God has written a precious book, “whose letters are the multitude of creatures present in the universe”. Pope Francis said this in his encyclical Laudato si, quoting words from his predecessor St. John Paul II. St. Augustine already use the same image: “the beauty of creation is an enormous book. God did not make them from letters of ink, but placed before his eyes all the created things”. And he reproached his adversary Fausto: “You could have focused your gaze in the whole creation, as one who read a great book on the nature of things”.
The second encyclical of Francis, first as his entirely own, does not cite Augustine for nothing. And with full fairness, gives an exceptional place to St. Francis of Assisi. It would appear that, at this point, both are the exact opposites. However, the humaneness Augustine of Hippo has (354-430) and in Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) two key exponents of Theological ecology or Ecological theology”. This is how he starts his work “St. Augustine and the open book of creation” Carlos Cardona, Augustinian recollect.
This Colombian author does not consider himself a specialist in St. Augustine. He is simply a reader who enjoys discovering in St. Augustine in touch with nature, how he observes and shows it to others in his homilies and writings. And in the pages of the book that we cited swarm all types of animals: from flying to crawling, from moth to nightingale, from elephant to lion, and the sheaf, and toadstone.. a very varied fauna that clearly shows the extraordinary capability of observation that the saint had.
The Augustine that Cardona presents takes time to stop in observing a hen with its chicks, a calf and a sucking lamb, ants and bees working hard in summer in order not to get hungry in winter time. The holy doctors amuses himself watching farmers graft fruit trees or fertilizing the field with manure. The bishop with so much tasks to do finds time to contemplate how birds build their nest, how they incubate and feed its chicks and how these, later on, grow feathers and learn and practice how to fly.
The sermons and catechism of St. Augustine are “invaded” by the Creation. Everything serves him to teach, to make clear and accurate analogies, to present the most difficult dogmatic truths with analogies taken from creation and real life. All these Cardona proves and illustrates with more than 200 selected passages specially in the augustinian teaching. And he simply admits: Not everything that St. Augustine says about the creation is found in this work; there is still so much to extract from all his writings. Man, for instance, is just a sketch. The subject remains open”.
Good opportunity is presented to us now, having seen the encyclical of Francis been received with wide acceptance. The words of the Saint of Hippo will come to us in a very delightful way and his example very inspiring. We cannot stop continue following, as Augustine did, the example of Christ Himself: “As he made his way throughout the land- as we read in Laudato si– he often stopped to contemplate the beauty sown by his Father, and invited his disciples to perceive a divine message in things: “Lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already ripe for harvest (Jn 4, 35)”.