* Table of Contents
    * Introduction
    * January
    * February
    * March
    * April
    * May
    * June
    * July
    * August
    * September
    * October
    * November
    * December
    * Appendix

ECO-SPIRITUALITY IN APRIL

April is a month of contrasts, even greater ones than March.
The stark promise of March, with its first sprouting of new life in
flowers and grass, is followed by April's dramatic transformation
of the woodlands from near nakedness, except for redbud and
serviceberry, to nearly full greenery by the first of May. April
witnesses a dramatic metamorphosis from the cocoon of winter to the
butterflies of springtime. It is truly a pivotal month in our part
of the Northern Temperate Zone -- when winter lingers with its late
frosts and spring suddenly bursts forth on its own. Nature's
decomposition of last year's leaves mingles with the floral scents
of April's first flowers. Our spiritual outlook is colored by the
changing of the springtime landscape. Winter's pain breathes its
last and death gives way to new life. We wonder how the damaged
Earth can be healed and restored and yet we expect it to spring
back to life.

The moveable dates of Easter from year to year make it occur
in late March about one quarter of the time; the clarity of April
differences is somewhat muted in years when Easter comes in March.
Recent popes have sought global Christian consensus to change
Easter to a fixed date in mid-April. There has been a long and
painful church history in determining an Easter date (first Sunday
after the first full moon of the Vernal or spring Equinox).
Certainly it is difficult to make such changes in traditions that
go back to Old Testament lunar reckoning for Passover (the
precursor of Easter). In our northern temperate mentality, Easter
occurs in springtime, and this date enters our eco-spirituality
making us Easter--springtime --people. Christ's passion, death,
and resurrection are commemorated from Holy Thursday, through Good
Friday and Holy Saturday, and then to Easter Sunday.

In January, we reflect on God's creation and our entry into
the fullness of the creative mystery; in February, we look into
the damage done to that creation through human greed and ignorance;
in March, we discover a perfect ecological model in Jesus whose
public ministry as healer, teacher, and activist is a template for
our own activities; now, in April, we investigate more deeply the
radical compassion to which we are called and focus upon Jesus'
suffering and death -- the first portion of the paschal mysteries.
In May, during the heart of the Easter season, we will treat the
resurrection event noting that our own suffering and death in
Christ give way to new life. Hope colors the passing of the old
order; it stands in stark contrast to the non-believers' view of
the meaninglessness of mortal life; they suffer through expecting
oblivion; we move to new life though real suffering but to an
eternal destiny; they see decomposition as a finality; we believe
firmly in a metamorphosis.

Our sensitivity to time and place is most pronounced during
this April transformation. The "Prayer of the Church" deepens our
relationship with our wounded Mother Earth herself by our dying to
self and extending compassion to all the suffering on this planet.

    A. EXPERIENCES: EARTH IS TRANSFORMED

Change comes at a price. Maybe it need not be but that is
life. Our redemption is paid for at a great price -- the blood of
Christ, and that is the reflection of God's love for us. We are
the receivers of this act of love, which we do not deserve. Earth
herself alerts us to heralded changes, a foreshadowing of the
redemptive mystery that we are to celebrate again. All our senses
alert us to what is coming, and we realize once again we are more
than eager immature observers; we are gradually drawn into the
mystery as we grow and mature in age and wisdom.

       1. The Sight of Fear Turning to Joy

        O soil, do not be afraid;
        be glad, rejoice,
        for Yahweh has done great things.
        Beasts of the field, do not be afraid;
        the pastures on the heath are green again,
        the trees bear fruit,
        vine and fig tree yield abundantly.
        (Joel 2:21-22)

Animals can sometimes express fear. The neighbor's cat
crouches in silence for fear that I may do it harm. The possum and
pole cat attempt to cross the busy roads and so many do not make
it. No wonder they are afraid when seeing the approaching traffic.
It is the main killer of these small varmints, and yet we never
consider such matters when we speed past. Animals can fear what
lies ahead, and yet in their own way they must take immense
satisfaction when they cross the busy highway and are still alive.
What joy in the momentary freedom from immediate danger!

Each spring brings a promise of fruitfulness and new life.
We are future-directed and thus we expect the plants and animals
all about to thrive and be fruitful. Farmers put great hopes in
the harvests they await from crops now being planted. In an
analogous manner, the same goes for those who study, who work in
service industries, who seek employment, and who simply live out
the remainder of their days. Too often, we have streaks of fear
and doubt of what may come in the future. We fail to see that
God's presence includes an ongoing promise, and that this applies
not just to me, my family, my neighbors, but to all of creation.
The sight of returning spring is the dawn of God's eternal promise
of being with us always. And lives now immersed in turmoil will
see better days ahead.

          2. The Sounds of April Showers

        Sing to Yahweh in gratitude
        play the lyre for our God:
        who covers the heavens with clouds
        to provide the earth with rain,
        to produce fresh grass on the hillsides
        and the plants that are needed by us.
        (Psalm 147:7-8)

Some sounds, such as that of spring showers on an overhead
galvanized roof, are music to the ears . The rain says "stay put"
while the distant rooster says "arise, there is spring work to be
done." While working in Washington in the 1970s, I designed my
jogging route to move about the national memorials and Tidal Basin
of the Capital. On a warm spring afternoon, with the first shower
in weeks dampening my path, I passed that white marble Lincoln
Memorial and could hear it sizzle. Yes, the acid rain in the stale
polluted air was dissolving the calcium carbonate in the blocks a
hundred or so feet away; and pollution's dirge could be plainly
heard, the foreboding sound of the death of our memorials to the
immortals. The sound brought back memories of a few years before
when I accompanied a fellow Jesuit classicist, Ed Miller, as he was
allowed to research the Roman Colosseum, and I tilted a rather
smooth building stone strewn on the ground; the underneath side was
finely chiseled as though the ancient carver had just worked
yesterday; the side facing the acid rain was as though melted.
Earth healers, arise! Even the stones cry out in pain.

Thank God for the showers of April that bring the flowers of
May. The sounds of rain are generally invigorating. But do we
thank God also that we hear the showers of acid rain and their
telltale mischief. Maybe the sound is not as inviting but it tells
us that to be compassionate means we must even suffer with the
stone, crying to heaven to be saved from human misdeeds. The
sentinels of dawn stir us from slumber to arise and save our
wounded planet. But we must not be lulled back to sleep. April
showers can be comforting, but these same rains can bring down
devastation when polluted by the heavy hand of human-caused
pollutants. Winter is past; spring calls forth new energy and new
hopes. Now let's be on with the task ahead; let's protect the very
shower-bearing clouds from acidic air pollutants.

          3. The Mystifying Aromas of Spring

        Awake, north wind,
        Come, wind of the south!
        Breathe over my garden,
        to spread its sweet smell around.
        (The Song of Songs 4:16a)

I like the aromas of every month, but April's are a blend so
hard to describe and yet so vivid to the senses -- floral, animal
manure, composted matter, first pollen-laden air. These trigger a
bittersweet sensation, for the sadness of winter still lingers and
yet the awakening earth is coming to life. It is amazing how the
spring smell brings back to me specific fields and parts of the
farm some sixty to seventy years after they were first perceived.
We are marked by our past and the smells have something to do with
it. They take us back to our beginnings, and these arrive sweet or
sour depending on the earlier circumstances.

Some substances that smell bad in intensity become perfumes
in diluted fashion -- though some people may even find these
obnoxious. It is hard to expect that from a pole cat/skunk, but
the phenomenon applies to many natural scents. Springtime, with
its warming of the soil, triggers the composting of the leaves and
organic matter of the previous year in an accelerated manner -- and
we remark that the aroma is that of spring's "freshness." April's
breezes blow across the freshly turned earth; aromas mix with the
wood smoke smells coming from winter's accumulated brush and drift
wood. Our noses detect spring in this mix of odors, so
unforgettable for the season.

The drying humus has an aroma; so do the rotting leaves from
last fall; so do some of the gases emitted from decomposition. Add
to this the spring vegetation of miner's lettuce and hairy vetch
along with daffodils and violets waving in the warm moving air,
each newly flowered plant contributing to the cumulative scent of
spring. Appalachian breezes range from hurricane type gusts on
mountain tops to ever so gentle movements of air in protected coves
and valleys. Here and now comes a sense of foreboding -- the dark
clouds hurrying by on the hilltop of Calvary; and we detect the
dank odor of garbage thrown here to rot. With the thawing comes
the scent of callous human throwaways scattered across our
landscape. In April, litter seems so out of place.

          4. Relishing the Bittersweet Life

        You will eat what your hands have worked for,
        happiness and prosperity will be yours.
        Your wife: a fruitful vine
        on the inner walls of your house.
        Your children: round your table
        like shoots round an olive tree.
        (Psalm 128:2-3)

I await the poke plant's first shoots in April. The poke
plant will someday be tall and red with luscious looking berries,
one of which I swallow frozen every day to deaden arthritic pains.
In April we fix poke "sallat" much like asparagus shoots with its
similar texture though with a slightly bitter taste -- the taste
more resembling the Passover's bitter herbs.

The tastes of April hint at the suffering that precedes the
new life of Resurrection, The tastes of pain are bittersweet but
they are soon to pass. April's tastes bring back youthful memories
of folks who experienced the Civil War (our family neighbor, Joe
Davis, regaled us with tales from that era when he was a boy); in
the 1860s, border state people experienced either utter defeat or
total victory -- of Appomattox Courthouse and Lincoln's death.
Soldiers on both sides of that conflict, who survived winter camp
diseases and bloody campaigns of summer, knew that spring greens
were a nutritious alternative to bland military rations of salt
pork, beans, and poached corn. They remembered that their mothers
gathered greens in spring for family meals; these soldiers would
risk leaving trenches to gather fresh dandelions, lambs quarters
and plantain.

Now, we old folks continue to venture forth from secure places
to risk bending down and gathering spring greens. We straighten up
a moment and remember the past when we accompanied our elders when
gathering greens came far easier. Our minds venture back beyond
the times of neighbors' tales to the passover, the risk of going
from slavery to a Promise Land. Our minds focus for a brief moment
on this season when Jesus endured the bitter agony of his passion
and death. The taste is bittersweet.

