Father Richard Rohr describes how understanding God as Creator impacts how we treat creation:
If Christianity would have paid attention to the teachings and example of Jesus and St. Francis, our planet—“Sister Mother Earth,” as Francis called her—would perhaps be much healthier today. But it took until the 21st century for a pope to write an entire encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our CommonHome, making this quite clear and demanding. Pope Francis writes:
Saint Francis, faithful to Scripture, invites us to see nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness. “Through the greatness and the beauty of creatures one comes to know by analogy their maker” (Wisdom 13:5); indeed, “his eternal power and divinity have been made known through his works since the creation of the world” (Romans 1:20)…. The world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise. [1]
We have not honored God’s Presence in the elemental, physical world. We made God as small as our own constricted hearts. We picked and chose, saying, “Oh, God is really only in my group, in baptized people, in moral people” and so on. Is there that little of an Infinite God to go around? Do we have to be stingy with God? Why pretend only we deserve God, and that God is not for other groups, religions, animals, plants, the elements, Brother Sun, and Sister Moon?
God is saving creation and bringing all creatures back where they began—into union with their Creator. God loves everything that God has made! God proclaimed all created things “good” (see Genesis 1:9–31 and Wisdom 11:24–12:1). But we, with our small minds, can’t deal with that. We have to whittle God and love into small parts that our minds can handle and portion out. Human love is conditional and operates out of a scarcity model. There’s not enough to go around, just like Jesus’ disciple Andrew said about the boy’s five loaves and two small fish (John 6:9). Humans can’t conceptualize or even think infinite or eternal concepts. We cannot imagine Infinite Love, Infinite Goodness, or Infinite Mercy.
We don’t come to the God Mystery through concepts or theories; we come by connecting with what is—with God’s immediate, embodied presence which is all around us. Notice that almost all of Jesus’ common stories and examples are nature based and relationship based—never once theology or academic theory.
We have not recognized the one Body of Christ in creation. Perhaps we just didn’t have the readiness or training. First of all, there is the seeing, and then there is the recognizing; the second stage is called contemplation. We cannot afford to be unaware any longer. We must learn to see, listen, or touch and to recognize how broad and deep the Presence is if we are to truly care for our common home.
Creation’s Harmony
CAC affiliate faculty member Rev. Randy Woodley recounts the biblical story of creation as a model of harmony:
[In] Genesis 1 and 2, God creates everything, and calls it not just good, but “really good” (Hebrew tov ma-ov). Every creature and living system is excellent, in right order, and as it should be: embodying shalom. The Genesis account of creation purposefully shows the Creator taking time to fashion this harmonious cosmos.
God begins work with the celestial water, space, and sky, and then creates the terrestrial waters and the earth, including the plants, trees, and fruits. Next, God watches the seeds from those plants bear in kind. After that the Creator sets the celestial and the terrestrial in rhythm and balance as night and day; as summer, fall, winter, and spring; and as months and years. The waters are then filled with fish and the skies with birds, which all increase. Finally, after bringing animals into being, the Creator speaks human beings, both male and female, into existence.
One gets the sense from this Genesis account that the Creator enjoyed making the world. The work of creation was neither impetuous nor hurried, but deliberate and thoughtful, stretched out over time in order for the Creator to receive maximum pleasure. God’s creation-work is leisurely and sedate, unlike most Western capitalist modes of industrial creation. It is also remarkably diverse, unlike the homogeneity of today’s mass production systems. Each part of creation is differentiated, unique and fruitful, multiplying after its own kind. And yet, each part is incomplete without the whole; everything exists in interdependent relationships. The celestials regulate the balance of the terrestrials. The night compels all creation to rest as it brings refreshing coolness. The day provides new life and opportunities like warmth for plants, animals, and humans. The moon regulates the water. The sun regulates the seasons. The seasons regulate annual activities. Everything is in harmony, in balance with each other and with the Creator. It is a picture of a creation in community, a picture in which the audience is being asked to see both the beauty and symmetry of many parts in relation to the whole. [1]
Randy Woodley and his wife Edith offer a word for this harmony found in creation:
In the Cherokee language, this concept of well-being is often called Eloheh (pronounced ay-luh-HAY). The Cherokee meaning of well-being is deep and resonant, and it is hard to capture in English. Eloheh means “well-being,” yes, but it means so much more. Eloheh—what some traditions call the Harmony Way—describes a state of being when all is as it should be or as it was created to be. Eloheh means that people are at peace, not at war; that the Earth is being cared for and producing in abundance, so no one goes hungry. Eloheh means people are treating each other fairly and that no one is a stranger for very long.
| Quote of the Week:“And so, like a fool, I used to wonder about this. Why wouldn’t God, in his omniscience, have prevented sin when he created us? If he had left sin out of creation, it seemed to me, all would be well. I know I should have abandoned this disturbing line of thought, but I couldn’t seem to help myself. I grieved and lamented this beyond all reason and discretion.But in this showing Jesus gave me all that I needed. ‘Sin is inevitable,’ he said, ‘yet all will be well and all will be well and every kind of thing shall be well.'” – From Chapter 27 of The Showings (or Revelations) of Julian of Norwich Reflection: You may have asked the same question to yourself. Why would God allow sin into this world at all? Why, if God is so good and so powerful, would sin be permitted? Julian asked the same question in her deathbed vision of Jesus. He replied that it was necessary, it was inevitable. Julian, in all of her writings, does something quite remarkable. She finds the ability to be thankful for everything. She is an example of an integrative thinker who seeks to bring all things together and allow them to have their place. She even goes so far at one point to say that we can be thankful for our sins because they show us where we are still childish! As if to say that sin is a matter of childishness and right-living/right-loving is a matter of maturity! Sin is inevitable in a world where not everyone understands what it means to be properly human. Sin, then, becomes our teacher and not simply something to deny, repress, justify or even joke about. Sin can uniquely teach us in ways that humble us if we own up to it. Some lessons may only be able to be learned through mistakes. A number of years ago I was talking with a college student that enjoyed partying, much to their parents’ disapproval. I said, “You may need to walk down that road long enough to be burned by it to decide for yourself that you want to live a holy life because you want to. We will only ever be able to give up a sin if we are willing to learn what it has to teach us.” My comment was absolutely influenced by Julian of Norwich. Sin is inevitable in a world that is still wrestling with its childishness, but do not worry too much, in the end, all things will be well. Prayer Lord, help us to learn from our mistakes quickly. Help us to learn from them rather than dismiss but then repeat them. Grant us the grace and courage to look upon our own sins truthfully and to look upon the sins of those around us mercifully. Enable us to trust in the long arc of cosmic history, and believe with quiet confidence, that yes, all things will be well. Amen. |
| Life Overview: Who Were They: Julian, also known as Juliana Where: Norwich, England When: 1343-1416AD (During the Bubonic Plague) Why She is Important: She is the first published female in the English language, and is known for her incredibly hopeful, intimate and tender theology of God. What Was Their Main Contribution: The Showings (or Revelations) of Divine Love Please feel free to forward this to others. And, if you were forwarded this and would like to sign up…Click Here |
