www.earthhealing.info

An eco-spirituality through the seasons

By Al Fritsch, SJ

CONTENTS

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

ECO-SPIRITUALITY IN FEBRUARY

During February, winter gets quite tiresome, and we are
tempted to lose hope that it will ever end. February in the
Northern Temperate Zone is when we long for the comfort of a new
and refreshing season -- and yet there is still a little more
winter in store. The countryside seems desolate; with few
exceptions, the new growth is not yet visible. Impatient folks
like me despise having to stay inside and the seldom changing
winter patterns of January, but are forced to be realists and to
see the situation as it truly is. We must face winter's
continuation and at the same time detect the subtle changes that
are occurring.

February is the month when we learn to hope out loud. It is
truly the month of expectancy; we are awaiting the spring. The
days are getting noticeably longer; the doves are mourning; those
naked trees are coming to life in ever so little ways and the
forsythia buds show their yellow before the end of the month. The
sap is rising -- ever so imperceptibly; a sign of new life in the
early year. And that sap can be tapped, boiled down to a sparkling
syrup, but it takes effort to tap trees, stoke fires, make the
syrup, and collect and bottle the highly prized authentic product.
These exercises are the work of human hands but this enhances the
natural product. Even in somewhat cold February we realize that we
live by the sweat of our brow.

We bless the candles that symbolize the new light now coming
into the world. Light from light, is not fully understood, but is
a "presentation" in the natural temple of our Earth. Nonetheless,
through our desolation comes a ray of hope, a consolation that is
coming to our wounded Earth. In this month we see the wounds in a
vivid manner, but we also have the first dawn of a healing process.
We will not be left alone. Light brings the comfort of a companion
who is Jesus Christ.

         A. EXPERIENCES OF DESOLATION

We looked out in January and beheld God's glory. But reality
extends beyond nature in its untouched splendor. In our freedom,
we human beings touch the Earth for better or worse, and that fact
is part of reality also. Glory coexists with glory tarnished and
distorted. The "green" crowd who only see natural glory do not see
the fullness of reality that includes the cultivated greenspace and
managed forests. Paradoxically this limitation placed on reality
can accelerate the shrinkage in isolated mountain areas, idyllic
Pacific isles, or Antarctica where people search out more of the
remaining untouched wilderness.

The Garden of Eden only exists in our dreams and hopes; our
ancestors messed things up and that messing has accelerated in
recent times. The call is for an eco-spirituality that refutes
both the idealism of solely natural untouched glory and the
current fatalism that says we can not halt the onrushing
mistreatment of Mother Earth. A truly Deep Ecology accepts the
real situation, knows it for what it is, and calls for the
purification of healers. The Earth's situation is not a fairy tale
where automatically all will live happily ever after. WE face the
raw reality of the HERE and NOW and we must begin to act.

In the first part of February's discussion we briefly survey
the current conditions of our wounded Earth. So much has been
written about each notation in a host of books on the environmental
crisis. Eco-disasters abound on our wounded Earth. Examples
selected here include: 1) the recent drastic extinction of native
plant and animal species, while some species proliferate,
especially exotic and invasive species; 2) the increase in noise
pollution that adds stress to our lives; 3) the global bad taste of
water pollution that affects many of the world's poor; 4) the smell
of air pollutants and the deadly effects of worrisome but odorless
pollutants causing a greenhouse effect; and 5) the possible
diseases and the possible pandemic that could spread through more
rapid mobility of people. There are still other environmental
problem areas that will be mentioned, such as visual pollution of
landscape, destruction of greenspace, and depletion of natural
resources. This deepening call to eco-spirituality touches our
hearts with compassion for both suffering people and the suffering
Earth.

            1. Desolate Sights

This is why the country is in mourning, and all who live in it
pine away, even the wild animals and the birds of heaven; the fish
of the sea themselves are perishing. (Hosea 4: 3)

We were walking on the Kentucky Sheltowee Trail (part of the
Daniel Boone National Forest) documenting the effects of off-road
vehicles on this 250-mile walking trail that was first used by
Native Americans. We came across a small box turtle ("tarpon"), with its shell
smashed by the tires of an ORV. And to think, Sheltowee means
turtle. The terrible sight hurt us deeply.