          5. Basking in the Spring Sun

        Pride of the heights, shining vault,
        so, in a glorious spectacle, the sky appears.
        The sun, as he emerges, proclaims (radiates heat)
        at his rising,
        'A thing of wonder is the work of the Most High!'
        (Ecclesiasticus 43:1-2)

The last frost and the first sunburn always seemed to almost
overlap. We knew the second only too soon, but the first could
only be known afterwards, because we always thought another day
could be as fine as the most delightful April morns. And there
were unexpected late frosts. As youth we would ask the question,
does the sun gather strength as it arches higher and higher in the
spring sky? Or as we discovered in general science, does Earth
move and tilt in relation to the sun and thus furnish our temperate
zone the warming effects we attribute to the sun's own movements?
We discovered that we say things in traditional common sense ways
even knowing better. April's sun still rises, appears in glory,
and seems to strengthen during the month even when we know better.
And we must avoid the first sunburn.

How we welcome the warming rays of sunlight on the
lengthening spring days. We are like moths drawn to the light.
The sun's rays help activate Vitamin D and energize our sluggish
nature for performing spring work. We realize that the sown seeds
are swelling, sprouting, and starting to grow in the sun's warmth
-- and that they are the source of our food this year. The higher
arch means summer is approaching and winter is behind.

Lengthening days remind us that Christ is the light of the
World, and that we are called to be "light" in three ways: we
serve as beacons and models for others, and with a certain
equanimity we guide them on their journey of faith through
troubling times; we illuminate the spiritual void in people's
lives through a compassionate warmth that allows victims to find
meaning in their own personal mystery of suffering; and we show
that the community of faith is energized in its own "photosynthetic
process" by the suffering and death of Christ. Darkness lingers,
but darkness is being conquered by the strengthening April sun, and
we can be the messengers bearing the warming rays of spring.

    B. REFLECTION: SUFFERING AND DEATH AS REDEMPTIVE

        For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
        he suffered, died, and was buried.
        The Nicene Creed

The commemoration of the suffering, death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ is the heart of our spring liturgical commemoration,
and this is reflected as the fourth article of our Nicene Creed.
While we focus in April on this article referring to Jesus' passion
and death, we await the Easter resurrection. Believers assert that
God's saving plan is accomplished through the death of Jesus;
through faith we examine the circumstances of Jesus' death,
faithfully handed on by the Gospels and illuminated by other
historical sources, the better to understand the meaning of the
"Redemption" (Reference: Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 573).
We leave to readers to plumb the depths of the historical
discussion of the theology of redemption, but hasten to add that by
expanding the field of suffering to include the planet itself, we
grow in our understanding of our place in the total redemption
process.

During this period of April reflection we are moved with
compassion closer to the humble Jesus, the one who sides with the
poor and focuses his ministry on their needs. We move from the
public life of Jesus as healer, teacher, and activist in March to
that of being the suffering servant when the public life comes to
a violent end -- and Jesus stands as a meek lamb being led to the
slaughter. We will look at his suffering in the fullness of our
emerging sense of compassion and find here the mercy and cleansing
power of Christ, the suffering servant. All four Gospels give
accounts of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ, though
these accounts are fashioned according to the particular
perspective and message of each evangelist. We learn much from
each narrative and our learning takes more than a lifetime.

        1. Jesus as Suffering Servant

Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my
soul delights. I have endowed him with my spirit that he may bring
true justice to the nations (Isaiah 42:1; also Isaiah 49: 1-6; 50:
4-10; and 52:13-53:12).

Back in 1978, I traveled a portion of the Appalachian Trail
on a hiking tour as a way of making my annual retreat. The
meditation during that hike from Damascus, Virginia, to Hot
Springs, North Carolina, was heavily on the need to carry my cross.
Exactly what does carrying a cross mean? The backpack said
something about that, and it has always stuck. However, I have
never again made such an annual retreat for the heavy backpack is
too distracting.

Jesus willingly makes his way with his reluctant disciples to
Jerusalem, the hostile city, where the confrontation of forces is
to occur. He goes freely as a person of spiritual power and with
successes in his public ministry to confront a situation where he
will soon be totally powerless before seemingly powerful worldly
forces. Jesus opens himself to being vulnerable, all in the
service of love, for he is the servant par excellence, and he will
show this at the washing of the disciples' feet at the Last Supper.
He is willing to suffer and die out of his overwhelming love for
all the Earth and through this supreme act he gently indicates the
way we are to follow.

Many people spread their cloaks on the road, others greenery
which they had cut in the fields. (Mark 11:8)

Entry. The formal entrance into the Holy City is something
that seems out of character with the entire journey up to
Jerusalem. Jesus rides on an ass coming into the city he loves,
which has been the magnetic focal point of his ministry. We hear
the crowds shouting with joy, and yet Jesus knows their expressions
are often only momentary and subject to sudden change. He is in
appearance a serene person, deeply pensive, and void of outward
emotion on this occasion. He accepts the praise with the
resignation, for he can even now hear haunting angry cries ahead of
their time, "crucify him." Those future sounds blend with hosannas
from the crowd and the sulking voiceless thoughts of enemies
lurking in the shadows and plotting to shorten his career. His
disciples tag along and offer little but superficial assistance,
some thinking of the glory of being lieutenants when the
militaristic messianic age begins.

Contending with superficiality. We sometimes hear admiring
expressions that we know are only partly true. Must we say "No,
no"? Or are we to accept flattery, media superficiality, and a
praise that can turn suddenly to condemnation? We cannot let the
sounds of glory penetrate too deeply, especially if we are to side
with the poor. We cannot stop enemies; we can only love them. We
reduce misinformation, correct stories at whatever cost, avoid the
hype and superficiality, and do all this gently but firmly. But
the crowds today do not differ from those at Palm Sunday. We need
to know that, when we step out into the public. To follow Christ
is to expect our Palm Sundays to turn into Good Fridays. That's
the price of true service for and with others. If anyone wants to
be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.
(Mark 9:35b)

           Jesus as Priest

At the Last Supper Jesus is surrounded by his disciples, and
he tells them this is the parting. The ritual of the Passover meal
is reenacted in all its detail -- so very close in procedure and
spirit to the memorial offered each today in the Sacred Liturgy:
psalms sung, Scriptures read, homily shared, blessings of gifts,
breaking of bread, and the communion of all present. And Jesus
added a ritual, namely, the washing of the feet to show the humble
service he expected of his disciples.

Jesus is the priest at this unbloody sacrificial ceremony --
and this is the procedure that is to be followed until he comes
again. During this Last Supper, Jesus gives his Priestly Prayer
(John 17) that is directed to you and me. The infinite love of
the Father given to Christ is the same love Jesus shows to those
whom he has called -- his disciples. Does it really mean as "much
as you (the Father) love me," which is infinite love? We ponder
the depth of that love of Jesus -- for that pondering will take
more than a mortal lifetime, rather an eternity.

I pray not only for these (the disciples), but for those who
through their words will believe in me (17:20). We are the
recipients of the words of the disciples' and thus attention is
given to us as part of the disciples extended company in space and
time. The those includes us, and that is all the more revealing,
for Jesus' prayer that all might be one extends to each and every
person who is his follower, and to all others as well.

Oneness. This smothering in divine love gives us courage to
love each other in the same manner. But there is more here, for
love manifests oneness of lover and beloved. We are called to love
each other and to show our love through the unity we have with each
other. The splits and divisions among Christians, or even among
our own colleagues, are distractions from the quest to obtain and
manifest divine love in our lives; they show that we do not love as
we ought. On the other hand, our modern day ecumenical imperative
is that we heal the divisions that separate us from each other.
This is indeed priestly work. The utter competitiveness among
believers of various shades infects us; we wrongly attempt to show
ourselves better and different from others, and that they lack
something that they need to achieve. We tolerate a worldly greed
and selfishness while remaining silent. All the while we know that
love means sharing, assisting another to reach higher goals, and
showing togetherness and not division.

Love of Earth. Our loving God shows us the oneness of the bond
of Father and Son: "..and that the love with which you loved me may
be in them, and so that I may be in them." (17: 26b). We are
bonded in Christ and become one with him as we love each other with
the love he passes on to us. Differences among us may exist, but
they do not overwhelm us, if we allow good will to help glue things
back together. Our vision is one of loving unity, something not
yet achieved, but that through hope and prayer will happen in due
time. Earth healing then becomes a grand act of rebinding the
separated into a unity of purpose and a New Creation. God's
special love extends to the far reaches of the universe. In our
faith we know God loves -- each of us, our friends and kin, our
environment, our world and especially the poor -- the biblical
anawim, who undoubtedly include all living creatures, especially
the endangered and threatened plants and animals.

Application: Love yielding to obedience. If we seek to
imitate God's love by also loving our neighbor, we are open to the
deepest form of love -- the divine love growing in our hearts in
unison with the Father. As we look upon Jesus, the suffering
servant in his priestly role, we see our own emerging role of
imitating him, of being obedient to the Father in what is in store
for us. It is our openness to what lies ahead that God finds
pleasing in us, not merely the sacrifices we are making on a daily
basis, but the overriding love and sincere heart that backs up
these sacrifices. We act as priests by making holy our own lives
and thus creating a new and lovingly obedient environment in which
love can grow and flourish.

        Jesus in Agony

And sadness came over him and great distress.
(Matthew 26:37b)

The middle of the night. Jesus awaits what is to come and is
in deep agony over the upcoming event, which he can clearly
foresee; he is hurt by the void resulting from the lack of love on
the part of all who are capable of love. The "agony" or deep
mental and physical pain is so intense that he sweats blood, which
doctors tell us could occur in such extraordinary circumstances.
And this occurs in a garden, an Eden-like place, a place where
human activity can make such an intense difference in the healing
of Earth. Jesus now becomes involved in the planet's healing
process through sweat mingled with blood -- far more than Adam's
sweat alone, for it is divinely given. And Jesus, perfect healer,
agonizes over our misuse of opportunities and abuse of gifts. The
agony involves an entire world and we are also in the garden.

