participants. That doesn’t mean individuals. That’s including about 180 dioceses in the world. That includes over 200 universities. That includes more than a thousand schools. So, our estimate is, roughly worldwide, the impact for the people who’ve signed up is about 70 million already, after two years.
Now, all those people haven’t made a plan yet. They’ve been getting information this last couple years. And people are starting to make these plans. And the hope is that we are able to show the world to track how we’re doing to become more sustainable, to become part of a global community, so that why? So that we can inspire others and be inspired ourselves to do something. Also, this global community makes you aware of what’s going on. It’s no longer people across the world that you don’t know. You’re online with them; you’re participating in webinars; you’re finding out what’s happening in South America or in the Philippines or in Germany. And what happens when you find out people you know there? You begin to care, right? It becomes real.
So, this is the vision that the Pope is supporting, this Vatican-led initiative to help us move toward total sustainability. It’s an exciting thing. It’s challenging, because no one has ever done something like this before. And I guess I had been involved since the beginning of this. And at some point, they thought a person with an engineering and science background might have a knack for making things happen. So, I’m happy to be part of this, but we have a lot of support. We have a team that’s worldwide, and we have a tremendous amount of people who’ve supported … we have working groups, people who donate their time.
But I’m a good person to making this sound positive, but it’s not all positive, because of why? Because there are 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide. Well, 70 million out of 1.3 billion means we’re not there yet. We have a long way to go. But it’s exciting to see what’s already happened. And we believe if we can get the rest of the Catholic church and the other churches, and there are people who don’t belong to a church who are on here, because it’s about building community and making us feel part of a connection around the world.
Karen Pascal: You know, what is exciting for me; Our audience is a global audience. People listening to Henri Nouwen, Now and Then are all over the world. And that global audience I think is going to respond. I want to tell our audience, I’ve been on your website, I’ve been on it, and it’s great. It’s beautiful. It’s easy to access, and it’s got so much good information. So, in a sense, you’re recruiting today for another group of people to join with you. I think it’s so important that we hold hands, we join up in this.
But I want to go back a stage and open up a part of this that I think is very important for us to address. And that’s the reality of how this global crisis with the environment is impacting the poorest of the poor. That should be the concern of every person of faith listening to this.
So, let’s talk a little bit about that. You give us a little bit of what you know about that, and why that makes it such an imperative for us. It’s not just because we want a better life. All of us can say we want a life for our grandchildren, but what about the now? We have a world that right now has global refugees because of the climate, and a lot of us don’t understand that, because we’re still living in safe zones. But there’s a lot of people that aren’t. So, talk a little bit about that with me, John.
John Mundell: Sure. Well, you know, I will say this: This is about environmental justice in some ways. And I’ve had a 40-year-plus career in the environmental world, cleaning up pollution all over the world, including a lot of the United States, but in also in different countries. Many times, the work I did in the last 40 years was at sites and near where industrial activity happened, and they left contamination all over the planet. And oftentimes, those were located near poor people, because the land wasn’t as useful near the industrial areas. And so, people fairly well off would never want to live close to all of that industry you have there. So, environmental justice often has been linked to impact to people who don’t have the financial wherewithal to live away from those areas.
And so, I’ve seen that as a reoccurring theme for decades and in different areas. But what has happened with climate change, as you said, a lot of these impacts are impacting people who don’t have very resilient lives. They have no choice if they live near a coastline, and now they’re getting flooded 10 times a year. They don’t have the resources to go and build a house and buy a piece of land. They’re just shoved out of the way. And they’re feeling these impacts.
I had one bishop in Oceania, in the Australia-Fiji-New Zealand area. He was on a call one day and he almost began to cry. And I said, “Why are you so distraught?” He said, “I have a hard time explaining to my people who are undergoing all of these climate change impacts, why we have a loving God. How do I do that? How does that fit?”
And he was really struggling with that. And he finally came to the conclusion that it’s almost like people who were in the concentration camps during World War II. You had to find God somewhere in this suffering and this vulnerability toward these things. And so, I’ve been blessed this last year-and-a-half to really hear some of those personal stories of some of the indigenous people who are being impacted. People in Africa, in dry areas who can’t grow crops. Some migrants coming into the United States, even, who have been shoved out as well. And you see the personal impact, and in your heart, you have to say, “This is not a just situation.”
