In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis writes about the importance of intergenerational solidarity, especially from the point of view of those now living having a responsibility to pass on to generations yet to come a world that is habitable and beautiful. In no. 162, he identifies a challenge to this kind of solidarity.
Our difficulty in taking up this challenge seriously has much to do with an ethical and cultural decline which has accompanied the deterioration of the environment. Men and women of our postmodern world run the risk of rampant individualism, and many problems of society are connected with today’s self-centered culture of instant gratification. We see this in the crisis of family and social ties and the difficulties of recognizing the other. Parents can be prone to impulsive and wasteful consumption, which then affects their children who find it increasingly difficult to acquire a home of their own and build a family. Furthermore, our inability to think seriously about future generations is linked to our inability to broaden the scope of our present interests and to give consideration to those who remain excluded from development. Let us not only keep the poor of the future in mind, but also today’s poor, whose life on this earth is brief and who cannot keep on waiting. Hence, “in addition to a fairer sense of intergenerational solidarity there is also an urgent moral need for a renewed sense of intragenerational solidarity.”*
I am struck here by the phrases “rampant individualism” and “culture of instant gratification.” They reminded me of these lines from the famous 1964 “Letter” from Romano Guardini:
Of particular importance for the liturgical act is the action and full participation of the congregation as a body. The act is done by every individual, not as an isolated individual, but as a member of a body which is the “we” of the prayers. Its structure is different from that of any other collection of people meeting for a common purpose. It is that of a corpus, an objective whole. In the liturgical act the celebrating individual becomes part of this body and he incorporates the circumstances in his self-expression. This is not so simple if it is to be genuine and honest. Much that divides men must be overcome; dislikes, indifference towards the many who are “no concern of mine,” but who are really members of the same body, lethargy, etc. In the act the individual becomes conscious of the meaning of the words “congregation” and “Church.”**
Earth Day prompts us to consider anew the ways which we do or do not exercise intergenerational solidarity. It challenges us to assess the ways in which we indulge a wish for instant gratification over responsible ways of living. It challenges our selfishness and our individualism. Liturgy does the same things. Put differently, individualism is morally vicious in the sphere of liturgy and in the sphere of intergenerational solidarity. Sating a desire for instant gratification can do harm to our common home. Dwelling on desires for instant gratification in liturgy can do harm to liturgical participation. If I believe that every moment of liturgy should enthrall me, then the shriek of an infant or the off-key singer next to me in the pews damages my experience of liturgy and can often include a kind of indignation toward others in the congregation. Liturgy is a paradigmatic arena in which “much that divides” must be overcome. Likewise, Earth Day is a dead letter if we are caught up in individualism rather than solidarity.
Karl Rahner wrote about the “liturgy of the world,” how God’s cosmic grand design for salvation is realized in bits and pieces through the mundane in people’s lives. In this sense, every day is liturgical. In a parallel sense, every day is Earth Day.
*Benedict XVI, Message for the 2010 World Day of Peace, 8
**Text available at https://www.ccwatershed.org/2013/09/05/1964-letter-romano-guardini/