Province of Mary, Mother of the Americas

Perhaps we have all had the opportunity to meet or hear about environmental radicals – people who have definite ideas about how we should be treating the earth. Such people may remove themselves from lucrative jobs and successful social positions and take up residence in some uninhabited wooded or mountainous area. Some establish or join communes built around a respect for the land.

 

Whatever we may recall about such stories, there always seems to be a religious aspect to the espousing of such a lifestyle. Yet, as long as we name such people fanatics, they are easily dismissed. Perhaps we have asked the same questions they did, and have suspected that the way we treat our earth has something to do with our religious beliefs. Chances are, we are right.

 

We can say unreservedly that this is so, once we understand that our faith response is not a sometime thing.

It embraces every aspect of our lives, the way we come to view reality, our method for making decisions, our relationships, everything that is seen as being touched by God.

 

We are not simply interested in the religious significance of the world about us, however. We are in relation to the earth, and so we undertake this questioning with its call to reconciliation. What does it mean to be reconciled to the land? How does it come about?

 

Let us first establish the importance of this inquiry, then explore the treatment of this theme in the Scriptures and conclude with possible implications and responses for us Christians today.

 

A Matter of Importance

 

First of all, there may be a large number of people who are not convinced that the land has any claim on our

attention – that it is simply there to provide us with food and raw materials. As long as it does this, then there is no problem. And, indeed, we seem to have been able to do well in this area, drawing more and more from the land, providing more and more manufactured goods, more and more food. 

 

Besides, so many of us are so removed from the land – we do not grow our own produce, raise livestock, or depend on the immediate experience of hunting, fishing or trapping for our livelihood, as our forebears did. These two facts – adequate return from the land and physical distance from the working of the land – can be a mighty obstacle to overcome in our approach to the earth.

 

Nothing less than conversion is called for – that is the first step in being reconciled. Why should we change our attitude toward the land? What must we do differently? There are two major factors to be considered in this regard:

 

1) The Threat in Our Treatment of the Land

 

This first observation may be viewed as a selfish one. The fact is that if we continue to live the lifestyle we are

accustomed to, we will soon find ourselves unable to do so. Only in recent times have we come to realize that our natural resources are limited, so we may not have assimilated all the implications yet. The fact that we have cut down our consumption of heating fuel shows we have the willingness and ability to change our lifestyle, when it benefits us to do so.

 

Meanwhile, we have to face the evidence that shows we are on a suicide path with the way we treat our

environment. Item after item in recent news articles can be called to witness:

 

a) Our newest great calamity is industrial, chemical and nuclear waste disposal. Story after story documents the

increased hazards to persons living over or near old dumpsites. For the most part, such disasters come about

through lack of foreknowledge; but there have also been reported instances of malice, attempts at making “the fast buck.” Names like Love Canal and Times Beach have come to stand for the fear that unsuspecting communities can be victimized by the way others have treated the environment.

 

b) Acid rain plagues a large part of Eastern and Central United States and Canada. While the battle rages over who is responsible, and to what degree, we lose more and more of our fresh pond life.

 

c) Sinkholes have become a common occurrence in certain southern regions, either because of various mining

practices, or because of the draining of underground water supplies. Meanwhile, according to the Information Please Almanac another dust bowl is due in the Midwest if present plowing and planting practices are continued.

 

d) More and more of our soil is being covered over each year in road or building construction. This does not

permit water to seep back into the earth to be purified and to replenish the water supply. Rather, it runs off into sewers or rivers. At the same time, some of these underground sources of water are being consumed at an alarming rate, or have become too polluted to drink. “Water alerts” have become common in many populated areas as an expected annual occurrence.

 

e) Finally, on an international level, scientists tell us that the wholesale destruction of tropical rain forests going on right now will immediately affect the world's oxygen supply. Such examples could be multiplied; but there is another important aspect to be considered.

2) Distribution of Resources

 

While we have spoken earlier of the seeming abundance of the world's resources, it is not everyone who benefits. There is vast inequality in the distribution of the world's goods, so that people in Africa and Southeast Asia can be starving, while those in the United States can scratch their heads and wonder what to do with the vast surpluses of dairy products stored in limestone caves in the Midwest. Not only are industrialized nations consuming the world's resources to population or need, but they leave behind Third World countries that will never recover from the industrial scars and/or slavery that have been imposed upon them.

 

Where does the Christian take a stand on such issues as the poisoning of our resources, the destruction of oue earth, and the disregard for human suffering that is so much a part of it all?

 

Scripture

 

There is no way in this limited space that we could give an exhaustive treatment of the question of the Land in

Scripture. But we can sketch in broad strokes the major concerns.

 

The Old Testament

 

Israel's experience of God is closely tied to the land. The land forms the promise God makes with the patriarchs. Abraham leaves his own home to inherit the land God will provide. It is this same promise that calls the Israelites out of Egypt, to journey to a “land 

flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 33:3). As Israel looked back on her own history, she declared it was the Lord who had delivered into her hands the land which made her a nation.

 

This same reflection on the beginnings of all things affirmed that God had, from the beginning, created the earth and its fruits for the benefit of human beings and placed it under their care. God's love for his people is forever seen in the gift of the land.

 

There is another aspect to this three-way relationship between God, God’s people, and the land. It is seen in the

dependency Israel experienced in this relationship. When Israel found herself without resources in the desert, God still provided sustenance – manna, quail, water from the rock. Although the people were without land, God still gave them of its resources. Israel, who always considered herself dependent upon the bounty of the earth, was to be reminded again and again that her ultimate dependence is upon the mercy of God.