Enduring agonies with others. Sometimes we recall past
misdeeds done by us or to us, and these trigger lingering pain.
When these come to mind, they enter into Jesus' own agony. We may
be reconciled and yet the after-effects are still present; social
implications of the wrongdoing hang over us like a cloud sometimes
even after sincere confession and certainty of God's forgiveness.
We continue to suffer for causing others to suffer -- and that
extended social hurt requires an added degree of restorative
effort.

As parents, relatives and friends, we agonize about misdeeds
to or by a loved one; the way they conduct their lives may deeply
hurt us. We refrain from telling of this hurt because others
regard this as our private reserve. Thus sufferers may be forced
by misguided cultural practice never to show their mental anguish
in public. Nonetheless anguish exists and it hurts all very
deeply. In these various cases we turn to Jesus and find that
during his agony he simply lacks human companionship to share his
own pain -- even from his sleeping disciples. This becomes the
moment of deepest isolation ever experienced on this Earth. And
for better or worse we are there!

Agony over Earth. Jesus' agony is often described as a deep
pain over the sins we human beings have committed. But the agony
is one of compassion and so includes the ones who are sinned
against, and the worst part being their unwillingness to forgive.
And the abuse is wreaked on Earth through human greed and ignorance
enters into the totality of that agony. A deepening spirituality
on our part brings us to sensing the hurt of Earth herself in the
manner in which Jesus has compassion for her.

As we become more deeply in tune with Earth and its rhythms,
we enter into a humanly experienced pain through our growing
sensitivity, the garden of agony. But the anguish is not just over
the damage that is caused to Earth but over the insensitivity of
those who are greedy and callous in damaging this planet, and their
inability to refrain after repeated offenses. By seeking to be
closer to Mother Earth and our brothers and sisters in the plant
and animal kingdoms, we open ourselves to being vulnerable through
ridicule, disregard, or outright hostility. Thus our entrance into
the mystery of Christ's agony is to prepare ourselves to suffer
with Christ for what we have done and for the victims themselves.

Agony of Earth? Is Earth herself a sensate being capable of
suffering pain and thus "agony" in some manner? At our moment of
agonizing, we begin to see her (Mother Earth) as a being, and thus
henceforth drop the rather distant "the" immediately before Earth.
Within an expanding community of shared pain we begin to see this
being as created by God (January), subject to our misdeeds and poor
judgment (February), and capable of proper healing and treatment
(March). In coming months we will see how we help heal this Earth.

Now we come closer to Earth and regard her as a mother. She
may suffer in a rather hidden manner, but we know that plants react
and animals are most certainly sensate and responsive. The
Scriptures speak of Earth as leaping with joy and crying in sorrow.
We are spokespeople for the Earth; its visible feelings are
expressed through us, who are sensitive and united to Earth's
destiny. We are united with Christ and enter the garden with him;
we extend the agony in the garden to the entire planetary garden;
we draw forth the anguish of Earth and experience it as members of
the body of Christ. Earth's agony is our agony, and with growing
compassion we are able to express it better. The better we express
this, the better we speak up for Mother Earth.

Application: Suffering with others. The agony is our moment
of feeling the pain of another to the point at which we are deeply
affected. We do not let this overwhelming condition overcome us,
but we seek a solidarity with the agonizing Jesus. Our failures
strike us; our hardness of heart and inability to join him fully
haunts us; our slowness to repair all damages here and now
exasperates us. Amid imperfections we agonize with Jesus.

        Jesus as Solitary Witness

We found this man inciting our people to revolt, opposing
payment of the tribute to Caesar, and claiming to be Christ, a
king. (Luke 23:2)

Good Friday, 5:00 a.m. Jesus stands silently between guards.
The disciples have scattered and, as the cock crows, Peter realizes
that his own denials occur just as Jesus had foretold. The
companions who promised the night before to stand behind Jesus to
the last and who walked proudly near him on Palm Sunday are now
scattered at this moment of greatest need. Jesus is totally
abandoned, and only his innocence keeps him company. The
accusations ring throughout the courtyard in the early morning
hours. He says he could destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three
days. He considered himself equal to God.

The formal listing of accusations and the silence of Jesus is
like a clash of cymbals with intermediate silence. It is the
conduct of a Messiah whom an expectant people could never have
envisioned and whom the most creative fiction writer could not have
dreamed up. We approach the decisive moment in human history and
he is silent. "The messiah has come," is announced next to the
Holy of Holies -- the center of religious life in the world--, and
he is received with jeers by the authorities and bystanders
present. A nation prepared for millennia to witness this moment
does not know what it is experiencing; the leaders seem impatient
and full of accusations; and the people reject the Messiah.

Being Vulnerable. The Mighty One is silent, and we need to
take heed for such possible times in our lives as people seeking to
heal the Earth. Should we be silent when the accusation deals with
us, and should we speak strongly when the accusation is against
others? That is what Jesus does. Did Saint Paul follow that
procedure when he appealed to Caesar as an individually accused
person, and thus was sent to Rome. These are not easy answers and
circumstances may make us less silent at some times than at others.
Stephen, the first martyr, speaks boldly at the time of his stoning
to death and even sounds provocative. Whatever is our situation
and the inspiration, we know that all accusations makes us
vulnerable. Jesus' public ministry is now at an end for it depends
on the approbation of hostile authorities, accusing him of crimes
against the state religion. For the accusers he is no longer to be
tolerated and his life is in their hands.

Application: fighting back. When we hear someone say a half
truth or misinformation, we think up a thousand ways of fighting
back and reversing the accusation. But is it the right way to act
if we are to follow Jesus? We may fight back when others are
falsely blamed or accused before the process of trial has begun,
for they are presumed innocent until proven guilty. However,
accusations can destroy one's ministry without formal proof for
credibility and veracity are not always coextensive. This haunts
many active believers and those wishing to heal the wounded and
distressed Earth. We do not have the innocence of Jesus. We are
to fight back for others, but must accept a solitary manner of
proceeding and speaking, as inspired by the Spirit, when
accusations are directed against us as individuals.

        Jesus Carrying His Cross

Jesus is stripped, beaten almost beyond endurance, forced to
be the substitute for a common criminal, mocked, crowned with
thorns, and forced to carry a cross to the place of execution. The
way of that cross has been repeated by thousands of pilgrims in
their faithful journeying along the traditional Way or at
reproductions (Stations of the Cross) throughout the world. We
walk on this journey to Calvary and place ourselves with all our
weaknesses along side of those of Jesus whose physical endurance
has its own limits as well. He repeatedly falls; he accepts
comfort from those weeping over his condition; he gets assistance
to help carry the cross.

"'My grace is enough for you; my power is at its best in
weakness.' For it is when I am weak that I am strong."
(II Corinthians 12:9, 10b)

Being willing to carry on -- The carrying of what is
necessary on a trip is a necessary chore; carrying unnecessary
baggage is simply foolhardy when backpacking. One hikes after
laying items out and deciding whether they are really needed and in
what quantity. In our life's journey we strive to relieve the
backpack of guilt, blame, remorse, feelings of disturbance, anger,
and words of discord -- to be left behind or given to others.

I often remember the raw sewage flowing down a beautiful
ravine toward the sea in Judea; the sights of the slums of Bombay,
India; the hope found in the Pueblo Juvenes in Arequipa, Peru; and
the people working in a southern Haitian rural cooperative at a
reforestation project. In some way, our cross must include these
memories as well as a hope that after the cross comes the
resurrection.

Mobility may need to be sacrificed -- Like Jesus, we carry
the burden of others' misery to some limited degree, and are happy
to have others help us with ours. Merely observing environmental
degradation and human poverty in passing makes us feel guilty.
Will we view the suffering of others as a spectator sport, seeing
and then allowing these sights to fade quickly from our minds?
Certain pausing and coming to knowledge precedes remedial action --
and knowing and acting may require rearranging a travel schedule.
For those of us called to travel to all parts of the world, staying
too long in one place may be contrary to our mandates. However,
mobility itself may have to be sacrificed by the restless, if the
commitment to action requires settling in for a spell. There are
different ways of acting, and carrying the cross can take on a
variety of stops and pauses.

Application: bearing our weaknesses. Overweight in either
body or luggage becomes a burden, forcing those who are supposed to
be more mobile to be bogged down. We find it extremely difficult
to move about with only traveling bag and staff as the Lord asked
of those sent as missionaries; we have allowed the worldly
possessions to accumulate and burden us. We don't want to give
them up and so they remain, always the souvenirs of a materialistic
culture that we pretend to avoid. Our luxuries are present and
they are not easily abandoned, even when we need to move on to new
places and events. We need the courage to rid ourselves of the
superfluous, to be Simon of Cyrenes. By helping others we relieve
ourselves of physical and mental burdens. Jesus tells all who are
burdened to come to him; he helps us to carry our burdens. Now we
can accept the burdened responsibility to heal our damaged planet.

        Jesus at Calvary

Sensations at Calvary -- Imagine the mixture of the sounds of
Calvary with the noise of the crowds in their jeering and
boisterous jostling and loud irreverent conversation. Yet in the
shadows are the few who pray in silent whispers. The terrifying
scene is nearly beyond our imagination: the dark clouds are
swirling in a foreboding manner, punctuated by lightening flashes
all about; Earth trembles knowing a monumental event is now
occurring; the odor of sweat, the unwashed, and the garbage heap
called Calvary swell up; the taste is one of sour wine and death in
the making.

We look a little beyond and see death scenes a billion times;
we hear those who suffer in their final agonies, some with labored
breath and some through habit or impulse with curses or taunts; we
smell the scent of blood and gore; we feel the crescendo of
dramatic moments coming to many, to few, to all. The final curtain
call of life and the ultimate winter call of peoples form the
chorus call. One hundred thousand people a day come to the most
important moment of their lives, that day written on granite slabs
in stone-forested cemeteries. We turn back again to Calvary to
hear his final words now repeated in other christs:

"You will be with me in paradise" hears the one who stood up
for justice and knows that there is nothing to take beyond death's
door but the love stored up over the years, or its lack.

