Fifth Sunday of Lent

Fifth Sunday of Lent

“I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; …I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live…” Ezek. 37: 12,14.

 “If the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” Romans 8:11

 “I am the Resurrection and the Life.  Whoever believes in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”  John 11: 25-26

Image: Unsplash

The message for this 5th Sunday of Lent holds up to us two promises: the coming of the indwelling, life-giving Spirit, and the eternal life that Spirit assures.  In the first reading, Ezekiel prophesies both the future gift of the Spirit and the resurrection to come.  Paul speaks to the early Christians living that promise in their now reality and assuring them of the life to come.  Then Jesus, raising his friend Lazarus from the dead, demonstrates the truth of his power over death, and speaks clearly that He is the Resurrection, and that all who live in him, will never die. 

Image: Unsplash/Paul Keiffer

We have heard and read these passages so often that sometimes they don’t really sink in.  Like Martha, we know and believe that we will “rise again at the resurrection on the last day”.  But do we realize that the life we will experience when that day comes is not a new life, to be given to us as a reward for living a good life here.  It is, in truth, the fullness of the very life we are living NOW, the life of the Godhead received at our Baptism.  The miracle is that by God’s free, deliberate, and loving gift, God infused the very life of the Trinity into us when, in the waters of Baptism, we were buried with Christ and rose to be a totally new kind of human.  We are now not just the wonderful stardust of the evolutionary process, but an even more amazing creature: I dare to say, the “God-dust” of a new creation, a human imbued with the very life of the Godhead.  That’s a bigger big bang than the first one! So, all our lives, from our Baptism on, our “graves are being opened” and we are rising from the dead by the power of the Spirit who has been given to us.  However, like Lazarus when he first came out of the tomb, we are alive, and yet we are still “bound” by the limits of our mortality and need to be unbound and “let go” in order to live this new life to the full.  Little by little we need to allow God and life to unbind us, to set us free and thus to reveal the wonder of the new creation that we are.  

Image: Unsplash/Pisit Heng

So, I ask: What is the unbinding that is taking place in my life this lent?  Could it be letting go of resentments?  Changing attitudes of discrimination, judgment, or non-inclusion? Seeking comfort or pleasure a little less avidly? or reaching out to unbind someone else who needs to be set free?  Whatever that unbinding might be, I invite Jesus, to come and awaken me.  Show me where I am asleep, still bound, or not letting go.  Come Jesus, call out to me, as you did to Lazarus, “come out”, so that I may live more fully the Trinitarian life planted in me at my Baptism so long ago.   

-Sister Mary Diesbourg, CSJ

Groups Urge Trudeau and Biden to Transparently Report Logging Emissions

Today we joined 80+ US & Canadian groups in urging President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to transparently report GHG emissions from logging - a critical step towards effective climate action, forest protection & climate-safe forestry.

View the letter here.

View the Press Release here.

March 22, 2023

Dear President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau,

As more than eighty organizations and scientists from both Canada and the United States, we are writing to urge your governments to transparently account for and report on greenhouse gas emissions from industrial logging. While we applaud your governments’ commitment to 2030 climate targets and stated support of natural climate solutions, the fact that emissions from industrial logging are not separately and transparently reported jeopardizes the integrity of these 2030 targets and hinders the advancement of truly ambitious forest protection policies.

Transparent and accurate reporting of greenhouse gas emissions is the bedrock of scientifically driven climate policy. Annual greenhouse gas inventories are the foundation from which countries both chart progress toward Paris Agreement targets and derive information about appropriate policy measures to reduce the impact of high-emitting sectors and transition to more sustainable economies. Unfortunately, both Canada and the United States’ inventories have a substantial reporting gap, omitting clear and transparent reporting on the impact of industrial logging.

Industrial logging1 is a high-emitting sector, with a climate impact on par with that of other sectors included in the inventories. In Canada, the logging industry clearcuts more than 550,000 hectares of forest each year,2 much of this in high-carbon primary forests. A recent conservative estimate, based on government data, placed the logging industry’s 2020 net emissions at approximately 75 Mt CO2 annually–roughly equal to emissions from Canada’s oil sands production.3 In the United States, the Forest Service found that “timber harvesting, and not land use change or fire, was the largest source of gross emissions from U.S. forests between 2006 and 2010.”4[4]

Despite the logging industry’s status as a high-emitting sector, the U.S. and Canadian inventories do not separately and transparently report on its climate impact. Instead, the logging industry’s emissions are subsumed under broader reporting on land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF). This practice makes it exceedingly difficult to discern what carbon fluxes are attributable to the logging industry and, more specifically, what logging industry practices offer the greatest potential for mitigation.

The policy impacts of logging’s omission from Canada and the United States’ inventories are sweeping. It has resulted in a “climate-blind” forest decision making process divorced from the climate ramifications of the logging industry’s practices. Decisions to forgo forest protections, allow certain annual allowable cuts, or directly subsidize logging industry expansion do not factor in climate considerations because the necessary information is not available. It also prevents the implementation of incentives to drive climate-friendlier logging practices or invest in new sustainable economies.

Separate and transparent reporting will not only facilitate data-driven policy making, but also allow for the recognition of progress toward mitigating logging industry emissions. We have been encouraged by your governments’ recent commitments advancing the preservation and restoration of forest ecosystem health. As you continue to build on and implement these commitments, transparent logging industry reporting will allow your governments to reflect successful efforts to reduce these emissions and track the sector’s progress toward our countries’ 2030 climate goals.

