By: Rev. Dr. Arthur K. Phiri
ECOLOGY:
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cology aims at the preservation of the wondrous creation of God from destruction, with intent to enable human beings receive the diversity of creation as a gift from God meant for the support of the entire human family. The concern for the preservation of the environment has been a global one in order to make the earth a better place for human beings to live in. This concern has been expressed on different levels of the existence of human communities to an extent that it has become the concern of the entire human family. The human family has realized that its survival primarily depends on the fertility of the environment. This has resulted into the need to preserve the same environment through ecology.
Only a human being can be cited for the unchecked exploitation of nature for various uses, thereby upsetting the natural flow of things as was divinely determined by the Creator. In this way, humanity has disfigured the order and structure of the earth as the place of stay, a home for God’s human family.
Although, in the past decade, serious efforts have been made to redress the causes of environmental destruction, a more acute problem that endangers the life of human beings has arisen: human beings themselves. Of late, human beings themselves have become a threat to human life by destabilizing the family, the very environment that transmits, nurtures and protects human life. It is for this reason that the family has been referred to as “…the sanctuary of life…”[1] Nowadays, selected circumstances that can be singled out as threats to human life include the “...distortion of the very notion of marriage and family, devaluation of maternity and trivialization of abortion, easy divorce and the relativism of a “new ethics”…”[2] Added to the “…irrational destruction of the natural environment…”[3], these circumstances make the earth repulsive to supporting human life and thereby greatly reduce its fertility. On this scenario therefore, the words of Pope Benedict in Africae Munus come right at an appropriate time, “…the family needs to be protected and defended.”[4]
HUMAN ECOLOGY:
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eveloping from the understanding of environment ecology, human ecology would be understood as the prevention of man’s auto-destruction. Whereas environmental ecology has been identified as a pressing need to prevent the destruction of natural environment, very little concern has been expressed in putting in place what John Paul II called the, “…moral conditions for an authentic human ecology”[5] While it is true that the human family has truly arisen to safeguard natural environment, it is equally true that humanity itself has become a growing hazard to itself through the means that cannot be attributed to environment destruction. Due to the lack of the moral conditions for the preservation of every human life, man has developed a culture of self-destruction by losing grip on the correct methods of complete stewardship of human life. A total preservation of the natural environment therefore, includes the adoption of deliberate moral conditions that do not risk human life at whatever level of its existence between the womb and the tomb.
Human ecology calls for an adopted approach to life, a way, and a particular pattern of handling human and environmental life, promoting and protecting it in every particular human being and his or her environment. This approach, way or pattern of life-style calls for an observance of the rules in the language of life so that the true dignity, the true texture of human life is communicated and comprehended. Human ecology then, calls for those moral conditions we can describe with the borrowed phrase: Grammar of Life[6]referring to the respect of the rules that govern the handling of human life. The correct grammar[7] of human life then, has to be observed in an individual’s approach to the environment, to other human beings, to sexuality, to love, to marriage and to family. These make a solid and concrete foundation of human ecology and give direction to the objectives of the Africa Family Life Federation.
AFRICA FAMILY LIFE FEDERATION AND HUMAN ECOLOGY:
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frica Family Life Federation aims at the correct usage of the grammar in the language of human life. The Federation was born from the concern of understanding the moral conditions that safeguard human life and of concretely living them in the context of marriage and family life. It is for this reason that the Federation has taken as key the Church’s teaching on God’s plan and meaning of humanity, sexuality, love, marriage and family. This becomes a way to true human ecology. With the above described background, the Federation strives for the following:
Ø To understand that the diversity reflected in man and woman reflects God Himself.
Ø To live the fullness of humanity in the unity of man and woman.
Ø To promote a family life-style that joins love, unity and life together.
Ø To understand that the family, built on the marriage of man and woman, is God’s plan.
Ø To live family life as the communion of love and life just as the Triune God is.
Ø To understand that family life is the channel through which God sustains the human family.
Ø To acknowledge and appreciate the Christian values enshrined in African families.