We look about and we see the result of human misdeeds in the
world around us. That is why the sense of seeing is placed first.
Many of us Christians disapprove of a form of religion that focuses
on hearing alone -- the preached word, the songs, and person-to-
person encouragement, all good but not complete. "Catholic"
signifies the use of all the senses: the sight of colorful
vestments, stained glass windows and creches; the sounds of music
and chant; the smell of incense, flowers, balm, and snuffed out
candles; the taste of the Eucharist; and the touch of the laying on
of hands, the sign of peace, and the anointing with oil. Trained
to use all senses, we open our eyes and perceive desolation all
around us.

Extinction of species. In the 19th century bounty hunters
would ride the trains on the American Great Plains and shoot the
American bison for the fun of it. This sport both destroyed the
livelihood of the Plains Native Americans and cleared the railroad
tracks of any disturbances from crossings herds. By the turn of
the century (1900) there remained only two remnant herds in the
United States. The fate of the passenger pigeon was even worse.
In previous centuries, passenger pigeons would darken the sky near
their traditional roosting areas, which covered many square miles.
The last such pigeon died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1915.

The fate of the buffalo and passenger pigeon should have
taught us vivid lessons on how we ought to value and protect
wildlife. However, in a land flowing with growing consumer
appetites and replete with the Jacksonian Era horror of shipping
the Native Americans to distant reservations, an appreciation of
wildlife in native habitat was slow in coming. Many song birds
were greatly diminished in number because the hat-making industry
sought plumage for both women's and some men's headgear during the
early part of the 20th century. Emerging conservation groups such
as the Audubon Society began to call attention to wildlife
destruction. However, with time and development, the nest and
habitat destruction and flyway disturbance have been harder to
remedy. Unsustainable forest harvest and road fragmentation
threaten bird and wildlife habitats. Wetlands, which are the rich
nesting and feeding grounds for many species, have been drained.
Intake of pesticides or toxic materials collected further down the
food chain have been a threat to high chain feeders such as the
eagles and hawks. The cumulative effects of all these
environmental assaults have resulted in more and more endangered
animal and plant species.

What is not being made extinct is being threatened. For
instance, wild ginseng, highly prized as a medicinal in Asia, has
been harvested to extinction in the sparse forestlands of China and
now is being over-harvested in North America. The same condition
affects other herbs and wild plants to such a degree that experts
in botanicals are refusing to identify commercially valuable
varieties for fear of mass extinction in a very short period of
time by greedy harvesters. The same unsustainable harvesting
practices can also disrupt wildlife populations prized for tusks,
furs, hides and other commercial commodities. In the Franciscan
spirit, we must declare that our brotherhood and sisterhood with
plants and animals must not be overlooked; the assaults on this
planet include the flora and the fauna and fragile Mother Earth
herself. We must do something!

Other wildlife disturbances. Encouraging the proliferation of
game animals may result in their impacting native vegetation and
other wildlife. The rapid increase of deer, rabbits, Canadian
geese, and wild turkeys has been encouraged by hunting agencies and
through current agricultural practices of leaving more unharvested
grain in the fields. Deer are now a major problem in both rural
and urban America, where they feast on crops and ornamental
shrubbery and flowers; they far outnumber their ancestors at the
time of Columbus. Wild turkeys can act like a harvesting machine
and denude the understory of valuable plants through their quite
efficient foraging for food. Wild geese can become opportunistic
and fail to migrate when they have good pickings; and they show
gratitude by leaving their droppings on lawns and golf courses.
This form of proliferation has resulted from the human elimination
of wolf, fox and other predators, which assist nature in holding
the wildlife species in balance.

Exotic and invasive species. While some native species are in
massive decline and others are increasing through the loss of
nature's checks and balances, we are experiencing a third animal
and plant problem due in part to the mobility of goods in the
transportation sector. People like to plant exotic species in
yards and disturbed land areas. We are being invaded by species
from Kudzu (covering seven million acres of America's southeast as
of this writing) to mugwort that are very hard to eradicate and are
crowding out the more timid native species. Russian and oriental
olives are being used on coal mined reclamation areas and are
spreading far and wide due to birds dropping the seeds. The list
of escaped exotic plants and animals goes on and on. Some
ecologists regard exotic and invasive species as the foremost
environmental problem of the twenty-first century.