 

Finally, this relationship of Israel and the land is seen to be reflective of that between Israel and God. The prophets bring this out clearly. When Israel is right with God, obeying his commands, caring for the widows, orphans and strangers in her midst, worshiping God alone-then the land is fruitful, the fields and flocks are rich, the vines bent with full, succulent grapes.

 

But when Israel ignores justice, chases after false gods, forgets the commands of her Creator and Redeemer, then the flocks are unproductive, the fields barren, the harvest meager. The land itself rejects the people who reject God. We see this in the Genesis story. When Adam and Eve disobey God's command, the earth itself is hostile toward them.

 

La Salette

 

This same message can be heard in Our Lady's words at La Salette: “Unless my people are converted, the wheat will spoil, the grapes will rot, the nuts will be worm-eaten, there will be great famine in the land… But if they are converted, the stones will be turned into heaps of wheat and the potatoes will be self-sown in the land.”

 

Again, we see the connection between the call to reconciliation and how it is mirrored in the state of the land.

Mary's message at La Salette stands in the tradition of the prophets, calling us away from sin and back to God. Choose life, and abundant life will be given.

New Testament

 

The New Testament picks up the themes of the Old, and presents them in the light of redemption through Jesus. It is not just human beings that have been reclaimed by Jesus' death and resurrection, but all of creation. “Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. God 

made peace through his Son's sacrificial death on the cross and so brought back to himself all things both in earth and in heaven” (Col 1:20). “For creation was condemned to lose its purpose, not of its own will, but because God willed it to be so. Yet there was the hope that creation itself would one day be set free from its slavery to decay and would share the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-21).

 

Again, the issue of our dependency on God is seen in the Sermon on the Mount: Jesus' words about the birds of the air and the flowers of the fields not bothered about toiling and spinning, stand beautifully as the culminating wisdom of the Exodus experience (see Matthew 6:25-34). We find another aspect of this in the parable of the selfish farmer who built bigger barns for his bountiful harvest, only to face imminent death (Luke 12:16-21).

 

Finally, we see a connection between following the commands of God in justice, 

and the final inheritance of the Land in the parable of the Last Judgment. The way we share 

the fruits of the earth plays a part in how we will share the fruits of heaven (Matthew 25:31-46).

 

Christians Today

 

We Christians have been slow to develop a theology of ecology. Too long have we been satisfied that the “subjection” of the earth in Genesis allowed for the raping of the land. In Scripture, this concept of subjection does not refer to an act of violence, but to a relationship of care and concern.

 

As Christians, we cannot be content to be unconcerned with the fate of the land and its resources. Our own fate is caught up with it. We must not forget that the God who redeems us is the same God who created us. Redemption and creation are therefore not two separate and unconnected "acts"; they are two aspects of the love God bears for his people. What, then, can we do? 

 

The first step is to check out our own feelings and attitudes toward the earth and its resources.  • Are we aware that this is an issue of faith?  • Do we see the bounty of the earth as a gift held in trust?  • Do we see ourselves accountable to God for its use – or abuse?  • Do we ever take the time to let the beauty of creation touch our lives in a direct way? It is not  the city's concrete that walls us in; it is the hardness of our own attitudes and habits.    Let us come to see that the assertion that we were brought forth from earth is a matter of joy and kinship, not of dejection and slavery.   Second, how are we treating the earth?  • Do our actions show we believe the earth to be redeemed, and to be under the governance of Jesus Christ as Lord; or do we do violence to the earth, polluting our own corner of the environment, and condoning the same thing on a larger scale?  • Does it sound strange to say, “I love the earth and all of God's creation”? What does such love entail? After all, love is the proper stance to take toward what has been redeemed by Jesus.   Third, do we act as if our salvation depends on using more and more of the world's resources; or, do our actions show our basic trust and dependence on the God who will never abandon us? Does our use of the world's goods reflect our faith in God?   Finally, does our lifestyle mean that others will go without?  • What about our country's lifestyle? We cannot ignore the fact that the Gospel parable of the Last Judgment has to do with the judging of Nations. The Gospel mandate is not simply a personal affair. • Where do we find God naked, homeless, hungry, thirsty in our midst today?

 

The answers we give to such questions will lead us to various courses of action; the changing of our lives, our

lifestyles or attitudes, might find us getting involved in surprising ways. We all have a part to play, for the earth was given to us all as a trust. Only in the sharing of earth's bounty will we come to understand the profundity of that reality now, and be able to pass it on as an inheritance for those still to follow.

 

If we are to be reconciled to the land, we face the questions of conversion. Where is God calling me (us)? How will I (we) respond?

Eucharist

 

There is a place where these questions come alive for us. In celebrating the Eucharist, we are challenged once again to respond to the questions we have been asking here. Not only that, but we are given the answer – God's answer, the answer of the Church.

 

It is in Eucharist that we thank God for the many gifts he has given. It is here we recognize our dependency upon him, and offer gifts of the earth as effective signs of our eternal salvation. Our gathering together and our praying for those throughout the world reminds us of the social dimension of our use of the world's resources. 

 

Finally, we are reminded that all these issues are to be seen in the light of the overwhelming love of Jesus Christ. In his death and resurrection we find the key to the relationship between Creation and Redemption. In his Spirit we come to know ourselves as reconciled to the land.