Canon Sheehan acknowledges the role of traditional religious instruction in the discussion of ethical issues. However, he contends that discussion should involve “more than just giving young people the ten commandments.” “There is also the question of ethical sources and where we go to find them. Some are religious sources but there are others such as sociological, which can give an awareness of how society is structured, a vital part of the information of ethics. It’s exciting to engage in dialogue with the world.”

Canon Sheehan is a member of the Genomics, Society and Human Health Committee at The University of Western Australia. As a former broadcaster with Radio National he has many contacts in the literary, philosophical and political world who he is able to bring to the Centre. Each term he writes a Newsletter picking up on current ethical issues.

Matthew 6: 25-34 

A Prayer by Michael Leunig

Dear God,
We celebrate spring's returning and the rejuvenation of the natural world. Let us be moved by this vast and gentle insistence that goodness shall return, that warmth and life will succeed, and help us to understand our place within this miracle. Let us see that as a bird builds its nest, bravely, with bits and pieces, so we must build human faith. It is our simple duty; it is the highest art; it is our natural and vital role within the miracle of spring: the creation of faith.
AMEN

The religious impulse is ancient. Atheism on the other hand is a comparatively modern option which, according to some observers, arose out of a disconnectedness to nature. It became strong a couple of hundred years ago when  there prevailed in some parts of the world a point of view that placed total faith in the purely rational. Interestingly, part of the newly discovered religious sensibility in our own time is an awe that arises out of closeness to the natural world. The so called post-modern mood now radically questions the purely rational whether it be economic rationalism or other forms. The ecological movement around the world is very much grounded in spirituality and is not self-conscious about acknowledging the sacred. Even David Suzuki who seemed to quite keen on his own agnosticism wrote a book called The Sacred Balance. It is a plea for us to allow nature some room to be itself. The spirituality that is at the centre of  environmentalism is linked with the desire to relate to nature in a healing way. It is also about the appreciation of natural beauty and an honouring of the rhythms and patterns of the earth and the sky.

The earth, sky, oceans and rivers all have something to say to the soul and are highly evocative religious symbols. This befriending of nature is something to consider at all times and certainly  in the season into which we are moving; the season of Spring. It is a time when the earth speaks to us in a hopeful way, helping us to recall the reality of rebirth; reminding us that flowers are born again; that birds and creatures are caught up in that rejuvenation mentioned in Michael Leunig’s prayer we heard earlier on. Exposure to the media can create enormous anxiety and can make us focus on death and the fragility of existence; the vulnerability of life itself. So is important to recognise signs of hope. A return to the lessons of nature is vital for our mental, spiritual and physical health. The wildflowers tell us that seemingly barren, very unpromising landscape can yield a restoring beauty. Like all beauty, it is passing. But for the moment we can bathe in it and know that it is part of existence on this earth. What might it be saying, this speaking land?

The message of spring it that just as the earth is born again, so too we may be changed. That is at the heart of all religious faith; a trust in a process that is leading us to new life. Our own efforts to find God and to achieve peace are important. But, central to the message of Christ is that God finds us and that we need to be open, welcoming and accepting of this. We need to nurture the garden that is our own soul. But, in the end, it is waiting on God, just as the patient earth waits for Spring and so naturally allows Spring to take its course, it is this waiting and this receptivity that is crucial. The need for quietness and reflection is obvious in this process. And so too is the need for trust which is another word for faith itself. That, it seems to me is what this little Gospel episode we’ve heard this morning seems to be about.