            2. Sounds of Mourning

The season of glad songs has come,
the cooing of the turtledove is heard
in our land. (The Song of Songs 2:12b)

Nature is a marvelous teacher, and the gentlest of creatures
have very special roles -- if we are but listening. A sound,
coming somewhat early in the year, calls to the core of our
collective souls. It is the sound of the mourning dove, our
commonest species in America (Zenaida macroura). The cooing we
hear distinctly in February is the harbinger of spring, for when it
starts we know the earth is awakening, the sap is quietly rising,
and the tree buds are swelling ever so minutely. I have always
loved the peaceful dove's sound. These birds call us from winter's
slumber to come alive, to cultivate the land, and to bring God's
blessings to full bloom through the work of our hands. The humble
dove gives the first soft sounds, but discordant noises may block
our hearing their soft-spoken message.

Actually the sound of cow bells and church bells in more
serene days have given way to factory din and mine whistles,
vehicular noises from the roads and airplanes overhead, hair dryers
and vacuum sweepers, loud music from the boom box and the all-
invasive blaring television, paging systems and loudspeakers,
jackhammers and earth movers, lawn mowers and leaf blowers (though
not so often in February), and voices raised in order to be heard.
Why should discordant sound abound except that we allow it to
happen? While our quiet space diminishes, we lapse into the
silence of utter intimidation. And we know we are all partly to
blame due to our silence.

I am twittering like a swallow,
I am moaning like a dove,
my eyes turn to the heights,
take care of me, be my safeguard. (Isaiah 38:14)

I always thought our rural life was somewhat quiet, only in
comparison with the urban congestion I experienced on my visits and
stays in the big cities. However my brother recalled for me the
reality of our emerging noise pollution. Our hammer mill that
cracked corn and wheat for hogs and cattle was extremely noisy; so
was the silage cutter, and the tractor mower. What about the
droning of the milking machines that could be heard for miles
around? And our own use of radios at such high volumes? Yes, I
forgot. We were creating noise pollution in so many ways and did
not notice -- or thought it was a very nice and progressive thing
to do.

Facing noise pollution. Congestion and street noises follow
the progress of civilization and one finds traffic being both a
blessing and curse as it is accompanied by squealing tires, revving
of motorcycles, and blowing horns -- and air pollution. Congestion
has an unnerving effect on drivers and passengers as well as on
residents in such areas, and yet few publicly complain about the
deterioration of the quality of life of a community, the loss of
rest time and disturbance of sleep patterns. How many speak about
the hearing loss from factory din and overly loud music?
Unprotected ears are damaged; exposed victims are overly stressed
without knowing it, and the number of all noise pollution sources
and the total accumulated volume are expanding.

Wildlife is affected as well; scientific studies show that
birds near frequented trails are affected, especially through the
noise from off-road vehicles; fish are known to be affected by
water disturbances and sonic booms. Also domestic livestock are
stressed as any dairy farmer will testify; that is why classical
music is often heard in cow barns. Not all noise pollution can be
controlled by the particular affected individual. Disturbances
from the rapidly rising levels of noise in our more sophisticated
society are having subtle effects on our ability to reflect and
live quality lives.

Noise controls. The cause of noise pollution is not just the
devices, which often can be softened by acoustical engineering, but
the insensitivity of the user to people who desire quiet and rest.
In order to curb noise pollution we need community controls, for
simply sound-proofing an area of our home is a good escape but
little more; it does not address the widespread and growing noise
pollution in congested areas. For our hyperactive culture, noise
signifies busyness and communicativeness. Controls are needed for
all types of environmental assaults, but noise necessitates more
than escape to quieter places or the use of ear plugs. Our culture
is slow at curbing noise makers, even as noise reaches intolerable
levels. All forms of environmental controls must confront the
false American notion that individuals can do what they please, and
the rest be damned. Eco-spirituality provides a balance of both
individual and community responsibility. We are encouraged to
speak up for the oppressed, no matter how unpopular such speech may
be.

