{"id":23125,"date":"2023-11-20T09:21:23","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T14:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23125"},"modified":"2023-11-20T09:28:47","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T14:28:47","slug":"23125","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=23125","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bob Marley &amp; The Wailers - Natural Mystic (Lyric Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Gj9holHsi90?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">God Is Being Itself<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Richard Rohr teaches that all of creation is connected and interdependent, each facet bearing inherent dignity as part of the being of God. Richard explains what we can learn from the medieval idea known as the \u201cgreat chain of being\u201d:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The great chain of being was the <strong>medieval metaphor for ecology before we spoke of ecosystems.<\/strong> While it was structured as a hierarchy, with each link in the chain \u201ccloser\u201d to God, I view it as a philosophical and theological attempt to speak of the interconnectedness of all things on the level of pure \u201cBeing.\u201d Today we might call it \u201cthe circle of life.\u201d If God is Being Itself (<em>Deus est Ens<\/em>), as both St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas taught in the thirteenth century, then the great chain became a way of teaching and preserving the inherent dignity of all things that participate in that Divine Being in various ways. For me, it speaks of the<strong>\u00a0<em>inherent sacrality, interconnectedness, and communality of creation.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>These are the links in the great chain of being:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Link 1:&nbsp; The firmament\/Earth\/minerals within the Earth<br>Link 2:&nbsp; The waters upon the Earth (snow, ice, water, steam, mist)<br>Link 3:&nbsp; The plants, trees, flowers, and foods that grow upon the Earth<br>Link 4:&nbsp; The animals on the Earth, in the skies, and in the seas<br>Link 5:&nbsp; The human species, capable of reflecting on the other links<br>Link 6:&nbsp; The heavenly realm\/Communion of Saints\/angels and spirits<br>Link 7:&nbsp; God\/the Divine Realm\/the Mystery that creates a universe as such, which needs a Center, Source, and Ground for any coherence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such a graphic metaphor <strong>held all things together in an\u00a0<em>enchanted universe.\u00a0<\/em>If we could not see the sacred in nature and creatures, we soon could not see it at all<\/strong>.<em>\u00a0<\/em>[1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the medieval theologians predicted,<strong> once the chain was broken and one link not honored, the whole vision collapsed. Either we acknowledge that God is in all things, or we have lost the basis for seeing God in anything. Once the choice is ours and not God\u2019s, it is merely a world of private preferences and prejudices. The \u201ccosmic egg\u201d is shattered.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bonaventure (c. 1217\u20131274), who is called the second founder of the Franciscan Order, took Francis\u2019 intuitive genius and spelled it out into an entire philosophy. \u201cThe\u00a0<em>magnitude<\/em>\u00a0of things &#8230; clearly manifests the immensity of the power, wisdom and goodness of the triune God, who by his power, presence and essence exists uncircumscribed in all things.\u201d [2] Bonaventure expanded on Alan of Lille\u2019s philosophical idea of God as one \u201cwhose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.\u201d <strong>God is \u201cwithin all things but not enclosed; outside all things, but not excluded; above all things, but not aloof; below all things, but not debased.\u201d [3] Therefore the origin, magnitude, multitude, beauty, fullness, activity, and order of all created things are the very \u201cfootprints\u201d and \u201cfingerprints\u201d (<em>vestigia<\/em>) of God<\/strong>. [4]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Building on a First Love<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Father Richard understands the teachings of Bonaventure as a call to love all creation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>St. Bonaventure taught that<strong>\u00a0<em>to work up to loving God, start by loving the very humblest and simplest things, and then move up from there<\/em>.<\/strong> \u201cLet us place our first step in the ascent at the bottom, presenting to ourselves <strong>the whole material world as a mirror, through which we may pass over to God, who is the Supreme Craftsma<\/strong>n,\u201d he wrote. And further, \u201cThe Creator\u2019s supreme power, wisdom and benevolence shine forth in created things.\u201d [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can apply this spiritual insight quite literally.<strong> Don\u2019t start by trying to love God, or even people; love elements and rocks first, move to trees, then animals, and then humans. Angels will soon seem like a real possibility, and God is then just a short leap away.<\/strong> It works. In fact, it might be the only way to love, because<strong>\u00a0<em>how we do anything is how we do everything.\u00a0<\/em>In the end, either we love everything or there is reason to doubt that we love anything.<\/strong> This one love and one loveliness was described by many medieval theologians as the \u201cgreat chain of being.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Creation\u2014be it planets, plants, or pandas\u2014was not just a warm-up act for the human story or the Bible. The natural world is its own good and sufficient story, if we can only learn to see it with humility and love. That takes contemplative practice, stopping our busy and superficial minds long enough to see the&nbsp;<em>beauty<\/em>, allow the&nbsp;<em>truth<\/em>, and protect the inherent&nbsp;<em>goodness&nbsp;<\/em>of what is\u2014whether it profits or pleases us or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every gift of food and water, every act of simple kindness, every ray of sunshine, every mammal caring for her young, all of it emerged from this original and intrinsically good creation. Humans were meant to know and enjoy this ever-present reality\u2014a reality we too often fail to praise or, maybe worse, ignore and take for granted. As described in Genesis, <strong>the creation unfolds over six days, implying a developmental understanding of growth. Only the seventh day has no motion to it<\/strong>. The divine pattern is set:<strong> Doing must be balanced out by not-doing, in the Jewish tradition called the \u201cSabbath Rest.\u201d\u00a0<em>All contemplation reflects a seventh-day choice and experience, relying on grace instead of effort<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All the other sentient beings also<strong> do their little things, take their places in the cycle of life and death, mirroring the eternal self-emptying and eternal infilling of God, and somehow trusting it all. If we can recognize that we belong to such a rhythm and ecosystem, and intentionally rejoice in it, we can begin to find our place in the universe. <\/strong>We will begin to see, as did the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, that \u201cEarth\u2019s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God.\u201d<em>\u00a0<\/em>[2]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s the poem:  djr <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Earth&#8217;s crammed with heaven,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>And every common bush afire with God,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>But only he who sees takes off his shoes;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image-4-440x500.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23126\" width=\"834\" height=\"948\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image-4-440x500.png 440w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image-4-264x300.png 264w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image-4-768x872.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image-4.png 1050w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 834px) 100vw, 834px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>God Is Being Itself Richard Rohr teaches that all of creation is connected and interdependent, each facet bearing inherent dignity as part of the being of God. Richard explains what we can learn from the medieval idea known as the \u201cgreat chain of being\u201d: The great chain of being was the medieval metaphor for ecology [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23125"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23125"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23129,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23125\/revisions\/23129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}