"Why have you forsaken me?" plead the abandoned, the homeless,
the refugee, the ones with no place to turn to or go.

"Forgive them" pray the bloodied victims of abuse of one of
many forms, but who still have the sense of mercy in their hearts.

"Here is your mother," offers a dying AIDS victim to her
whimpering child soon to be among 13 million orphans.

"I thirst" comes from a million parched throats and those who
would die to have one more addictive drink.

"It is consummated" mumble those on the battlefields, the
cancer wards, the hospices and the dying beds of a million places.

"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit" are the final
words of people who have courageously battled the wasting diseases
and who know the end of this mortal life is at hand. It is their
final will; they are moving out of life in composure to have the
living spirit sweep them up into the Light of divine life.

All is silence now, blessed silence, when we pay respects in
nods and hugs and few words, for we are speechless in the midst of
death that has occurred, and with fleeting memories of a life spent
in total sacrifice. Jesus has died. Even Earth seems exhausted
after its own upheavals and convulsions, and the respectful silence
after the cries of anguish, as total desolation sets in.

Stepping back for awhile -- We all need a time in our lives
when we step back and, as Archbishop Romero says, take a long look
at things. We sometimes are closely involved with the living
Calvary all around us. To be "other christs" means we are willing
to enter the fray and become totally immersed with those in their
agonies. However, if we venture too deeply, we risk burning out.
We sometimes need to take a break and rest up for the inevitable
future struggles that are to come. We need to step back and fall
into the hands of the Divine Source of Life.

Letting go. When we get older or desirous of a change of
pace, we are tempted to let go of even our most choice possessions:
our hideaways, our souvenirs, our titles and awards, our favorite
dishes, our driving privileges. Looked at another way, our life is
the act of letting go of the liveliness of infancy and youth, and
we gradually give up the routines, jokes, hang-outs, and haunts we
found entertaining at an earlier time. Freely letting go when not
required by health, economic necessity or death shows that we have
the grace to give up what we cherish most. It takes a deeper
spirituality to give up what we hold dear, for that is what Mary
does in releasing Jesus to public life, to derision, to taunts, and
now to the tomb. We let go of loved ones at funerals and cherish
memories, which may also start to fade after the last "good bye."

The final challenge. Whether we are called to step back or to
let go entirely, the moment of decision is hurtful. Yet it must be
done. We are ultimately not in control of our affairs. If we do
not step back or let go freely, time will still march on and take
its toll, for that is something we cannot stop. It may be a
nervous breakdown or a sickness from overwork; it may be that we
must face the ultimate certainty of dying at a more or less
predicted moment when we freely decide to be gracious. A
possibility emerges before us in a strange but comforting way; now
arises that final challenge to know and be fully ourselves. Will
we meet the occasion by seizing a choice opportunity to teach those
around us? Will we perform and truly live that last hour of death
well?

"They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in
linen cloths, following the Jewish burial custom." (John 19:40)

Application: fully letting go. How do we, the living, go to
Calvary? Certainly we realize that dying people may follow Jesus
in their free choices. But what about those in good health?
Should we do more than encourage a dying relative or friend?
Norman Cousins says, "The tragedy of life is not death, but what we
let die inside us while we live." When we clutch what we can't
ultimately hold on to, we allow selfishness to stifle the
generosity of life -- and we slowly die. Thus at any stage of life
we can have our own mini-Calvary where we resolve to begin to let
go freely and openly of what is most cherished. If a young person
can let go of what is so good, that person is free to follow Jesus
wherever he or she is led. All too often we teach youth to cling
to material goods, not to cherish letting them go. We fail to
remind them that life is letting go, and that in all stages we
become all the more by letting go more and more generously. We
need to prepare for our ultimate material nakedness, clothed only
in our love, when passing to eternal life.

        2. Choosing Our Standard

At the beginning of this millennium I was asked to discuss,
here at Oslo, the greatest challenge that the world faces. Among
all the possible choices, I decided that the most serious and
universal problem is the growing chasm between the richest and the
poorest people on earth. Citizens of the ten wealthiest countries
are now seventy-five times richer than those who live in the ten
poorest ones, and the separation is increasing every year, not only
between countries but within them. The result of this disparity
are root causes of most of the world's unresolved problems,
including starvation, illiteracy, environmental degradation,
violent conflict, and unnecessary illness that range from Guinea
worm to HIV/AIDS.
Jimmy Carter, Nobel Lecture, 2003

Jimmy Carter is not alone in thinking that the big challenge
and threat facing the world is the gap of wealth (and health) that
separates rich and poor. David S. Landes in The Wealth and Poverty
of Nations (New York: W.W. Norton, 1998) calls this gap "the
greatest single problem and danger facing the world of the Third
Millennium." But is this really a new observation?

In Ignatian terms, we can imagine an immense battle being
waged for the minds and hearts of people. Ignatius of Loyola puts
this in terms of a struggle between the Standard of Satan and the
Standard of Christ-- the personification of evil and our God.
Ignatius says Imagine you see the chief of all the enemy in the
vast plain about Babylon, seated on a great throne of fire and
smoke, his appearance inspiring horror and terror. For the second
part of the imagined scene Ignatius says, Consider Christ our Lord,
standing in a lowly place in a great plain about the region of
Jerusalem, His appearance beautiful and attractive. (Reference: The
Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, Louis J. Puhl, S.J.,
Westminister, MD: Newman Press, 1954, pp. 60-61.)

When leaving her home after sixty-seven years of married life
and widowhood, and after raising a family and caring for a farm,
my mother called her family and friends together and encouraged
them to take what they wanted and said she was closing down her
personal homestead. She held nothing back; it was a great moment
to watch her so happy in giving away her cherished keepsakes and
household items. She truly was letting go, and that was her free
choice.

The struggle of choosing what to do is very real, whether we
place evil in a personified format or not. The one standard is
certainly that of Christ, the perfect model of ecological concern;
the other is certainly evil, to which we will give the name of
materialism. The ascendancy of evil today rests in part on denial
of the perceived existence of both God and Satan -- and
materialists tend to deny the latter more often than the former.
This battle of good and evil has taken on new dimensions since 9-
11, and some would place it in historically outdated "crusading"
terminology. But it is naive and a horrible mistake to place
Moslems in one camp and Christians in another; there are haves and
have-nots in both religions; there are militarists in both camps;
and there are non-militaristic spiritually inclined folks in both
camps. On the one hand, Bin Laden and company come from a wealthy
class; on the other hand, some practicing Christians are really
materialists. Don't choose the sides too quickly.

Materialism on one side. On the one side are arrayed the
forces of influence and wealth -- the "haves" (those of material
affluence) of the world. They strive for wealth, honor and
influence. They seek to ally themselves with multinational
corporations, bankers, and those on the fast track of corporate
control. These institutions can set their own agendas with their
wealth; they choose who to assist and indirectly who does not get
the essentials of life; they speak of free trade that works to
their own advantage and of globalization that only deepens the
divide between the haves and have-nots. Their philosophy is a
materialism that focuses on selfish interests, greed for more, and
a determination of agendas, which are beyond democratic controls.
The atheistic materialism of the Communistic era has been replaced
by a materialism of the West with enticements that make certain
Christians strive to be near the centers of power.

The Poor on the other side. On the other side, one finds
arrayed the poor, marginalized, forgotten, abandoned, small dirt
farmers in India and China, the voiceless in the urban ghettos, the
illiterate who spend much time hiding their inability to read, and
slum dwellers in Sao Paulo with its twenty million inhabitants.
These could be termed from Old Testament times, the Anawim, those
for whom the prophets spoke and whom they defended. These are the
folks who live on a dollar or, at most, on two dollars a day. They
are almost invisible, certainly so to selfish folks, who do not
want to look out and see the lowly at their doorsteps.

If we cannot see the poor, we are already in deep trouble.
But let's take more time and effort to assist them than to define
them. Their relative position within a culture depends to some
degree on the distribution of material resources at a given place
and time. A slave may be well fed and cared for and yet is
impoverished by not having freedom. A person with modern
conveniences such as electricity and running water may lack
necessary health care and, while better in some respects from
others, is still impoverished in relation to what is potentially
available through proper and just distribution of resources. Some
have AIDS and no way to receive medication; others will go to bed
hungry tonight.

The poor are with us. A week before the paschal event Mary
pours precious perfume on Jesus' feet and dries them with her hair
(John 12:1-11). Judas objects that valuable perfume could have
been sold and proceeds given to the poor. Jesus responds, "You
have the poor with you always, you will not always have me." This
can be interpreted as whenever and wherever there are poor they are
at God's side; also this is an act of celebration by one loving
person, accepted by another. The presence of the poor in our midst
is a stark reminder that our task of healing involves
redistribution of resources and closing the ever-widening chasm
between the wealthier and poorer people. While the poor are with
us, we realize that all people rich and poor must have moments of
joy and celebration -- and this takes ornamental things (perfume)
as well as essential food and fuel. The poor with us reminds us
that we must offer opportunities to share resources at all levels
of life.

Interpenetration of needy and affluent can and will continue
to occur through physical travel, for that is the hallmark of a
free society. The more active have-nots make some connection to
the affluent side through existing communications, migrant labor
interactions, and tourist and visitor contacts on the home turf of
the less affluent. In a million ways, have-nots know and in many
cases envy what the haves possess and enjoy. These have-nots
include professionals, skilled technicians, and willing laborers;
they are all aspirants to a higher quality of life now enjoyed by
the affluent; they feel fortunate to fit into the system of the
affluent, taking on their values and accepting their ways of life,
hoping to blend in as well and as quickly as possible. They do not
wish to harm the affluent system or to make undue waves of
disagreement.

The lowly and dissatisfied. At the same time a counter force
is at work that forebodes a cultural and political struggle in the
coming years, if it is not already here for those who see
injustice. The lowly are dedicated people who are determined to
retain what they perceive as past values, even if they must expend
their blood and lives to preserve the past. They fear the West's
brand of materialism, and are moved to assemble with like-minded
dissatisfied people. They are determined, and yet realize they can
not directly fight the massive military-backed security systems of
the West. They do not want a prevailing and highly enticing
materialism to corrode the spiritual values of their people; they
seek to combine a knowledge of the inherent weakness of
materialists with their ability to throw a monkey wrench into the
system and defeat the "infidel" or the "enemy."

