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Good morning.

Amidst the challenges confronting us, one recent news story caught my attention, and it may be the most sombre of all. Scientific research reveals that insect populations are declining at an alarming rate because of factors such as the use of pesticides, light pollution, and the destruction of natural habitats.

Insects are the most diverse and abundant of creatures. They play a crucial role in sustaining an environment fit for human habitation, pollinating crops and forming a critical part of the food chain. Our species has survived plagues and tyrannies, but we may not survive an environmental catastrophe.

One scientist commenting on the destruction of insects said that we are ‘tearing apart the tapestry of life’. That image suggests that all the threads of life are connected, and when we damage one part everything begins to unravel.

Ancient thinkers sometimes used musical analogies to describe this sense of interconnectedness. Some represented God’s creation as a cosmic symphony, with humans playing a unique role in its orchestration. When we harmonise our desires in order to orientate our lives towards all that is good, we live in tune with creation and with our own deepest nature.

But our desires are vulnerable to distraction, and we can become enslaved by obsessive addictions and cravings. This disrupts the order of creation and the discordant effects of these human compulsions resonate throughout nature.

Today, we have turned that vice into a virtue. The concept of economic growth fuelled by consumer demand feeds our proclivity towards insatiable consumption with all the environmental damage that it inflicts. Could this loss of our most fundamental relationship with nature be at the root of the other crises facing us?

To transform these destructive forces into more sustainable ways of living, we need to rediscover what poet Gerard Manley Hopkins called ‘the dearest freshness deep down things’. This means learning to be at rest in order to discern the inner rhythms and harmonies of life. Amidst all the anguish and chaos of these times, many of us have been forced to slow down.

For Christians like myself, church attendance has been replaced by solitary walks in nature. The awareness of how dependent we are on insects gives me a new sense of wonder as I observe the bees and butterflies and bugs that I might once have ignored. They are an essential part of the great symphony of life.

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