I
As we begin the search for a spiritual path to lead us out of the ecological dilemma, there are two points we need to highlight. These ideas must be at the beginning of our search, in the middle and at the end. It is difficult to overstate their importance.
The first is that we are not alone in the struggle. God is with us no matter how overwhelming the challenge may appear. In fact, our poverty and seeming helplessness are extremely helpful in revealing our dependence on God.
Therefore, we need to realize that our small personal efforts are important. They benefit society in a way most often hidden from us. Likewise, they lift our self-esteem, encouraging us to stay in the battle.
Secondly, most of us will need to change our understanding about creation. The most common view of creation is that God created the world and it was good and that was it.
I am going to present another way of experiencing creation it this text. In this view, creation is not static but dynamic. Creation is filled with God’s presence. In Laudato Si, (#8 & 9), The Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, speaks eloquently on this dynamic presence of God in creation. He states that violation of the natural environment is a direct affront to God. Stripping of forests and polluting the rivers, lakes and oceans are not neutral acts but direct violations of God’s presence and plan for creation. Bartholomew pleads for responsible participation with nature, not the violent denial of responsibility. This sin against the natural world is a sin against both ourselves and God.
II
Creation as God’s Presence:
A Story of Conversion
All experiences of conversion start out with a prevailing blindness. Then there is a challenge that the individual rejects. This first encounter leads to a series of gradual insights that cut into the deeply impaired vision. This is the beginning of a transformation of consciousness which eventually eradicates the error of our ways. This usually is a process over a long period of time.
In my case, I was totally unaware that I was operating from the static view of creation which denied God’s dynamic presence in union with both humanity and the material world. I was operating with a mentality that centered on the almost exclusive importance of the human venture.
My crisis was the building of the Obama Presidential Library in my neighborhood. Its progress had been delayed by protesters trying to protect the parkland and various environmental issues. I was one hundred percent against this view. I wanted to move ahead as quickly as possible.
In reality, the project’s impact on our local environment had plenty to be concerned about. However, my blindness to creation—recognized as the dynamic presence of God—blocked me from seeing any complexity. This same unbending and self-absorbed mindset has been the story behind the ever-escalating destruction our natural world. I had been a blind, unthinking supporter of the human-created chaos that has caused the doomsday onslaught of our environmental crisis.
This false mentality operates as if everything exists solely for humankind’s benefit. Nothing is more important for “progress” than human desires, ambitions, and plans. This attitude removes God from the center and sets up the aspirations of some men and women as the singular beneficiaries of God’s creation. Sooner than later, this attitude leads us to support a heartless plundering of the divine and gracious gift of creation.
My conversion from the static to the dynamic presence of God in creation began with Laudato Si. This opening freed me to read two truly prophetic authors, Sr. Connie FitzGerald and Wendell Berry. With the initial stages of an open heart, their material was both frightening and exhilarating.
Their message was spectacular in its simplicity. We are one with all of creation and each other in God. All creatures speak eloquently of the divine glory if we bring an open and faithful heart to the encounter.
This initial grasp of unity with nature and one another ushered me into an incredible new horizon. Slowly, I am beginning to see my connection with all of nature, with the beauty of the skies, the wonder of the seasons, the marvel of a tree and the incredible expanse of the animal world. The flowers and the farms, the sunrises and the snowstorms are all present to me in a new way. They are a mirror and an invitation into the presence of God. This is a new world for a diehard White Sox fan.
No longer is creation the ancient act of an awesome but distant God. Now I am beginning to understand and embrace the unity with God in all of his creatures both human and otherwise. Now I see that creation is God’s presence to all creatures. My spiritual growth is just at the beginning. However, it is so much better than my blind ignorance of the devastation of God’s gift of creation.
This is the beginning of a journey. Ezekiel describes it well. “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ez 36:25-26)
This journey to acceptance of the wonder of the unity and dynamism of God’s presence in all persons and all the natural world, offers us passage out of the dilemma of our environmental crisis. We need to start by putting God at the center. For that we need a spirituality.
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