As you meet to discuss the most pressing issues our countries face, we urge you to jointly commit to transparently reporting on emissions from industrial logging. There is significant progress our two countries can make together to advance forest protections domestically and globally. Clear and transparent disclosure of industrial logging’s climate impact will ensure the United States and Canada can lead with policy that is robust and data-driven, while modeling best practices for forested countries around the world.

Here is a link to the final letter and all the signatures.

1 Encompassing emissions and removals associated with tree harvesting, post-harvest regeneration, and the storage and decay of carbon in harvested wood products. 2 National Forestry Database (Canada), “Forest Area Harvested on Private and Crown Lands,” http://nfdp.ccfm.org/en/data/harvest.php, accessed March 15, 2023. 3 M. Bramley & G. Saul, “What are the Net Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Logging in Canada?” Nature Canada & NRDC, October 2022, https://naturecanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Report-What-Are-Net-GHGEmissions-From-Logging-in-Canada.pdf. 4 United States Forest Service, “The U.S. Forest Carbon Accounting Framework: Stocks and Stock Change, 19902016,” November 2015, https://www.fs.usda.gov/nrs/pubs/gtr/gtr_nrs154.pdf. 2

If You're Happy and You Know It...

“If You’re Happy and you Know it Clap Your Hands!”
World Happiness Day

Most of us are familiar with the children’s song that begins, “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands”! International World Happiness Day – and there really is such a day - invites us to do just that, to celebrate happiness and to strive to create happiness across the world and locally where our own feet are!

International World Happiness Day, established by the United Nations in 2013, is celebrated each March 20th. The intent of the day is a reminder of the importance of happiness in the lives of people around the world. It is a day to highlight happiness as a universal human goal and is closely associated with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals which seek to end human poverty, to reduce inequality and to protect the planet.

The past 3 years have been hard and discouraging for many. Yet, the World Happiness Report, 2022 reminds us that despite such dark times there are also many current examples of profound human kindness and increased social support on which we are invited to reflect .[1]

Attitudes also count in significant ways. It is no coincidence that with the release of the World Happiness Report each year, the Nordic countries surpass all others. “Why”? There are obvious factors such as the smallness of each of these nations but there is also more. Whether democracy, political rights, social networks, fair distribution of resources, gender equality, and other such factors are considered, the Nordic countries are always found at the top of the happiness lists!

In a business report, Fanny Aberg, of the executive company “Nordic Minds” says, in the Nordic countries, “family always comes first”. It is primarily a question of work/life balance. She continues “working hours are based on when you want to spend time with your family. It’s perfectly normal to turn off your computer at 4pm and pick up the children from daycare, spend the afternoon with them and eat dinner together.” Life in the workplace is marked by listening to all employees and informality and ambience matters in the workplace. Meetings include the Swedish tradition of “fika”; the sharing of coffee and pastries as friends.[2] Linked to this is the Scandinavian “Hygge (pronounced hooga) lifestyle. Hygge, is translated as “a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality”.[3] Home life is enjoyed, dressed down in comfortable clothes, enjoying conversation and warmth together and eating comfort food. Perhaps we have much to learn from these countries! Happiness in Scandinavia is likely to be defined by a sense of simple contentment.

So, let’s celebrate this World Happiness Day – reflecting on our lifestyles, being grateful for and sharing our blessings with others. Let’s reach out to someone on this day to bring happiness to their life.

-Sister Mary Rowell, CSJ

[1] World Happiness Report, 2022 see: worldhappinessreport/ed/2022

[2] See:www.businessinsider.com/world-happiness-report-nordic-countries-why-work-culture-lifestyle;better-2022-4

[3] Merriam Webster Dictionary

Give Us Eyes to See You Clearly

In this Sunday’s longer version of the reading from John’s gospel, we witness a series of dramatic interchanges. As Jesus walks along, he takes notice of the blind man who will play a central part in the upcoming scenes to follow.

Jesus ’disciples question  who bore the responsibility for the man’s blindness. There soon becomes a juxtaposition between two differing realities, one of physical blindness and the other of inner blindness. As Jesus refutes the disciples’ assertions, he underscores their blindness, their inability to see and understand God’s ways. Ways not of retribution but ways of divine revelation.

In contrast to other reported miracles, it is Jesus, the healer who is the initiator rather than the one seeking to be cured. The focus is on the blind man, yet he remains nameless. I find myself wondering, was the omission of his name unintentional or by purposeful design?  Was the gospel writer, John, extending an opportunity to become more than merely a spectator?

If we stepped into the developing scene as the one born blind, what might we experience?

How might we hear the disciples question Jesus about our blindness? What might we make of Jesus’ self-identification, “I am the light of the world” as one unable to see light?

How might we sense Jesus’ presence as he reaches down and places the moist mud on our eyes?

What might be our experience of being able to see?

How might we feel ourselves reacting to our neighbours and the Pharisees numerous questions? Would we struggle amid our own wonderment to tell others all that had happened?

On this “Rejoice” Sunday of Lent, may the God of Goodness give us eyes to see what good we have not yet noticed in ourselves and others.

-Sr. Nancy Wales, CSJ

Image: Unsplash/Guillermo