The Federation regards with admiration the immeasurable contribution of John Paul II to the Church’s teaching on the meaning of humanity, sexuality, love, marriage and family, especially as outlined in the Theology of Body. In it, the Pope highlights with clarity the dignity of human love and of human life and how, through love and life, families, built on the love of man and woman, share in the Godliness of the Trinity. Family life then, is a living sign of the Trinitarian life, love and communion. In this way, marriage and family life can simply be described as Trinitarian life, as Godly life.
Taking into consideration this Godly aspect of the family life, the Federation has taken as priority the continuous formation of married couples and the youths through such programs as the Faithful House and the Grammar of Life respectively. In this way, the Federation contributes to redressing the growing conception of marriage as a burdensome and a painfully taken option through rediscovery of the happiness with which the Author of family life fashioned man and woman and invited them to the life of love, communion and life.
Let me, however, highlight the fact that the life of love, communion and life, as was divinely designed by God, has met with numerous challenges coming from international communities and state governments.[8] These challenges include the recent call for the woman’s reproductive rights and health, thereby promoting the contraceptive mentality. It cannot go without mentioning that these challenges demean the life of love, communion and life by widening the gap between man and woman in the name of promoting the autonomy of the woman from man. This manner of promoting the woman away from man, her other self, contradicts the will of God that the two should become one flesh, and that they are “...called to exist for one another...”[9] This anthropology disintegrates the very foundation of true human ecology built on the life of love, communion and life.
As a solution, therefore, the AFLF has emerged as an advocate of Natural Family Planning to invite the man and woman to handle well and collectively the special gift of human sexuality through which they come in touch with God’s gift of love, communion and life in a more responsible manner. NFP then would be graded as the beginning of responsible parenthood.
HUMAN ECOLOGY AND POST-MORDERNITY
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he life of love, communion and life is what truly contributes to human ecology and guides the concerns of the Federation. For this reason, the Federation sets a critical eye on the concepts that demean the dignity of human life and threaten the life of love, communion and life between man and woman. One of these concepts is the post-modern culture. As noticed Marguerite Peeters, and as was alluded to by the earlier honorable presenter, the post-modernity’s understanding of the woman has shifted from that of being a, “mother, guardian of life, spouse, heterosexual, educator, heart of the home, helper fit for man, complementary, mediator…”[10], to that of being “…a citizen, autonomous, self-realized, single and sexually “liberated”, controlling her fertility, holder and claimer of rights, activist, agent of social transformation, career-minded, holder of social, economic and political power, producer…”[11].This anthropological concept has played a big role in the deconstruction of the truth about a woman and about the relational nature of man and woman, opposing the Creator’s intention that man and woman should become one flesh, (Cf. Gen 2:24; Eph 5:30-31).
It cannot be denied that the above description of the woman is responsible for the present demonization of the motherhood of the woman and so, of marriage and the parenthood of man and woman within the context of family boundaries. Parenthood has been labelled as an imprisoning institution of the woman that robes her of all the chances of advancing and progressing in life by confining her to the so-referred-to as the dehumanizing challenges of child-bearing. To worsen this situation, many societies have begun to frown at parenthood by killing God, demolishing the father-figure and redefining love, marriage and family to fit particular and personal interests. The traditional concept of the family that reserved a special place for the mother, father and children in so far as they belonged to a single institution has been vandalized. Marriage and family are no longer obvious partners. In situations like this, the African Family Life Federation’s commitment to promoting the life of love, communion and life, within the boundaries of the family, is a glow of hope for the entirety of Africa.
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o conclude, I would like to invite the members of this admirable Federation to heed the timely call of the Holy Father addressed to the Church in Africa: “…the family needs to be protected and defended…”,[12] and indeed, this is why we are here.
JOHN PAUL II INSTITUTE FOR STUDIES ON MARRIAGE AND FAMILY (BENIN)
A PAPER PRESENTATION:
Human Ecology at the Service of Life and Family
(On the Occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Africa Family Life Federation – AFLF)
BY:
REV. FR. ARTHUR K. PHIRI, (STD, MF)
COTONOU-BENIN (25th JANUARY, 2012)