We as people of faith and people of goodwill have to respond to this. And oftentimes, I see that people see a disconnect between what they do and choices they make in their lifestyle, and someone else across the world. They don’t see that a choice they’re making to consume at a rate of seven or eight times what the world population does as directly impacting someone else. And because why? Because we don’t have proximity. We don’t find out who these people are. So, that’s one of the challenges we have. And we think this platform, and lifting up not only the positive stories that are happening, but also why we need to change our lifestyles and make better choices, why we need to have policies globally that reduce in a logical fashion the use of fossil fuels, and other multilateral compacts and agreements where the countries in the world can make good decisions and also help monitor and hold each other accountable. And that’s what the Pope really, in the second letter that just came out – he’s emphasizing how ineffective we have been and what we have to do.
Karen Pascal: I’m curious, because some of us just feel so overwhelmed. We’re now hearing that this has just been the hottest month ever on the planet, or at least in our lifetime, and may end up being the hottest year. And it’s easy to just kind of throw in the towel and say, “I give up. We’ve messed up so badly.” But I think we need to hear from you a call forward. Is it possible to make a change? Where are you seeing change happen that we should celebrate? And what would you call us to? This word “conversion” is really interesting. It really means turning right around, I’m sure. So, help us. Call us forward.
John Mundell: Well, you know, just because I’m speaking doesn’t mean I’m the saint of conversion here, right? I’m part of the group that needs to make this. I’m a North American person, right? So, one thing I would start out with is this (and this is where I think the connection with Henri Nouwen comes in a little bit), because from what the Pope has written recently, this second letter, I have to tell you, he’s really sharing his soul. He’s really telling people we need to feel connected to everything, not only of people, but also the animals, the plants. We need to not only feel this connection, we need to see, we need to somehow feel this presence, the sacred presence of God everywhere.
Because, he says, if God’s love is everywhere, if it’s behind everything, then how can we not take care of this? So, for people of faith, he’s really calling people of faith to an authentic faith – he says this in this recent letter, Laudate Deum – to an authentic faith. Why? Because (and even people who have no faith could understand this), when you have a belief in something, it feeds your passion. It feeds your motivation. And so, when it’s authentic, it makes your passion stronger. It also clarifies your goals in life, what I want to do with my life, and how should I be living it. So, the Pope really uses language that makes you aware that we need to have some kind of mindfulness, connection to Creation, so that we recognize the presence of God in everything. So that we recognize we’re connected to everyone.
And I was lucky enough to have read a couple things by Henri Nouwen, and you know, guess what? Those are some of his themes, too. I read a couple of things – and you know better; you’re the Head Kahuna of the society here. But he’s written so much about this presence of God, the presence of the sacred, as the real world we see is like a veil that kind of puts over the rest of what God is present behind that, you know? And also, encouragement to experience silence in our lives so that we can really hear the sound of God in the silence. So, I’ve been really struck with that, and I have so much more to learn.
But it’s really connected to the beginnings of how do we begin, you know? And I always tell people this: I wrote an article in this last year about this analogy of the rudder of a ship. A ship when the sails are out, the wind blows, and you’re going in a direction, and just a small change in the rudder can make a dramatic change in the way your life goes, or the way that a boat goes. So, small things can have big impacts. That’s the fallacy people try to try to convince you of: Well, if I do something small, it really doesn’t matter. It really does, because when you multiply it times a hundred thousand or a million, it’s an incredible impact. So, the first thing I would always say is, first of all, start with this mindfulness. Read all this Henri Nouwen literature that gets you in touch with Creation, with the presence of God and the sacred in your life. And ground that kind of motivation to say, “Okay, now I’m ready to do something.” But start with beginning something small that you can repeat the next day in a small way, and repeat again, so it becomes a habit. And then add another something.
I’ll tell you because I’m North American, but this is an example. If you go out to eat at a restaurant, there’s so many lessons. Everyone likes to eat out, especially people who have some money. Not everyone’s lucky enough to eat out. But if you eat out, there are a couple things to think about. First of all, do you really need to eat all the food that you’ve ordered? You know, many people order way too much food. There’s wasted food. Even when they take it home, they throw some of it away, to be quite honest. That can happen.
So, what are you eating? Are you eating meat all the time? Do you really need to eat meat all the time? Because, you know, meat is one of those things that produces a lot of greenhouse gases. The whole production cycle. Do you really need to have straws? I mean, there are so many little things. You can just say, “No, I’m changing this. I’m not going to do this, and I’m not going to eat out as much as well.” But, you know, food waste is a beginning, a start. I only mentioned this because we eat every day, right? So, that’s one thing.
The other thing that I’ve done: Many of us live different, varying distances from work. Some people commute for a half hour, 45 minutes in the car every day. Some people live a few blocks. I, in the last five years, moved within three or four blocks of where I work. And so, I can walk if I want to. Or if I drive, I’ve finally got a car that’s part electric, part gasoline. But I only drive a couple miles if I have to.
