The Cathedral of Nature: A Mother's Balancing Act

Pope Leo XIV preaching the homily during a Mass for the Care of Creation on the grounds of the Borgo Laudato Si’ ecology center in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 9, 2025. Photo by CNS/Cristian Gennari, pool.

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irst Point: The Cathedral of Nature and the Color Green

Pope Leo, in his homily for the Mass for the Care of Creation last July 9, spoke of the cathedral of nature—the green cathedral. Today, in this Green Mass, even the green stole takes on a festive sense. Green is not only Ordinary Time; it is the color of growth, of life, of hope.

Laudato Si’ calls our world a common home—in Filipino, Katipunang Tahanan. Since we have only one shared home, we are called to care for it, to listen to it, even to ask: “How are you, our common home?”

Let us just be quiet for a while and try to listen to our surroundings. Yesterday, in our Novitiate and Retreat House in Sacred Heart, for our First Friday celebration of the Season of Creation, we went on a nature walk in our own backyard. The Ateneo Wild—Abby, Trinket, and her husband Adrian—opened to us the secret gardens we had never noticed. With binoculars, we identified at least sixteen species of birds in a span of less than 500 meters. At one point someone exclaimed, “Thank you for showing us these treasures.” Indeed, we realized that we were standing inside the cathedral of nature, with the birds singing their sonatas, concertos, and symphonies to us.

Here, surrounded by creation—trees, plants, birds, and the very air we breathe—we celebrate the Eucharist, as if we are already in the heavenly banquet or paradiso (paradeisō | παραδείσῳ, Lk 23:43). Beauty is never just one thing; it is the integration of many. It gathers together what is pleasing to the senses, what uplifts the mind, and what consoles the heart. Pope Francis also said, “Those who contemplate in this way experience wonder not only at what they see, but also because they feel they are an integral part of this beauty; and they also feel called to guard it and to protect it” (Healing the World Series: Pope Francis’s General Audience, September 16, 2020).

If I were to summarize the thrust of Laudato Si’, it would be this: to see the cathedral of nature again as beautiful and good, so that in beholding its harmony, we may be moved to protect it for generations to come.

Second Point: Amazement as the First Step from Fear (Mt 8:23-27)

The amazement we felt yesterday, when we discovered secret gardens and heard the birds’ sonatas, is the kind of amazement Pope Leo described—the first step towards freedom from fear.

Pope Leo emphasized that Jesus himself lived and prayed around the Sea of Galilee. It was there that he called his first disciples, in the ordinary rhythm of their work. His parables show how deeply connected he was to the land, the waters, the seasons, and the creatures. He reiterated how Matthew, in telling the story of the storm, even uses the word seismos (σεισμός)—the same word for earthquake at Jesus’ death and resurrection. Storms and upheavals mirror the chaos of our lives, yet Christ stands firm in the midst of them. In fact, he was asleep on the boat. He was awakened not by the stormy winds but by the interior trembling that was present in the hearts of his disciples.

Pope Francis reminds us: “Many things have to change course, but it is we human beings above all who need to change” (LS 202). He rejects the false idea of dominion as domination. Instead, the Bible invites us to see the earth as gift, its fruits belonging to everyone. He writes: “The natural environment is a collective good, the patrimony of all humanity and the responsibility of everyone.”

We saw this truth in our own Cathedral of Nature in Sacred Heart. There are many Rambutan trees there, and we noticed how the birds return again and again to them. The Philippine Hanging Parrot, the kulasisi, is always the first to crack open the hairy skin with its hooked beak. Once it has opened the fruit, other birds can come and share. This was a precious lesson for our novices: not to harvest all the rambutan for ourselves, but to remember that these fruits belong not only to humans but also to our fellow creatures. Creation is truly a shared altar within the Cathedral of Nature where everyone is included to have a share of their spiritual food and drink.

Third Point: A Mother’s Balancing Act

Pope Francis rejects the “dominion” theory that gives man total domination over creation. This brings us to my third and last point about relationships. The principle behind all of creation is relationship—our bond with God, with our neighbor, and with creation. When any of these relationships is broken, everything begins to collapse. To live rightly is to keep these three connections alive and in balance.

For years I have made yogurt as a quiet hobby. Some people keep an “heirloom mother yogurt” alive for generations. In my case, I would often start over with a new cup from the store. It dawned on me that any yogurt can become a mother—not because of its age or pedigree, but because it gives itself away. Stirred into milk, it disappears, but in that self-sacrifice it transforms the whole, creating life in abundance. That, to me, is the true essence of motherhood. And if God’s very nature is to give himself away, then God must also be a mother. Yesterday we celebrated Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Mother Teresa, before she became a saint, first became a mother—not by status but by giving herself away: feeding the hungry, embracing the abandoned, and disappearing so that Christ’s love could shine through. We know from her letters that she endured decades of spiritual darkness, a painful emptiness where she felt she could not hear God. And yet she did not allow that hidden suffering to stop her from embracing the poorest of the poor. Pope St John Paul II once asked: "Where did Mother Teresa find the strength to persevere?" He answered: "in prayer, in silent contemplation of Jesus’ Sacred Heart." Did you know that even God needed a mother? When he hung on the cross, he brought his mother close to him, because it is a role only mothers could fulfill.

To all of us gathered here: prepare to be used as a mother yogurt, a catalyst that vanishes into the milk. Your own sense of emptiness can become a hidden sacrifice through which God will nourish hundreds and thousands in our respective communities. Amen. Fr JM Manzano SJ

This homily was delivered on Saturday, September 6, 2025, at the closing Mass of the Laudato Si Festival, held at the Loyola House of Studies Oratory.

The Festival was the culminating celebration of the Laudato Si Summit (September 4–5 at the Ateneo de Manila University, Leong Hall Auditorium), which gathered over 200 participants from all over the Philippines to mark the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si’ and the opening of this year’s Season of Creation. The Summit and Festival together highlighted Pope Francis’ urgent call to care for our common home, with the closing Mass serving as both thanksgiving and commissioning for all participants to carry forward the spirit of integral ecology into their communities.