Graves Mountain is 40 miles north of Augusta, GA – at least, it used to be. It’s mostly gone now: In the 1920s, they started mining it for a mineral called rutile that was used by Tiffany & Co. to polish diamonds. Another mineral called kyanite was discovered, and from 1962 to 1986 the mine produced nearly half the nation’s supply. They closed the mine at that point but left part of one peak and a giant hole filled with mild sulfuric acid. Once one of the highest points in the Central Savannah River Area, Graves Mountain is now a hole in the ground.

In 2015, Pope Francis released a papal encyclical entitled Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home. The title comes from the opening lines of St. Francis of Assisi’s hymn “Canticle of the Creatures,” and means “Praise Be to You." The hymn is a litany celebrating the other creatures God created to give him praise by their very being. To St. Francis, the sun, moon, stars, and all the other creatures are our brothers and sisters, because we all share the same Creator.

The encyclical sits alongside other social encyclicals like Rerum Novarum (Pope Leo XIII), in that it addresses one of the critical issues of our times: What is mankind’s responsibility to the Earth, our home, and to our fellow man?

A Crisis in the Wilderness

Pope Francis points to an unprecedented crisis caused by the fact that man’s capacity to build and to destroy has grown far more quickly than our capacity to use that power wisely. Machines that could devour a mountain were inconceivable 300 years ago but are now commonplace. Nuclear weapons give political leaders the power to eliminate all human life.

In addition to this enormous power, the modern age has developed a “throwaway culture,” which values cheap, disposable goods over more durable but costly alternatives. Anyone who has purchased furniture made of sawdust and stickers knows what I’m talking about. And I’m as guilty as anybody for giving my children single-serve apple sauce packets; they’re just so convenient.

In the United States, we’ve had some success fighting against the most atrocious examples of environmental degradation. But Pope Francis reminds us that the factories and foundries haven’t disappeared; they’ve just moved to the Global South, where poverty and corruption create an environment where companies can do whatever they want. The profit from this destruction flows north to companies and investors who are shielded from the effects of their activities by distance and anonymity.

Back to the Beginning

Man’s original vocation was tending God’s creation. Adam and Eve were created for the Garden, and the Garden was created for them. God gave them authority over the earth, the plants, and the animals. Unfortunately, sin entered that primordial place, and man lost his view of creation as something to be loved and cultivated. Humans started to see nature as something to be exploited and dominated.

J. R. R. Tolkien captures this fall poetically in the world of The Lord of the Rings. As the book opens, he lovingly describes the Shire, where the hobbits live in fruitful, blessed harmony with nature.

Something in the way Tolkien describes this vision of man flourishing in nature calls to the soul. It’s one of the reasons I decided to move my family to the country. The horses in the pasture across the street are a major improvement to the jumbo jets overshadowing my first post-college residence, under the flight path of LAX.

In contrast to the quiet glory of the Shire, Tolkien describes the barrenness of Isengard, where the wizard Saruman has leveled the forest to feed the fires of his war machine. The destruction is made more poignant by Saruman’s fall: his decision to throw in his lot with the insidious Sauron and destroy the trees whose shade he’d enjoyed for so many years. Echoes of the Industrial Revolution and skies blackened by soot abound.

Building with the Garden in Mind

Laudato Si’ is written to a generation that has forgotten the Garden but desires the Shire. Many people are concerned about the Earth, about how human beings use our environment, and whether or not that use will be good for us and for the planet. Pope Francis speaks directly to these questions when he suggests the need for an “integral ecology.”

Integral ecology is an approach to the environment that puts the dignity of the human person in relationship with God at the center. It harkens back to man’s original call, our primal vocation, to cultivate and care for the Earth. It recognizes that God is the source of all the riches of creation that we enjoy. He has given us the stewardship of these resources to serve us now and for generations to come. God himself will support and inspire our efforts, especially when we are mindful to care for the global poor.

We need a societal change of heart, the exorcism of the love of money, and an outpouring of the love of God and love of neighbor that bears fruit in a wholesome stewardship of our common home. Pope Francis also takes inspiration from nature for a fundamental reform of business that follows the cyclical pattern of nature. In nature, waste products become the fertile ground for new growth. A properly designed industrial system should be able to do the same. Stewardship of creation is an opportunity to exercise our ingenuity and industry for the common good.

Laudato Si’ invites us into an evangelical moment, where we can speak to people in the climate movement and say, “Yes, there’s a place for what you believe in the Church. Care for our world, conservation, and environmental stewardship are crucial ways we express our love of God and love of neighbor.” The Gospel doesn’t shut down talk of environmental conservation; it broadens its horizon to include eternal and societal dimensions.

Regrowth Takes Time

The mine at Graves Mountain has been capped and sealed, so the water is no longer poisonous. But remediation of past mistakes is too small a vision.

The problems addressed in Laudato Si’ did not arise overnight. It will take generations for solutions to take root and bear fruit. But Pope Francis has given us the seed of a vision that addresses the core problem and its solution: “For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom 8:19-21).

The children of God. That’s us, the baptized. Yes, we await the eschatological fulfillment of Christ’s return in glory, but the Kingdom of God is also within us today.

Near Krakow, Poland, the Wieliczka Salt Mine hides a treasure. In operation for nearly 800 years, it is one of the oldest continuously operated mines in the world. Over the centuries, the miners carved a cathedral in the salt. They transformed their place of industry beneath the earth into a house of worship that would delight Tolkien’s dwarves.

St. Francis recognized that all creation worships God with its entire being. It awaits the day when all people realize this and willingly join the chorus:

“Praise be to You, my Lord, with all Your creatures.”