So, evaluating your energy use is another thing you can do. People put some controls on their own heating and air conditioning. The choices of when you turn on heat in the winter and when you turn on air conditioning in the summer are all choices. So, that’s the individual and the family.
What about your church? Well, there’s so much. I’ll give you an example that I heard this year. The Archdiocese of New York, where they have hundreds of buildings there, of course, the state of New York made them become more energy efficient as a matter of law. Well, as a matter of going through all of that and changing out antiquated systems, et cetera, et cetera, they’ve saved several million dollars in doing that, in making those investments. They’ve also learned to review their energy bills, because guess what? There are a lot of mistakes. And so, when you review your energy bill and you understand how much you’re using, sometimes you’re charged too much. And so, you can take that money that’s been overcharged and do something positive with it. So, energy control systems, automated thermostats, your house being insulated properly. In many parts of the world, you can get some of the energy companies to do kind of an energy audit.
So, things vary depending on your audiences from all over the world. So, I’m giving you some North American examples a little bit, but there are various things in different parts of the world that people do. The biggest sinners are probably where I’m living, and the least sinful people are probably in the Third World/Africa/South America portions. What they can do is show us –- their gift to us, to show us the impact that we’re causing, and then to motivate us to change our lives.
So, bottom line: Start out small, get in a routine, and get some successes. You say, “Okay, I can make that that difference. I cannot buy anything new for a year. Because, you know what? I don’t need it. I can borrow it. I can share it.” This idea of a communion, using the communion of goods where you share among your friends. “I need to buy a lawnmower.” Well, no, you don’t. You can share a lawnmower. “I need to buy this or that.” No, you don’t. You can use it secondhand. “I need new clothes.” Well, you probably don’t. The same kind of thing.
So, there’s so many choices. And I’m telling this to myself as well, right? But, by making a small change multiplied by tens of thousands of people, that’s where the impact happens. And that’s what we’re hoping with this platform. You know, if we all do things, and we don’t know each other, we all drop our little stone in the pond at different times, what does that do? But if we all drop a stone at the same time into the pond doing the same thing, it can create a wave in that pond, and it can have impact, a positive impact. So, together, in a community, means something.
Karen Pascal: I love the spiritual leadership on this. I love the fact that if we believe all of Creation is God’s, and we believe it was created for us, but not for us to just exploit, for us to treasure and to see God in, I really love that. I think it’s calling back into our ownership, the very earth that God gave us, and making us responsible. I really love that. I also love the, as I have read this, and as I’m looking forward to reading this next document that’s just come out, I love the responsibility for the poor. God never takes that away from us. We are responsible. We are not to look away. We are to figure out what can I do? There is somebody at the side of the road, and if you want to be the good Samaritan, maybe the one at the side of the road now is a country that cannot possibly cope with the climate changes forced upon it right now by our overconsumption.
So, this is a really, really important opportunity, and I really trust that we, as followers of Christ, as ones who cherish what God has done in our lives, will be part of being the ones who reach out to the side of the road. I’m very excited about your website. I’m very excited about all that you’ve shared with us. It somehow makes it possible, I think. It gives us a little place to put our toe in the water and go in.
John Mundell: Exactly, Karen. And let me give you another … Sometimes people can say, “How do you mean, ‘remain hopeful?’ It sounds pretty dire sometimes.” And there were a couple things that really hit me this last year, and one of the prime ones is young people. We had the opportunity to work with a lot of young people who are now reengaged with the church. They became disengaged a bit, but there were two or three factions that I have to tell you just a little bit about.
One is this group called The Economy of Francesco. About three years ago, the Pope sent a note out to young people around the world, saying, “I would like you to bring ideas to me on how to change the world’s economy to be more just and sustainable, and I’m going to invite you to come to Assisi to talk to me about it.”
And so, the word went out, and just last year about this time, more than a thousand young people from all over the planet came and gave him hundreds of ideas on what they want to do and how they want to change the economy for the good. That was so impactful for me. So hope-filled, because they’re now engaged, we’re listening to them, they’re leading the way. They’re excited about this.
A second one was at World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal. We were there with sessions with young people, and the same kind of thing. One of the primary themes was integral ecology: how that connects to poverty, to politics, et cetera. And so, the same kind of hope that I saw, the passion when they saw that: “Is the church really going to take this really seriously?” That got them so excited.
And then a couple of projects this last year. One was a relay race that happened, a global relay race, where young people had a relay across the world, and they went from time zone to time zone, running and having sports activities. And they also stopped, and they planted trees. So, we literally had a global tree-planting, the first global tree-planting on the planet. It’s a group called Run4Unity. It was so inspiring, and I thought, wow, give them ideas and let them go forward. And it’s amazing. And then, of course, then we had other environmental projects by young people all over the planet.