Very Complex Issue. It is wrong to betray the imagery of a
dark "Satan" in the classical choices of the two standards -- the
color of the skin was often artistically executed as such but not
an essential component of the picture. To say the two Ignatian
standards is a choice between an awakening terroristic Moslem
fundamentalism and a right-wing militaristic Christian
fundamentalism is grossly inaccurate, for this choice goes no
further than the Crusade mentality of placing the struggle in
military terms. It tempts God by saying let's slug it out, and God
will be on the side of the winner. That is not the classic
standards conflict at all. Rather the standards must be between
Satan's materialism on the one side and an authentic spirituality
on the other. Choosing between spiritual and material values
involves a basic freedom of choice; this must be followed by a
freedom of specification or how the spiritual values will be
expressed.

False choices. In essence, the choice is between material
excess and the spirit of sharing. Christians and Moslems fit into
either category. Some will choose to further their so-called
spiritual values through militaristic positions (war, terrorism,
direct assault); both Christians and Moslems can be moved to seek
non-military solutions to the inherent divisions between the haves
and have-nots. The struggle becomes more urgent because
materialists find their world threatened and resort to ever more
military aggression; militarily-inclined people in a sense of
hopelessness are tempted to say they can create a scenario with no
winners and in which all are reduced to impoverishment; if we can't
have it, nobody can.

Jesus most certainly does not stand on the side of a
militaristic spirituality; he never permits equating a militant
messianic complex with his mission. Nor does he stand idly by
while some in hopelessness reduce all to the lowest common
denominator through shutting down the system. Jesus espouses an
activism of a non-militant sort with reference to those who are
lowly; he is led like a lamb to the slaughter at other times.
Should we permit the status quo, namely, haves and have-nots to
attempt to coexist counselling charity and a tranquil world
situation? Would such a materialistic ascendant society of
immense consumption be a blueprint of short-term tolerance and
long-term ultimate destruction? Is this moment not similar to that
of Lincoln's insight that the United States could no longer be a
land half-slave and half-free? A gradation of having could be
argued in a world where all have at least the basics of life. But
in this real world it is simply not the case. A further question:
Will ensuring western materialism lead to bankruptcy? Choices have
to be made now.

Choosing a specific spiritual standard. The standards are not
between terroristic Moslem and affluent Christian, but that of
basic spiritual values and material ones. The ultimate choice must
be between those authentically spiritual Moslems and Christians and
all forces of materialism whether secular or professing a specific
religion. Whose side are we on? Are we for exploiting the world's
resources for our own affluent lifestyle? Are we for siding with
a so-called "Christianity" that bolsters the materialistic forces
that allow global warming, and that blesses a corporate mentality,
which allows and even sanctions the destruction of Earth and its
resources? We turn to Jesus, the model ecologist. In him we find
someone who is simple in lifestyle, who is gentle in approach, and
who asserts his message at great risk to his ministry.

Final note on choice: All spiritually-directed movements must
search deeply into their own traditions to find the non-violence
that will allow them to be effective in this time of critical
decision-making. Terrorist who kill in order to draw attention to
their plight and to overcome others who do not agree with their
position, will only harden opposition. A certain sacrifice of
property, or "violence" by some interpretations, is considered
justified, if this shows the need to break with materialism. The
Old Testament has numerous examples. However, every effort must be
made to keep from destroying human lives and other creatures for
the sake of a "greater cause." Such motivating influences do not
constitute an authentic spirituality.

        3. Jesus as Humble and Compassionate

Come to me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and
I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon your shoulders and learn
from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. (Matthew 11:28-29)

I saw the movie "The Passion of Christ," but I was not overly
impressed. Jesus was made out to be a very hard guy, a Semitic
Brave Hearts; I doubted whether anyone could have endured the
Latin-numbered strokes of scourging as delivered. It was somehow
not in keeping that Jesus would strive to be the world's great
"iron man." And I don't think he was, for he was far too humble
for such a mission. The vivid account of the passion in the movie
had its good points, but what did not come through -- and I'm
unsure whether it can be easily done -- is both the humility and
the compassion of Jesus. That characteristic is so unique I doubt
whether anyone could successfully portray it.

As followers of Christ we have chosen him through a freedom
of choice; now we ask the further question about freedom of
specification, namely, what type of spiritual response will we give
if we reject the "Satan" of materialism. Is our response one of a
militant activism that punishes the materialist or chops heads off
the infidel? Are we persuaded by a militaristic approach that
seems so tempting to those who desire overwhelming authoritarian
control? Are we willing to destroy the self, strapped-in with
explosives and seeking the largest congregation of people, in order
to prove a point, being absolutely certain our spiritual approach
is the answer to materialism?

Our answer rests in Jesus; we seek to imitate him and
participate in his redemptive act. Just as Jesus suffers in each
persecuted person as he says to Saul: I am Jesus and you are
persecuting me (Acts 9:5), so Jesus suffers in the travails of all
people on Earth. What about the other creatures on this planet?
Does Jesus not suffer in them; do we see the suffering Jesus when
we see those mistreated creatures? All things are created in and
through him. As first, she leads us in being a suffering servant.
More so, we enter into the total sufferings of the Lord, which he
offers as one oblation back to the Father. As the year of eco-
spirituality progresses, we will see this initial intuition become
more vivid and understand how we are to become more obedient. God
makes a covenant with all living things at the time of Noah
(Genesis 9: 8-15). Jesus is the fulfillment of God's covenant with
us (with Adam and Eve, with Abraham and Sarah, with David); Jesus
suffers and dies for all of us and that includes all living things.
His redemption is coextensive with that of the universe itself.

Shared burdens -- For charity's sake we hesitate to burden
others with our heavy loads for they have enough to bear
themselves. However, as Christians we have a way out of this
dilemma. Jesus forgives, is merciful, comes to us and gives us the
strength to face today's burdens. An ever-deepening spirituality
requires accepting the Lord's assistance, the sharing of a yoke as
a team. Over and over I hear the refrain, "Look what they have
done to my Earth." Recognizing what becomes a cooperative venture
lightens my spirits for shared burdens are more easily borne. The
self-emptying love of Jesus is at the very heart of sharing
burdens. He takes our burdens in his humility and in the process
makes us strong.

His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with
God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave
and became as men are; he was humbler yet, even to accepting
death, death on a cross.

But God raised him high and gave him a name which is above all
other names so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the
underworld, shall bend the knee at the name of Jesus and that every
tongue shall acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the
Father. (Philippians 2:6-11)

Jesus empties himself for us. Good Friday and the Calvary
events in our lives are mercifully short-lived. Eternal Easter is
soon to come when Jesus, who suffers and dies for us, rises and
takes the title of Lord to the greater glory of God the Father.
His kenosis (emptying of himself) becomes an opportunity for future
glory. We, as other christs, are invited into this mystery of
emptying ourselves for others including all living creatures. We
are not forced to be other christs, for this is a free offer and a
free reception. Holding back has its costs and consequences due to
insensitivity and grasping for what is transitory. But the free
offer to surrender all is a continual calling -- and in our better
moments we hear it distinctly. We are to be the merciful and
humble christ to others.

Being humble to other people. Dedicated caregivers are
exemplary models for us all; they serve with dedication and a
certain hidden joy that makes us envious of their manner of acting.
We look up to them as models of other christs all around us. They
reveal the compassion shown by the Samaritan traveler on the road
from Jerusalem to Jericho (Luke 10:33). They are never ones for
running away but face suffering head on. They tell us through deed
that to be like the humble Jesus with regard to suffering ones: we
are to meet them, greet them, treat them. Dedicated caregivers
help us see that all sufferers are our neighbors -- no matter where
on the globe they reside; they deserve our attention, our service,
our sacrifices, our sympathy and pity. They beckon us to be
humble, and our models show us the way.

Being humble to other creatures. Veterinarians and those who
care for animals in animal shelters and many farms become good
exemplars of caregiving to the animal kingdom; these people exude
a certain compassion that animals often understand in their limited
ways. Amazingly those who care for gardens and forests may show
the same compassion in their own ways -- the ones who talk to the
plants and have the green thumbs. What both animal and plant
caregivers teach us is our basic role in being like Jesus in
extending our compassion and service to all creatures, even the
flora and fauna of this Earth. To have dominion is to avoid being
a tyrant, a lording master demanding deference, but rather to serve
as Jesus teaches us in washing the feet of the apostles. We are to
be suffering servants, to have loving hearts, protecting hands, and
heads bent on halting aggression done to threatened species and
fellow human beings. Jesus empties himself to serve us; we empty
ourselves of our prideful privileges and seek to serve the needs of
others. Thus we enter the Lord's kenosis.

Jesus amid the poor. In past ages, many of the poor were
those of modest means who were rendered destitute during times of
natural catastrophe or military attacks. They were far fewer in
total number than today though we are unsure of the frequency or
severity of those distant natural or human generated disasters.
However, in sheer numbers some 800 million today are chronically
undernourished, 25 million are refugees, and one billion live in
sub-standard housing. And what makes this so critical is that
these sufferers need not be so, because the resources and
technologies are available to relieve most of them of those
conditions. The number 800 million is given by hunger expert
Arthur Simon in his book, How Much is Enough?: Hungering for God in
an Affluent Culture, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2003, p. 130.

The poor live in poor housing, fear crime, and lack basic
food. A few decades ago, Robert Muller, who headed various United
Nations agencies, said that data collecting for global conditions
was inaccurate until a few years prior to his assessment. We
cannot visualize the enormity of global poverty now even though we
have more accurate numbers. Today we see that the physically poor
in some form are becoming a sizeable portion of the world's people
and may even approach a majority in the decades ahead unless we
change our ways. The poor include those who hunger, are
illiterate, lack clean water, and live in inadequate housing. If
power in a democratic society resides ultimately with the people,
it must reside with the poor, the emerging majority. Should they
not take charge of dislodging the wealthy? And does this infer
more widespread violence both by the takers and the ones taken?