            3. Tastes of Desolation

The second angel blew his trumpet, and it was as though a
great mountain, all on fire, had been dropped into the sea; a
third of the sea turned into blood, a third of the living things in
the sea were killed, and a third of all the ships were destroyed.
(Revelation 8:8-9)

When we were young we would plant, cultivate and harvest the
crops in the back fields. Especially in spring we would get down on
our knees and drink from the wet springs that would continue to
trickle even during dryer parts of the year. How good was the
taste of that cool water to the sweaty worker. However, today
because of fear of aquifer contamination or giardia I would
hesitate to do this in those very locations.

We all need water in reasonable quantity and good quality. A
recent article pictures dead elephants in a drought-stricken
Zimbabwe wildlife reserve near dried up watering holes. The
government of that impoverished land can not secure the fuel needed
to run water pumps to replenish the water holes for these mammals
requiring fifty gallons each per day. The amount of potable or
non-salty drinkable water is only a fraction of the total quantity
of water on this planet, and much of that is inaccessible to humans
and other creatures in need. Finding accessible water of
sufficient quality for essential needs is becoming a growing
problem for many people, and it is expected to get worse.

Water contamination. The dumping of sewage in streams and
rivers and fanciful wishing that it will go away is disaster, for
dilution is not the solution to pollution. Sewage is a major
problem in many parts of the world and has only gotten worse since
people acquired more flush toilets, thus using far larger
quantities of water and dumping the resulting waste anywhere where
residents do not complain too loudly. And it is not good
ecological practice to build purification systems to return this
carrier water back to drinkable standards. Here in Appalachia, the
poor with newly acquired flush toilets extend drainage "straight"
pipes to creeks and rivers as a practical solution. The neglect of
the dry composting toilet option (nature's way), which does not
gain favor from institutionalized regulators even under ideal
conditions, means that the water dilemma will only get worse.
Emitted chemicals, whether found in industrial or agricultural
pesticide runoff, contaminate waterways and often do not biodegrade
easily.

Potable water scarcity. The availability of good quality
drinking water is a growing problem throughout the world but
especially in developing countries and most acutely in heavily
congested mega-urban areas such as Mexico City and Cairo.
Supplying potable water when sources are becoming heavily
contaminated by industrial or agricultural chemicals or sewage is
emerging as a major problem, even greater than energy shortages.
Add to this a lack of water conservation with growing affluence and
the "need" for water to wash cars, water lawns of non-native grass,
fill swimming pools. Agricultural irrigation makes heavier demands
on fresh water than do suburban homes occupying a comparable area.
Traditional water purification methods are often unable to remove
complex chemicals such as steroids and medicines from current used-
water supplies. Untreated human and animal wastes are affecting
lakes and streams throughout the world; fish are being
overharvested and yields are falling due to industrial and
transport vehicle emissions. Contaminated or filled-in wetlands
threaten the formerly rich breeding grounds of much wildlife.

Water pollution effects. From time immemorial, people have
suffered from water-related diseases such as malaria and cholera.
While many of the more serious of these diseases are now
controllable, many water-related health problems remain. At least
one billion or more people drink water that is highly polluted. In
turn, these people are beset with a host of water-borne diseases,
which cause sickness and death. Without proper knowledge or
instruction, it is difficult to purify enough domestic water for
normal family use. Even boiling potable water is difficult for the
very poor who lack accessible fuel beyond what is needed for
cooking. Solar distilling units for home use are currently too
expensive -- but these could become community devices. Some people
simply do not realize the degree of water contamination and resort
to slaking their thirst with non-potable water; thus they are
prone to parasites and other water-borne diseases. New studies
suggest that running water through multiple layers of clean cotton
cloth will remove most harmful bacteria, but the methods must be
taught to millions of people. While water pollution is widespread
and demands community controls, still individual safeguards could
be implemented through massive education programs. But even that
takes resources.

Lack of resources. Individual education is not the whole
story. Technologies exist for purifying water on a larger scale,
such as through ultraviolet light or use of chlorine or ozone.
Some of these highly effective methods are too expensive and are
not available in urban slums and rural areas where need is great.
Water purification does not have the priority in some countries
where other essential as sufficient foods are not being met.
Sanitary systems (dry composting toilets and artificial wetlands),
which preserve drinking water from contamination, could be built at
low cost but these do need to be constructed by moderately astute
managers. Drilling for underground water may prove expensive, may
yield non-potable water, and requires technical know-how.

