Sister Doreen’s Reflections
This year the internet comments say that since the very first Earth Day in 1970, millions of people from more than 190 countries worldwide have come together every April 22nd to stand up for the planet and champion a greener, more equitable future for us all.
What would happen if you and I were to see everything around us as holy, sacred, because not only is God the maker of all that is seen and unseen, but the God lives within everything that God has made, and that makes it precious and sacred? What would happen if you and I really opened ourselves more fully to God our Earth-Maker, the source of the world and our wisdom, our lover and carer?
For me care for creation leads me to thinking of God as the Creator, Crafter of all that is and will be. It is God, the one who shapes the smallest particles of the universe and the tallest mountains, the one who shapes each one of us, unique and precious. If you think about it, as we say in the Creed “all that is seen and unseen” … all that is and all that will be – God the one found in the soil of our backyards and the star dust over our heads!
God lives within everything that God has made! When we say grace before eating a meal, we are acknowledging that we are inviting God to join us, when we pass the peace to each other in the Eucharist, we are acknowledging that we see the face of God in each other. There are many ways that we consciously and unconsciously acknowledge God in our midst. On a day like today, Earth Day, it is a good time to think about some of these ways, ways we take so for granted that perhaps we have lost some of the awesomeness of what really is.
In his book “Holy Longing” Ronald Rolheiser wrote: “God takes on flesh so that every home becomes holy, every child becomes the Christ-child, and all food and drink become a sacrament. God’s many faces are now everywhere [living in all that is seen and unseen]. God’s many-faced face has become as accessible, and visible, as the nearest water-tap. That is the why of the Incarnation.” God lives within everything that God has made, and that makes it precious and sacred. This undergirds for me the urgent push for a strong stand for our planet, for a greener and more equitable future for us all.
I often find myself moving into scripture, like Romans 1:20 (the Message Translation) “But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, you can clearly see God’s invisible qualities, eternal power, and divine nature.” It is so true, from awe inspiring landscapes and seascapes to wonderful constellations of stars, to pondering the stunning biodiversity of earth’s plant and animal life, the uniqueness of each human person – it is the created world and all that is in it that reveals God to us. This has been so long before the launch of Earth Day or our modern-day concern, debates, and protests over environmental politics. Perhaps we have lost the wonder of our Earth-Maker God, and we need to return as God’s people once again joining in song s to declare truths like: “The heaves are yours, and the earth is yours; everything in the world is yours – you created it all.” (Psalm 89:11) and “Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice! Let the sea and everything in it shout God’s praise .. Let the trees of the forest rustle with praise before the Lord.” (Psalm 96:11 – 13) And “God holds in hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains .. came let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before God our maker.” (Psalm 95:4,6)
As we sing or recite the psalms each day here at the Convent, I am sure that this rich treasury of hymns can ground us in theses truths that God who made and continues to make the world and everything in it, all of creation. Perhaps it is this that will help us or bring us back to that truth that God is present, change our perspective or recalibrate it, renew our sense of who we are made to be and who we are meant to trust. It may be that this will provide a deeper answer or solution to the dilemma we have in our concern, debates and protests over environmental politics, climate change, food insecurity, wars and unrest, and homelessness. It will sharpen our pain at how we have broken the kinship of creation, the understanding that we are all family. It may lead us back to the understanding that creation is the revelation of God, creation is God’s overflowing love. We are being invited to fan the flames of love, to co-create a new world that is just and sustainable for all, and for future generations to come.
In the book “Care for Creation” written by several authors, they write: “Poverty is an attitude of acknowledging that all is gift, given to us by God bending low in love. Those who are open and empty enough, who are in need to receive and to give forth what they have received, live in humble gratitude to God, and this gratitude is a spirit of conversion.”
Again, what would happen if you and I were to see everything around us as holy, sacred, because not only is God the maker of all this is seen and unseen, but that God lives within everything that God has made, and that makes it precious and sacred? Would this make a difference in our concern and work for the care of creation? It is important, I think, to see every day as earth day, to keep the earth clean and green, to nurture nature. This is an apology that ecology needs from us, and a renewed determination to see all of creation as sacred and holy.
From the Hymn Book “Sing a New Creation” #92 In Sacred Manner May We Walk:
In sacred manner may we walk upon the fair and loving earth, in beauty move, in beauty love
the living round that brought us birth. We stand on holy ground. We stand on holy ground.
In sacred manner may we see the luminous and loving stars, with wonder and with awe behold
their ever new creative powers. The heavens show us God. The heavens show us God.
in sacred manner may we touch the suspirant (breathing) and loving green. Give honour and give gratitude for shade, for bloom, for gift unseen. The trees shall shout for joy. The trees shall shout for joy.
In sacred manner may we hear the pounding waves, the sacring fire, the rushing wind, the singing night,
the forest hymn, the loving choir. The morning stars shall sing. The morning stars shall sing.
In sacred manner may we live among the wise and loving ones, sit humbly, as at sages’ feet,
By four-legged, finned, and feathered ones. The animals will teach. The animals will teach.
In sacred manner may we walk upon the fair and loving earth, in beauty move, in beauty love
the living round that brought us birth. We stand on holy ground. We stand on holy ground.
