Happy New Year, Your Holiness

Dear Pope Francis,  

I’m sure your much-anticipated visit to the United States was not timed to coincide with our season of holy days, a time of personal renewal and return to God, all in celebration of the world’s creation.  But we are delighted to share this special season with you, since you are a religious teacher who so deeply appreciates its meaning.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the most urgent task of religion in the 21st century will be that of helping humanity to understand that we must change our attitude toward the natural world of which we are a part.  Unless we come to see ourselves as responsible stewards of this planet and its resources, rather than their consumers, we will simply not survive.  The changes in behavior that will be required of us, both as individuals and societies, are great.  They will not be effective if they are simply imposed upon us from above, either by governmental fiat or international declaration.  They must rather be changes of heart and mind, welling up from below and leading to a different and more modest way of living, a sense that we all share this beloved planet with one another and with all of God’s creatures, and that each must be given its due.  Religion, including the spiritual traditions of all humanity, is the greatest key to that transformation of human hearts and minds.

Your recent encyclical Laudato Si’, “On Care for Our Common Home,” demonstrates your awareness of this and your readiness to turn the vast resources of the Catholic Church toward this purpose.  I greet this document with great and humble gratitude.  Your firm leadership on this issue will make a great difference to our world, hopefully opening the doorway to responsible action by political leaders who will follow your example.  We, the Jewish people, “the fewest among all the nations” (Deut. 7:7), cannot sway so vast a population.  Nor is our voice as united as that of your single church.  Nevertheless, we share with you — and with all others whose faith is rooted in the Abrahamic tradition — a most important resource, one I would like to call to our collective attention, working together to make it useful in the great struggle that stands before us.  I refer to our shared faith in the world’s creation, that which we celebrate in this season.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam all stand on our faith in God as Creator.  The seven-day creation story of Genesis I, culminating in God’s sanctification of the Sabbath, is the tale of origins that helped to create and sustain Western civilization over more than 2500 years.  While most of us no longer relate to that narrative literally, accepting that our world is many billions rather that 5776 years old, it remains a guide to our spiritual sense that the natural world is shaped by a divine hand or infused with divine presence.  The Psalmist taught us all to hear the chorus of praise that emerges from every creature and to view ourselves as part of that great symphony.

The transition from literal faith in the Genesis story to acceptance of the current tale of origins as told by astrophysicists, geologists and evolutionary biologists has been a wrenching one.  Too many of the forces of our religious traditions were devoted to a hapless fight against the emerging scientific consensus.  Instead, they should have been concentrated on preserving what is most important: our ability to view the world with a sense of awe and wonder, an understanding that the miraculous is present within the everyday, that the natural world is the supernatural, if we learn how to truly open our eyes to it.

That is the faith we must work together to preserve, the language we must learn to speak again.  The evolution of species is the greatest sacred drama of all, if we learn how to open our hearts to it.  We must learn how to use our faith in creation not to fight the scientific paradigm, but to infuse it with the sense of the sacred that is our true shared mission.  That will offer us a vision of sufficient depth with which to turn to humanity and cry out: “Help us to preserve God’s world!”

Since we Jews believe in embodying great truth in concrete deeds of religious praxis, I have recently issued a call to faithful Jews around the world to renew our ancient practice of calling out the day of creation, from the Genesis narrative, on each day of the week. This daily practice is there to remind us that we live in a created world, that such resources as air, soil and water are all gifts of God, that forests and grasslands, birds and fishes, are all divine handiwork.  “God saw all that He had made, and behold it was — and still is — very good (Gen. 1:31).”

Welcome, Your Holiness.  We are deeply in debt to your wisdom and leadership on this matter.  Let us set aside theological divides and painful histories to work together on this most vital of all issues.

Rabbi Arthur Green, PhD, is recognized as one of the world’s preeminent authorities on Jewish thought and spirituality. In addition to his Hebrew College Rabbinical School role as Rector, he serves as Irving Brudnick Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Hebrew College and is Professor Emeritus at Brandeis University. Art is also beloved by the many Wexner alumni who have had the privilege of studying with him. Some Wexner alumni are involved in a current initiative to donate his short paperback, Judaism’s 10 Best Ideas: a Brief Guide for Seekers to Hillels across the country — if you are interested in more information, please email artgreen26@gmail.com.