So, that gives me a lot of hope. And it also makes me believe that we older people can act as mentors and can help inspire, even despite the gray hair in our beards or our hair, or the lack of hair. Young people still look to us for certain guidance and certain wisdom. So, yes, hope.
Karen Pascal: They look for us to operate in life with character. And this is something that we can’t ignore. We can’t just be over-consumers in the world. We’re responsible. It’s happening on our watch. I’m often reminded of this: It’s happening on my watch. The fact that there are communities both in North America, particularly indigenous communities, where there’s not clean water, or that there are communities anywhere in the world where there’s not clean water, or that there are communities that are being overwhelmed by the climate changes. All of this is happening on my watch.
So, I really encourage our audience: You must go to John’s website, the Laudato Si’ Action Platform. You’ll be delighted to see what you find there. But more importantly, I’m going to put in our show notes, Laudato Si’ and, and also the most recent thing, Laudate Deum, that’s come out this October 4th from the Pope, because it’s good reading.
And in fact, it’s interesting: The Pope says in his introduction, “You’re going to read it once, but you’re going to read it again and again.” And he’s right. It’s just dense with good content, dense with rich and inspiring content. It’s probably one of the best things I’ve read in a long time. So, I’m really quite delighted to pass it on to all our listeners.
John, I so appreciate what you’re doing. And I particularly love what you just shared about young people, because that isn’t just true in the Catholic Church, that there’s been a falling-away of young people. It’s right across the board, a kind of disillusionment. But I really pray that young people would lead us back into a love and action – faith in action towards our created world that we live in.
John Mundell: Absolutely. And they are. And I think for me – and I’ve been lucky enough to see and become acquainted and become good friends with many of these young people – they constantly remind me they’re calling us back to authenticity. You know, the Pope says, an authentic faith, it’s not how we recite our prayers necessarily just so, or how we go through some piety things that are supportive of what we do, but that they’re not central. But how we actually react to the different issues of the world. The Pope has called us to be at the peripheries, to be with those communities, all kinds of communities, including indigenous, for sure, in this particular instance. But others – I think when they see us acting authentically, there’s something positive about that.
Because it reminds me of that first group of Christians, right? Christianity did not spread because they said a bunch of words to folks and did prayers in a certain way. If that had been the case, the Jewish people would’ve spread. At that time, everybody was focusing on certain rituals. But it’s really about how they loved one another, how they were willing to give their lives, which meant what? Which means there’s a certain amount of suffering in this.
To undergo a conversion isn’t easy. It requires a certain amount of cutting with what we’re normally attached to. And there’s a little bit of loss in that. But we have examples through the life of Jesus and others, but Jesus especially, who says, “Love one another as I have loved you.”
Well, that’s a pretty big yardstick, you know? And that doesn’t mean, and I would say this as Henri Nouwen also points out, that doesn’t mean just loving human beings. It doesn’t just mean loving your friends or the people around you. It means loving the planet, which includes the animals, includes the land forms, includes everything. It includes all of Creation, because Creation was the first incarnation, right? I think Richard Rohr said that, as well as others.
So, I think we have a lot of work to do, but I think we … in community, you have this amazing community out there. I would challenge all of your listeners: You folks have already skipped a couple of steps with this, with Henri Nouwen and his wonderful way of helping you contemplate, that transforms into your belief system, that transforms into action. So, I think if we could have, I’ll just set a number: 10,000. If we could have 10,000 Henri Nouwen people sign up to the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, I think I’d be satisfied. Maybe, maybe, maybe 15,000.
So, we really invite you. I think you would act as salt and leaven for the rest. And also, you would be inspiring by your own action.
So, thanks for having me today. I really appreciate it.
Karen Pascal: Oh, you’ve been a wonderful guest. Thank you so much for being with us. Really appreciate it, John. Thank you.
John Mundell: Thanks.
Karen Pascal: John, thank you for being with us today on Henri Nouwen, Now and Then.
And I want to thank all of you for listening to our conversation today. You’re going to find links in the show notes of this podcast to the Laudato Si’ document. I highly recommend you read this very important encyclical from Pope Francis. As Pope Francis said in his introduction to Laudato Si’, “I wish to address every person living on the planet.” He wants to enter into a dialogue with all people about our common home, this earth.
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Thanks for listening. Until next time.
John Mundell: Thanks so much for watching. Be sure to subscribe, give us a thumbs-up or follow us on social media. For more Henri Nouwen content – for books, videos, and other resources, or if you’d like to receive free daily Henri Nouwen e-meditations, you can follow the links below.
