Pedro Walpole*

For a culture of listening, to thrive is not limited to one's state of life, but needs a community. In a community, all must practice listening to the voice of the Divine, whether seven or 70 years of age.We are called to be saints, not idealists or perfectionists, but people who stumble and continue seeking to hear God in the world we live in.

Nobody could have imagined these things happening 30 years ago, that the youth of this village would have anything to contribute to society. Today, they engage and contribute to the richness and brightness of a much-troubled world.

For the last month before coming here, I walked with my friend in the uplands of China through marginal villages in languages I do not know and listened to people in leprosy villages. They did not ask for themselves; their message was clear, let our children live free of this identity and social stigma of coming from such a village and let them live no longer herded but free on the land.

Technically I suppose I am a hydro-geomorphologist. Simply, I look at how water comes together over the land. If I am not with the community in Bukidnon, I spend much of my time looking at landslide and disaster sites in the Philippines and I have covered most of the disaster areas in the last 20 years.

Simply said, these disasters involve people living in the wrong places and that we do not yet comprehend the strength of the environment when we try to manipulate it for short-sighted gain. We should and could avoid many of these disasters..

Australia likewise will come to understand that sadly many of the disaster floods and fires reflect the lack of locally integrated management and knowledge of land and life.

Scientifically, we always confirm the event afterwards and that it is understandable, there is no new scientific phenomenon. The only thing new is our greater awareness, and hopefully, greater preparedness.

The broader global disaster we face is that it will take three worlds to sustain this one world at the rates of consumption we have presently. God's word that we share on Sunday is not the basis to debate these issues but to have the humility to recognize much is going wrong and that we have to listen more keenly with the heart. Reconciliation with the land, sea, and all life is deeply needed.

We have done our best as we know in farming, forestry and fishing, but collectively we now know we have done much damage, not individually, for we had the best intent. Now collectively we must listen, listen to God's Creation, the land and water and all life, as communities with great differences and who must go deeper in sharing together respect for Creation.

What is going wrong we cannot simply fix. We are handing over to the growing generations for whom we don't have the answers and to whom we must listen, for they need most of all hope and courage.

How are we to share with them the spirit of listening and of hearing others and of supporting them in making the decisions for our mistakes?

The youth of today face immense problems: in the family, community, institutions, and society and, even here in Whakatane, for the ecology of the land and sea. There are problems of food and the wrong food, of drugs and distractions, of what are real opportunities and who are real friends. They face many problems but they do not have to carry or be compromised by our biases and suffering. They will hear the Spirit and find the hope to move forward beyond the limitations and mistakes of older generations if they are listened to with encouragement.

For the last week I have been listening to a global meeting on sharing and transforming power. This conference contributes significantly to global sensitivities to life and culture; culture being the wisdom of how we live out that commitment to all life and source of life.

For many, the spiritual was tangible. We shared in the culture and the landscape of many countries and of Whakatane in particular. We heard the youth of the iwi here, Ngati Awa and other tribes, and their search for where to go. In their concerns of culture, environment, governance and economy, the youth need to hear from us both compassion and mission. Compassion and mission are best shared by listening to the youth and by believing that they can do what we have often failed to do.

I am impressed by the wisdom the youth seek and the vision they share. The youth want to be asked their experience and their feelings. The youth don't need to be told everything and how to do everything; they need to strengthen their own sensitivity of conscience and discernment of action. Our generation gives them many environmental and social problems, biases and mismanagement that threaten their future. We also have to listen and know their growing wisdom and responsibility.

If we listen, we too can share in the hope, the courage and blessing for the future and experience the Spirit growing.

*From a homily shared last 16 January 2011 in Whakatane, New Zealand