大象传媒

Good morning.听 The teaching of Jesus often uses the simple insights of the natural world around us to bring us closer to an appreciation of life itself.听 In his lovely parables of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field which I鈥檝e been exploring this week, he draws attention to the beauty of a flower which is achieved without toil.听 This is in stark contrast to the injustice that sometimes lies behind our human creations. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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I remember holding in my hands a beautiful jewelled bishop's mitre which was decorated with a gem that had been prised from the statue of a Hindu god by a zealous Victorian missionary.听 A thing of beauty was achieved through the subjection of a people and the desecration of their faith.听 We can also think of the true human cost of many of our cheap, fashionable clothes.听

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By contrast, our appreciation of the beauty in the simplicity of a flower is an encounter with beauty without injustice.听 But this appreciation also brings us face to face with our capacity to subject the natural world to our selfish desires.听 When we appreciate the integrity of that flower, we are also confronted by our ability to treat it as an expendable commodity.听 Perhaps St Francis got it right when he insisted that the created thing of beauty we see before us is not, in fact, an object, but a brother or sister in creation.

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God of all creation,

teach us to find beauty without injustice,

to challenge the exploitation of all parts of your creation,

and to see a brother or sister

whenever we come face to face with everything that lives.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.听 Amen.