September 1st has emerged as an important day of Christian celebration of Creation. It goes by various names: Feast of Creation, Creation Day, World Day of Prayer for Creation, and so on. Pope Francis’ Laudato Si and the ever-growing ecological crisis has given greater significance to the feast

of creation.

It is important to note that the feast has much deeper meaning than the Earth Day or Environment Day. Pope Francis, the modern champion of integral ecology has explained the deeper divine significance of the feast. It refers both to God’s mysterious act and the consequent gift of creation.Now the question is what the humanity is doing with this divine gift of creation? The Pope Leo has made a serious observation on the feast of creation.

The Pope rightly observes that the disruption to the harmonious balance of creation is accelerating. ( Pope Leo, Message for the 11th World Day of Prayer for the care of creation 2026). The immediate effect of this disruption is the growing violence and never-ending wars, which claims lives, tears families and forces millions to flee their homes.

St Francis was physically blind when he wrote the beautiful poem on creation, the canticle of creation. However, he was able to see both the beauty of creation and the mystery of God in creation. A wounded humanity is the place where we need to start the work of rebuilding a new creation. A new heaven and earth can be built again if we are willing to “beat swords into ploughshares” (Is. 2.4).

Feast of creation is the proper occasion to build a new perspective on creation. On the one hand we need to regain the ‘mystery or the wonder’ aspect of creation. At the same time, we also have to hold high our responsibility to care for the world. This calls us to start a new Anno Domini, the year of the Lord, in collaboration with the ever-renewing spirit of the Lord who guides us safely even through heavy tempests.