Affluence versus poverty. Owing to current terrorist threats,
many affluent people become disturbed, and that uneasiness is
focused on retention of their property through ever more strict
security measures. For them, the price in standing armies,
defensive measures, and preemptive attacks may be high. Not even
the best weapons will secure basically insecure property. Thus the
affluent live in an unrealistic fog, unable to see that no amount
of protection will permit the categories of haves and have nots to
go unchallenged; attempts at security will bankrupt them, erode
their individual liberties in the name of security searches,
surveillance, and identity cards, and divert precious limited
financial resources from the more impoverished. Over security soon
results in a Catch 22 -- to retain the freedom to possess unneeded
materials demands the supposed short-term surrender of individual
freedoms. Christians are called to demonstrate that ultimate
security rests in sharing resources and enhancing safety and health
for all people. Jesus tells us we can either serve God or mammon
(which is within the realm of materialism as specified here); we
can serve one or the other, not both.

        4. Considering Three Kinds of Humility

If one of your brothers or one of your sisters is in need of
clothes and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to
them, 'I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty,' without
giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that?
(James 2:15-16)

Someone I knew never seemed to be satisfied. He was generous
and gave to the poor when they came to the door; but he was not
satisfied. He took his place in defining their needs and fighting
for the poor people and Earth in a very articulate way; but he was
still not satisfied because he felt at a distance from the poor.
He finally chose through prayer to live among the poor and absorbed
their lives in the full as one in solidarity -- and then he knew he
was on the right track.

While reflecting on the suffering and death of Jesus we are
asked to make an election in order to be closer to him.

Three classes of people. In preparation to discussing three
kinds of humility, Ignatius first offers in the Spiritual Exercises
(Puhl pp. 64-65) three classes of people who have acquired a large
sum of money: those seeking to do what is needed for salvation but
the hour of death comes without so acting; those wishing to rid
themselves of the attachment but in such a way that they retain
what they have acquired; and, finally, those who want to rid
themselves of the attachment, but wish to do so in such a way
that they desire neither to retain nor to relinquish the sum
acquired. They want to do only what God our Lord inspires them to
do through a grand act of indifference. In our desire to be
generous and to imitate Jesus, the perfect model of ecology, we are
drawn to opt for this last class of persons. These class
designations can be applied to individuals seeking perfection or to
institutions that desire to become detached, a far harder task
because institutions cannot speak or choose on their own, and their
self-interests are based on promoting their own missions.

Degrees of humility. The word "humility" is derived from
humus or the soil below our feet. An authentic eco-spirituality
encourages human growth and development that is patterned after
natural growth patterns through stages or levels going from
elementary to advanced, each more all encompassing and more
intensely community-centered. Our growing compassion extends to
all poor people and other creatures because we strive to take on
the compassion of Jesus and to exercise deeper degrees of humility
allowing us to be healed ourselves and to help heal others. Thus
we discover that even our humility and eco-spirituality admit of
degrees of depth and ever-deeper maturation.

First Degree of Humility: Tourism. Come and see. This degree
is necessary for salvation. We must see the poor lest we lose our
souls, for we could be accountable for our insensitivities on
Judgment Day. We must be able to see the suffering and respond.
"For I was hungry and you never gave me food; I was thirsty and you
never gave me anything to drink" (Matthew 25:42). However, this
first level is hardly attained by people through tours to poor
areas, where one sees the needs of these unfortunate people, or
through correspondence or reading about poverty. This purgative
level of eco-spirituality requires more than mere knowledge of the
poor, something pharisaical, if the "eco-tourists" simply see the
poor.

Charity. Come and Help. A demeaning gaze gives way to actions
dealing with basic environmental concern -- saving Earth and one's
sweet hide as well. FEAR is the predominant emotion for, unless one
acts, all will be lost -- air, water, landscape, Earth itself.
One is motivated by fear rather than by acts of love or sharing --
fear for oneself, one's family, and for the future of Earth itself.
This is a charitable, exploratory, and volunteer level. Give a
donation. Good-hearted, but generally inexperienced, folks want to
help, but a distance exists between both sets of people. Authentic
growth has occurred for the healers are no longer mere observers,
but are involved in helping. However, altruism is not a perfect
activity. The giver of service possesses something the needy lack;
giving is not mutual sharing and could become a power trip. The
activities chosen could be emotion-based, short-lived, and with
promise of immediate solutions. They could be longer-range and
include monitoring, auditing, repairing, and rebuilding, projects
conducted by an expert for the inexperienced. The dichotomy
between those with resources and skills and those needing them is
clearcut.

Second Degree of Humility: Solidarity. Come and do or be with.
This is the level of "pioneer" or "homesteader" (one who brings
baggage) in doing along with the poor. A still deeper level
involves a "companion," who wishes to narrow the gap and be with
the poor. These more perfect levels involve longer term activities
that are more meaningful for the poor. The Good Samaritan stops,
binds wounds, puts the injured on his own beast, takes him to an
inn, gives resources to assist in healing, and comes back and
checks on progress over a span of time. The trappings of affluence
are modified, and all parties become coequal; the sufferings of the
poor are experienced on a first-hand basis by pioneer or companion.
At this level solidarity is cultivated, as the poor person becomes
a friend and associate, not a pupil or charity case. All parties
look into the structures of a system that causes the poverty in the
first place. This is the level of social justice, of research,
study, dialogue, attempts at more mature activities, change of
lifestyle, and of involvement with establishing a restored and
healed Earth.

Identification: Third Degree of Humility. Come and Be This
most perfect type of humility is an option after we attain the
first two degrees and consists in our wanting to be more like
Jesus, the perfect ecologist. If God can be better served, we seek
to identify with the poor; we desire to choose poverty with
Christ's poor rather than riches, honors, or power. "They, the
poor" may exist on other levels but now it is "We the poor." This
is the level of total detachment in order to think like the poor,
to be so identified, and to make changes at the existential level
of the poor. It is the identification found with Damien de Veuster,
the apostle to lepers, by saying "We the poor." God may ask some
healers to be illustrious medical researchers or to hold other
honored positions -- but it is the desire to experience this final
degree that is so important for the healing of the Earth. We must
cultivate a basic indifference to our participation.

In seeking to become more deeply involved as healers we must
become vulnerable and suffer insecurities such as loss of
independence, status and, in some cases, life. Healers experience
love through self-sacrifice and can identify with Jesus.
Identification becomes an ennobling activity that goes beyond
merely saving the Earth, or making life better for inhabitants, or
even protecting fellow creatures. The pervasive and inclusive
poor, the "We the poor," accept a relationship with all creatures
for their (our collective) own sake, not for utilitarian purposes,
and consider this a cooperative venture. We live simply eating and
living as poor folks; we select tools and procedures that are
environmentally benign, community supporting, and simple in
operation, but looking to the poor for the appropriate methodology
for being effective; we act non-violently and always respect the
dignity of other people and of the plants and animals as well.

        5. The Law of Conservation of Spiritual Energy

Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate.
Do not judge, and you will not be judged yourselves; do not
condemn, and you will not be condemned yourself; grant pardon, and
you will be pardoned. Give, and there will be gifts for you; a
full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will
be poured into your lap; because the amount you measure out is the
amount you will be given back. (Luke 6: 36-38)

A merciful and loving God would never allow suffering to
disappear without leaving its mark of benefit, for no expenditure
of energy (and suffering is such) is without its merit. To suffer
in this world is to undergo change, and this is ultimately for the
better as part of God's Providence. All good things return like
the spring rain to the Divine Majesty. And planetary suffering
must be made good for that is part of divine mercy. We Christians
have the sure belief not only in life after death but in the mercy
and compassion of God. Not only do we believe in divine
compassion, we seek to imitate it as a component of an authentic
eco-spirituality. The challenge for us is to transform the "happy
faults" that have plagued our Earth into a restoration of Earth --
and thus part of the redemptive mystery of Christ.

The Law of the *Conservation of Spiritual Energy states that
for God, who is all compassionate, no planetary suffering is lost.
If something on this Earth is lost at all, it is our opportunity to
enter into the suffering arena, to become more godly through our
action of love. And what is this lost opportunity? It is to gain
all the more by loving the other and being compassionate in the
midst of suffering, whether our own or theirs. The quality of life
of the sufferer united to God's will can be so great that we are
impelled to hasten to draw closer to the sufferer. When we fail to
partake in this opportunity, we lose something in ourselves. When
we accept our proper role as earthhealers we obtain compassion's
reward (above quote). "Planetary suffering" stands in contrast to
suffering in eternal life by those who have not attained the Light.
There again it is the suffering of a lost opportunity.

* Note: This Law may involve spiritual energy/mass and open
to deeper reflection.

"Spiritual energy" has a quantitative aspect when it applies
to us, its limited recipients and dispensers. We may lose the
benefits for us through our free choices but still, in the infinite
compassion of God, all eventually is beneficial. When we become
more compassionate towards those who suffer, we expend physical or
psychic energy. Social workers are counseled to conserve their
energy, not to become too involved with their clients or this
involvement will hurt other portions of their enormous caseload.
They must pace themselves -- and that is good advice, for the
effectiveness of a social worker of limited energy is at stake.

"Conservation" applies to God's compassion, not limiting the
energy but never allowing the efforts of the sufferer to be lost.
Just as with physical energy, (First Law of Thermodynamics) no
suffering is lost, though its organizational effectiveness may be
reduced by our lack of participation in the richness of obedient
and learned suffering (analogous to the Second Law of
Thermodynamics). Note: This is not intended to be comparable to
Teilhard de Chardin's two types of energy (radial and tangential),
though there may be some similarities. The conservation ethic
(January's eco-spirituality) now finds its foundation in the love
and mercy of God. During care-giving, energy is expended but if
not coupled with spiritual energy intake through compassion, this
can be exhausting. Thus healers must conserve physical and psychic
energy in order to focus well and not be calloused and worn out.
Spiritually active caregivers use physical energy in a controlled
manner, giving and being rejuvenated through the infinite store of
God's spiritual energy.

