All religions recognize the hand of God in creation and the order in creation. God as creator is the basic belief of all religions. Most religions believe that humans share life with God but teach that human beings are lower than God in wisdom and that our intelligence is much more limited in comparison with God. Judeo-Christian doctrines teach that God has appointed human beings to be co-creators with God, making us stewards of God’s creation.
Human beings are superior creations of God and they are to be caretakers of God’s creation with the responsibility to care for it. Irenaeus, an early theologian of the Church would rightly say, “Glory of God is human beings fully alive.” This means that human beings should become utmost fruitful and employ all human potentiality to make the world a better place. It is the wisdom of the heart that makes humans understand their abilities and inabilities, potentialities and limitedness.
This wisdom of the heart points out that human beings should refrain from acts that degrade nature and the world around them. Uncontrolled manipulation and exploitation of creation to satisfy one’s greed and self-indulgence will only lead to self- destruction and endanger creation. Yet people continue to use and misuse the resources of nature to a breaking point. We, human beings have consumed and are consuming the resources of the world recklessly and thoughtlessly. Perhaps this is the death of the wisdom of the heart.
Though people have largely understood the enormous damage we have caused to the environment, we have not taken sufficient steps to control our appetite for material consumption. Often, human greed and pleasure-seeking hedonism rule the human heart and mind. We consider ourselves as very intelligent but becoming weaker in the wisdom of the heart. Almost daily, humans are advancing in science and technology.
There is no limit to human imagination and creative power. In the process of innovation and entrepreneurship of material wealth, human beings often
By Fr. Lazar Arasu SDB
