Last week, our Holy Father, Pope Francis, released his encyclical, “Laudato Si,” which is on the care of our common world. Far from just a letter on environmental issues, the pope is addressing a larger issue: the impact that we, as human beings, have on the world. We are each called to be good stewards of the gifts which with the Lord has blessed us.

Among these gifts are the gifts of each other. If we take seriously the call to care for our common world, we need to learn to care for each other. We have to learn to look beyond our own needs and that of our families, and see that we are all interconnected. Everything that we do affects every one else. We are each other’s environment.

Let’s never lose sight of the most basic thing necessary to care for our common world – namely to care for each other, most especially the most helpless and defenseless in society: the unborn, the ill, the elderly, the homeless, the refugee.

Yes, absolutely we need to care for our common home, the Earth, but we can never forget that, when we do so, we do it out of love of God, love of God’s creation, and God’s people. Read the Holy Father’s encyclical; it’s addressed not just to bishops, but to all of us. It is a modern masterpiece.