Suffering and quality of life. It is one thing to feed the
hungry; it is another to experience hunger. Later in the summer we
will discuss the Sacred Heart devotion, and filling up what is
lacking in the sufferings of Jesus (Colossians 1:24), which helps
through our Sacred Liturgy to extend Calvary in space and time. We
may opt to suffer with Christ by offering our own suffering (as
victims) with the Lord or by taking on another's suffering (as
caregivers or healers). For many of us, the physical suffering of
cancer patients is something theoretical because we have not yet
experienced this suffering.

The "culture of death" people are incorrect in saying that the
quality of life is degraded through suffering. For those united
with Christ, suffering is worth accepting for it is founded in the
love and mercy of the crucified One. Those who opt to enter the
realms of suffering wholeheartedly find the spiritual energy that
transcends space and time. All sufferers and compassionate
caregivers are drawn into the creative mercy of God. We are
invited to identify with the suffering Jesus and become one with
him through suffering. In him we find our model, our hope, our
meaning and, yes, our reward -- pressed down, shaken together, and
running over.

                C. ACTIONS

As believers, our environmental work must imitate that of our
model for the sake of coherence. If Christ is healer, teacher and
activist, we are also to be such. If Jesus redeems, we participate
in the redemptive act in a very special way. This has been known
from the beginning of Christianity; the difference is that now we
participate as cooperators in protecting and restoring the planet's
environment. Now we see Earth herself in the mystery of Christ's
own suffering. Our eco-spirituality involves restoration of what
has been hurt by human misdeeds.

We begin at the grassroots, at the most local level; we start
in our own backyard in cleaning up the immediate environmental
disorder all about us. Certainly this is a humble task but it
imitates that of Jesus who suffers and dies for us. Next we turn
our prayerful reflections to the current condition of our world and
find there "The Stations of the Suffering Earth." Lastly, we seek
to blaze new territory with a traditional concept of suffering with
another, that is, that the very pattern of our suffering must be
that of Jesus within his suffering and death.

        1. Clean Up Campaigns

Jane Blewett, a social justice activist, told me she would
take a small garbage bag along on her daily walks and pick up a few
pieces of litter each time. At that moment and for some while
afterwards, I had to admit that I could not fathom why that should
be done by her; she was not the one who littered. Only later in
life have I started to pick up a few littered items at the end of
my nearly daily jogs. I suddenly find that this is an important
thing to do. I am starting the process of cleaning up the Earth at
my doorstep, regardless of who was so thoughtless as to litter --
and the rest of us so careless in not reporting that person for
disobeying our strict anti-litter regulations.

To clean up a disordered environment is to bring new life --
and cleaning is a sacrifice. To clean is to do something that is
unpleasant, and yet we are willing to sacrifice time and effort.
Should we help clean up the polluters' disorderly condition?
Shouldn't this be left to others who are trying to work off
community service as part of their rehabilitation to society? Why
not direct our actions to making the polluter pay or the offender
pick up the mess caused by thoughtlessness? There are several
reasons why some cleanup is necessary on the part of all who seek
to be healers of Earth:

a) We fight an institutionalized approach. This is one way to
keep from becoming institutionalized and see only the "other" as
having the responsibility to engage a cleaning person whether
culprit, those employed by the culprit, the imprisoned, or others
who are employed by the government or private landholder to do the
cleaning. By cleaning up we fight the paralysis of
institutionalization.

b) We feel better. It is important that at the end of the day
we have contributed in some small way to the improvement of the
environment. A better spirit helps us accomplish more.

c) We receive a crash environmental education. Waste and
disorder is a condition arising within an irresponsible society:
the individuals who throw the litter; the institutions that create
disposable items; and the government that listens to the corporate
arguments that allow it to continue. We tolerate litter and thus
must each learn what is best to do to see that existing regulations
are enforced through citizen monitoring, charges for disposable
items, and general environmental education. Order is partly
required and partly taught -- and involves carrots and sticks in
order to generate a sense of orderliness.

d) We learn to deal with emergency measures. Beginning to
improve the world in which we live makes us the elementary healers,
the ones who volunteer in Earth's emergency wards. We become more
sensitive to local disorderly practices and are quick to respond to
more widespread measures; we discover the urgency of dealing with
other environmental problems when they arise; we do not let an
initial anger and resentment paralyze us. Instead, our emerging
sensitivity allows us to act in a patient and effective manner.

e) We experience the humbling task of earth healing in a very
experiential manner. Why personally perform a task that others
could do? The answer is that they are not now doing it and order
should be restored now. We are down-to-Earth people and so we look
down and see the litter. In seeing, we are disturbed; we know it
remains unless we act; we humble ourselves and pick up some of it.
We grow in confidence that our kindness to Earth is appreciated.

f) We learn to cooperate with similar folks. An elementary
cleanup program whether a forest, lake, river bank, or roadside
allows us to see others who are interested in a better environment;
we enter into a cooperative relationship with them.

g) We become a good example for others to follow. The
cleanup must be by people quite like ourselves. If we start the
cleanup, surely others will follow. That is our hope.

        2. The Stations of the Suffering Earth

Being of Gallic origin, I look to France for models in life.
One person of particular interest is the maiden of Orleans, Joan
d'Arc, who was called, responded, and led her people in a time of
crisis. And then this humble illiterate teenager (19 at death) was
seized, and forced to stand trial -- for which she had no legal
defense. She was condemned on trumped up charges to die on May 30,
1431, in the marketplace in Rouen before a company of English
soldiers (not another woman present). As the flames leaped up
around her, Joan kept her gaze on the crucifix and cried out,
"Jesu, Jesu." They tell us each soldier remembered her last words
until the day of his death.
----------------------
Let us move with Jesus on his last road to Calvary, but do so
seeing his last gestures in company with suffering people and
Earth.

1. Jesus is sentenced to die. Species on Earth are endangered
or threatened with extinction due to general environmental
pollution.

2. Jesus take up his cross. People must bear the suffering of
their water pollution having no access to potable domestic water.

3. Jesus falls the first time. The understory is trampled
upon and soils are allowed to erode for lack of cover in various
forms of land pollution.

4. Jesus meets his mother. Chemical Pollution results in
birth defects and crippling illnesses which confront poor families
in polluted residential areas.

5. Simon of Cyrene helps with the cross. They do symbolic
gestures by washing oil-soaked sea gulls in the polluted seaways.
But they mean so well.

6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus. Reclamation efforts do
not erase all the scars of the land, and landfills do not halt the
solid waste pollution resulting from an excessive consumer
culture.

7. Jesus falls the second time. The forests and all life
suffer from air pollution which weakens the immunity of the
biosystems and causes many to fall ill to disease. Coal-fired
powerplants belch plumes from their smokestacks, leading to the
loss of immunity for stately stands of upland trees.

8. Women weep for Jesus. The anguish of people, especially
holy suffering widows, over the wounded Earth is often drowned out
by the honking, screaming, blaring, and explosions occurring
through the discordant sounds of noise pollution.

9. Jesus falls the third time. The trees are cut away by
greedy folks in the tragedy of clear-cutting. It is the final
forest call and they find it ever so difficult to rise again.

10. Jesus is stripped of his garments. Earth is strip-mined
and denuded as coal and other resources are exploited for profits.

11. Jesus is nailed to the cross. Earth is impaled with rows
of gaudy signs and other forms of rampant visual pollution -- and
the harm to a natural landscape is ever so evident for all to see.

12. Jesus dies upon the cross. People die of hunger, AIDS,
and many other afflictions because the resources were not expended
properly to feed or cure them. Is the Earth to die also in the
turmoil of thunder, lightning and earthquake? We must confront the
possibility of the death of Earth.

13. Jesus is taken down from the cross. The added
suffering is the slums and the pungent odor pollution of the ruined
countryside. It is present for all to endure.

14. Jesus is placed in a sepulcher. This tired Earth is laid
low but it is our Easter hope that it has hidden life, a resilience
allowing it to rise again and enter into a promised New Creation.

        3. The Special Role of the Suffering Victim

Mary Ann told me that her husband's case seemed so hopeless.
He could not feed himself and she gave him almost constant nursing
care day and night. He was saying aloud "What is the use? There
is no hope." In a brief manner, I told her to be an apostle to her
husband even though it is difficult. Tell him that he is quite
powerful in his helplessness and that he can bring others to Christ
when entering into God's noble calling to those who suffer. A year
later she told me he passed on to God but seemed to be more
resigned and at peace when offering the sufferings in union with
Jesus. Just retelling this is part of the blessing her suffering
husband has bestowed on others. And his efforts are now passed on
to you to help fill up what is wanting in the suffering of Christ.

This sign of contradiction, the cross, (I Corinthians 1:22-25)
stands over and overshadows our actions. It is positioned at the
top of churches, wayside shrines, inside hospital rooms, and it
overshadows all suffering people and the wounded Earth itself.
While others may appear somewhat uncomfortable, we glory in this
cross; it inspires us not to flee from the suffering around us; it
invites us to join more actively with those who suffer passively
from the many troubles that beset them. We stand as upright beams
planted in the Earth. The cross beams are the arena of sufferers
all around. Both the uprights and the horizonal beams meet in the
person of Jesus crucified. We are here and now and are his voice,
his representative, his compassion.

To attend the suffering. We cannot remain immune as we aspire
to being other christs with massive suffering all around; we must
link ourselves in some way with those who are in need. They lack
proper health insurance and treatment, sufficient abilities for
employment, or adequate and affordable housing; they are poisoned,
threatened and endangered, overlooked, belittled as of little or no
worth. A common ploy of the corporate establishment is to make the
landscape of our Appalachia and other exploited places appear to be
worthless when they actually see dollar signs all about. Many
accept that worthless condition and permit it to be exploited. The
cross beam extends beyond our maligned regions to all other
resource rich and exploited areas of the globe. Believers must
act; we cannot remain in splendid isolation and removed from the
affairs of the world. Solidarity is a hallmark of our faith.

Critical questions. Thus the question is not "Must I help?"
Rather isn't it "What must I do to help?" In some ways that is
what the rest of this book is about. Our procedures in helping
become more sophisticated -- and hopefully effective -- with time,
and yet we are aware of how hard it is to effect improvement. We
may do the best we can, but can that best be made even better when
we are joined in community with other caregivers of the Earth.
Here discernment moves from an individual with limited
effectiveness to a community with added resources. Even here the
question shifts from "Must we help?" -- a rather challenging
question in this selfish world -- to "What must we do to help?"

First invitation. Joining forces in community requires that
we work as teams together. Our first impulse is to strive to
mobilize all the healthy and energetic caregivers in the world.
But is this really the first step, or is it to mobilize sufferers
who know the pain of suffering, who feel their own powerlessness,
and who realize that power comes through and in another outside of
themselves. Often these sufferers of physical or mental ailments
feel isolated, tempted to give full attention to their inner
condition, and to the actual or perceived lack of effectiveness of
their treatments. That drive to self-preservation can hardly be
faulted. However, an added choice is open to them at this time.
They have a special invitation to enter into the suffering of
Christ now extended in space and time. The risen cross stands as
a crucifix on which they are nailed with Christ. It is not an
empty instrument, an Easter Cross, though that looms up ahead and
casts a mysterious radiance on the arena of suffering. We
Christians must embrace a crucifix.

The Pattern of suffering. As we have said, the well-placed
suffering of this world resembles Christ when obedient unto death.
Thus sufferers take on each of the special roles that Jesus
performs in his passion and death:

* in a priestly fashion, sufferers present their lives as an
offering back to God, and the more gracious is their love, the
greater the quality of the offering;
* in agony, they see their sufferings as not isolated but
conjoined with those of Jesus in the Garden and of all other
sufferers and with the creatures of the Earth;
* as solitary witnesses, they stand apart from a world that
finds little or no value in what they are enduring and even scoffs
at any active participation in the saving of the world on the part
of those suffering;
* in carrying their respective crosses, all sufferers do so
gladly and with dignity; we must all see that our falls are only
part of a total carried cross and that we all have these to bear;
* in their final total sacrifice they feel the power ebbing
from their bodies, they offer all with the good Lord, they
sacrifice in the fullness of who they are and what they have done.

Bearers of Good News. We invite the sufferers whom we know as
close relatives and friends to enter into the suffering of Jesus
and to see that their sufferings have the immense quality that we
mentioned earlier. This special invitation can be as emphatic or
low-keyed as the bearers of this news can deliver through the power
of the Spirit operating in their own unique characters. They are
invited to suffer with Jesus; they can become another christ to
the world; they are empowered (we will see in May's spirituality)
in the risen Lord to bring healing to the troubled world in which
we live. Suddenly their sufferings take on a new dimension.
Rather than living a poorer quality of life, in the paradox of the
cross they become people living the highest human calling -- to be
so like Christ whom we see in their joyful and ready response.
They can become the primary models of Christ to onlookers while
still being fully themselves.


SUMMARY: AN EARTH HEALER'S ELECTION

We are at the point of an election for the poor, the lowly,
the forgotten ones. We use as model, Jesus, whose own ministry
during his public life is to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Still he extends his mission beyond the Holy Land both in vision
and in preparing disciples for their world mission to take the Good
News to the ends of the Earth. Jesus attends the multitudes and
individuals to the degree that his human limitations allow. We too
simultaneously expand our vision to all the world while we focus
on those we can immediately help -- thinking globally and acting
locally. We need a criteria so that we do more then frenetic
exercise.

Why not focus on the elite and expect them to carry the
message out to the poor? Why to the poor? Or do the wealthy have
sufficient court chaplains? Could not God inspire us to focus on
the wealthy or powerful in order to give greater service to all?
Or can this often be deceptive? On the other hand, isn't this
writing directed to Internet users who are generally not poor? Do
we not know that Jesus is recorded to have written but once, and
that in sand? Does a trickle-down economic mechanism for
eliminating poverty and sharing the Earth's abundance apply here?
And do such mechanisms seldom work in practice? Don't they tend to
justify the existing status quo, serve as cruel pacifiers and
avenues of false dreams for the poor, raise false hopes in a world
of proven limited resources, and encourage a sort of global lotto
as to who will be successful and who will not? These questions may
find answers if we investigate several good reasons for a
preferential option for the poor:

1. Follow Jesus who is poor. Jesus humbles himself, is born
in a stable/cave, has humble parentage, is presented in the Temple
by a gift of turtle doves, becomes a refugee at early age, lives in
remote Galilee engaged in a humble occupation, chooses humble
working people for disciples, moves among the infirm and restless
crowds with pity and compassion. He defends the poor against the
establishment, is condemned, suffers, dies in the most ignominious
of circumstances, and is quickly buried without fanfare or
attention. Jesus identifies himself with the little ones and the
wretched (Matt. 25:45). Poverty goes hand in hand with the
spiritual childhood required to enter the Kingdom (Mark 9:33). In
Luke's view Jesus has in mind for his disciples actual poverty
(Luke 12:33) (sell your possessions and give alms) and not just the
spirit of being poor (see Matthew also) as shared by the wealthy.
He invites us to do the same.

2. Focus on the most needy, the Anawim of God. The poor are
the simple ones, the meek and lowly, the apt subjects of the
beatitudes for "theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:3).
Because they are overlooked by the worldly powerful, the poor need
Divine favor with greater urgency. The poor are the vast majority
of the Earth's human population, and the gulf between rich and poor
is widening each year. The focus turns to the 80% of the world's
people who reside in less developed nations; their absolute
numbers rise throughout the world and even in financially thriving
America; there are more poor in financially emerging India today
sixty years after independence than there were people in that
nation around 1950. Due to limited resources we must consider the
medical triage principle (of battlefield casualties) by attending
to those most in need first and others later. Such attention does
not deny others. The moderate income and affluent already have
some access to numerous service providers; the poor do not.

Furthermore, the urban and rural areas that are most heavily
polluted are generally inhabited by the poor, who must endure the
brunt of unsafe drinking water, foul air, littered landscape,
proximity to hazardous waste dumps, and lost jobs through
destruction of forests and erosion of land. According to the
United Nations Environmental Program, 4.5 billion hectares or 35%
of the Earth's land surface is threatened with desertification.
The rural population (mostly the very poor) affected by serious
desertification increased from 57 million in 1977 to 135 million a
mere seven years later. That number has grown still more in the
ensuing years. These rural poor are the climatically,
geographically and economically disadvantaged.

3. Be with the poor as agents of change. Seeing the poor as
objects of charity is a perverse, affluent way of subtly exercising
control and superiority over the lowly -- and never getting to the
authentic healing process. If the poor are to be an integral part
of Earth healing, they are to be fully recognized agents of change.
To utter this is to pronounce the Good News as we will discuss
during the summer of eco-spirituality. The poor experience the
harshness of the day-to-day deprivation of resources needed to
improve their lives. The poor recognize their continued dependence
on the Almighty. What the poor are able to teach is the primary
experience of deprivation, something that all healers must learn
because resources to heal are always limited. On the other hand,
wealth carries with it a superficial power that blinds the affluent
to the inherent powerlessness that is a precondition for Earth
healing, as will be discussed in May. We ought to opt for those
who will effect the major changes in our world -- and with God's
"sense of humor" that is through the supposedly powerless. As
promised by Mary in the Magnificat, the lowly, not the powerful of
this world, will be exalted.

4. Avoid a reliance on the affluent. Earth healers cannot
expect to have sugar daddies and count on the wealthy. Only in
recent years have vocal environmental organizations been coming in
greater numbers from non-affluent developing countries -- a change
evident at the Rio Environmental Conference in June, 1992.
Traditionally, those holding key positions in major developed
country environmental organizations are from the white elite.
Wealthier folks have limitations, for they often fail to recognize
either the deep sense of helplessness experienced by the poor, or
their own inherent powerlessness. Affluent peoples' monopoly of
leadership roles keeps the ecological movement from being richly
diverse and forestalls potential environmental participation by
all; thus some of us must step aside.

5. The poor are freer to criticize themselves. A history and
possibility of scarcity sharpens the concerns of the poor. People
who are hungry and homeless and otherwise impoverished know what
the basics of life mean. They experience real needs which are a
certain purification. They are focused on their necessities, since
they do not have scattered and peripheral interests. This focusing
has a certain purgative effect and allows them to see a situation
with greater clarity -- even when their interest is narrowly
personal. This focusing touches on the honesty so characteristic
of Gandhi whose answer to India's bondage was accepted by the poor
-- "The English have not taken India, we have given it to them.
They are not in India because of their strength but because we kept
them." (Reference: M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj 1939 [Ahmedabad,
India: Navajivan Press, 1939], Ch. 7, p. 22). The poor first see
that the emperor is wearing no clothes. Earth-healing includes
pinpoints of light or catalysts (yeast), critical masses of people
(dough), and a proper environment and energy (a heated oven).
Listening to the poor is a continuous reality check.

Note: The poor aren't perfect and are in need of corrective
procedures. The greedy poor can aspire to being greedy rich who
cling to their fleeting possessions. While the poor do not have the
material allurements of the rich, often they desire to have them.
A good discussion of this issue is by Luis N. Camacho, entitled
"Consumption as a Theme in the North-South Dialogue," found in The
Environmental Ethics and Policy Book, by Donald VanDeVeer and
Christine Pierce (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co. 1998)
Second Edition, pp. 560-62. Also see "Consumption and the
Environment," by Herman E.Daly in the same book, p. 559.

6. Healers of the Earth focus on poor Earth. Our option for
the poor is best implemented when we extend Jesus' sense of
compassion to all peoples and to Earth herself. If it is God's
will, we choose to give time, attention, and effort to those who
are least among our brothers and sisters. And who really are
least? In the spirit of St. Francis we extend the field of the
most needy beyond poor people to include our brothers and sisters -
- the threatened and endangered plants and animals. Our option is
to the least, and thus we attend to poor people and poor Earth. In
doing so we become more Christlike, and our radical compassion
penetrates into the entire creation as we know it. In the coming
months we will try to spell out the fine details of this
fundamental election, which can be summed up as a preferential
option for the poor.