            4. Clouds and Clouds

When you see a cloud looming up in the west you say at once
that rain is coming, and so it is. And when the wind is from the
south you say it will be hot, and it is. (Luke 12: 54-55)

The parish priest at Belle, West Virginia, asked us to come
and document the white stuff that was floating from a nearby
factory. It contaminated the air and some of his parishioners were
complaining abut breathing problems. We reported the problem to
state and federal authorities.

We need to read the signs of the times. Clean air, that
freest of all Earthly components, comes now at a terrible price --
and it is not necessarily our fault as individuals. Two centuries
ago, we regarded smoking factory chimneys as the sign of workers'
ability to bring home a pay check; in more recent times these same
smokestacks are a reminder of the pollution of our air and
accompanying respiratory diseases such as the great smog of Donora,
Pennsylvania, or London, England, in the years after the Second
World War. The air, that basic commons of all the Earth, has been
co-opted by industrialists in much the same way that sheep pastures
were removed from the commons in the 17th and 18th centuries and
given to landlords and barons. Dirty air is the result of greed
and insensitivity to what is happening to nearby and even distant
residents.

Some gases foul air even more severely than the soot -- and
their odors betray them. The sulfur oxides from coal and other
fuels are destroyers of lungs and ultimate killers; nitrogen oxides
and ozone are other emissions from the fossil fuels used to run
industry and vehicles. When mixed with atmospheric humidity, the
oxides form acidic compounds and lead to acid rain, which harms
both flora and fauna and has greatly damaged higher elevation
forests.

Burning fossil fuels also leads to a build-up of carbon
dioxide, a necessary component in photosynthesis; yet in large
quantities in the atmosphere carbon dioxide will have the same
effect that occurs in a greenhouse, where light energy is converted
into heat and retained by the greenhouse windows; the atmosphere
warms due to the inability of heat to escape. We all hear how
carbon dioxide, methane and other emitted gases contribute to the
planetary "greenhouse effect" and that the climate is changing; the
Earth is getting warmer; glaciers are melting; ocean currents are
affected as water temperatures rise; even the frequency and
severity of storms and the change in moisture distribution are
considered by some to result from this effect. In the United
States the current Administration is accused of not taking this
phenomenon seriously or hoping that non-governmental agencies can
handle it in a capitalistic manner. That is not always possible,
especially in relation to the commons. We can hardly afford to
tinker to such a degree with Mother Nature.

Because of the reluctance of industrialized nations to take
fossil fuel combustion products seriously, some like James
Lovelock, the author of the Gaia Theory of the Earth (the planet is
a living system involving the interaction of life forms with their
environment), says there's big trouble ahead. He writes that the
process that includes feedback mechanisms that have previously
acted in a benign way for humans is going to stop working in that
fashion; this should amplify global warming to such an extent that
it is impossible to control. This severe fatalism challenges Earth
healers who seek to be hopeful. The clouds of ominous signs must
be taken seriously by prudent people. We must control these human
sources of carbon dioxide.

Ozone depletion in the North and South Pole areas is another
air pollution problem. These ozone deficient holes are caused by
certain long-lived gases, which attack the protective low levels of
ozone (toxic in high concentration in urban streets) in the upper
atmosphere. The lack of ozone allows harmful ultraviolet rays to
enter the atmosphere in amounts sufficient to harm both human
beings and other creatures. Culprits include certain Freons found
in industrial and domestic uses, though recent efforts have led to
curbing many Freons. Air pollution has been curbed in many
congested areas, and this must be acknowledged. Things can be done
but it takes both carrots and sticks.

            5. Touching a Bit of Hell

I was always afraid of heights in barns. My most vivid
meditation on hell was climbing twenty to thirty feet in a dusty
tobacco barn on a summer afternoon with the sun beating down on a
tin roof overhead; I would be sweating, dodging the wasps, and
straddling loose barn rails with my feet so that my hands were free
to handle tobacco. I imagined that the sweat would get into my
eyes, a wasp would sting me and, in jerking back in pain, I would
lose my balance and fall -- and that would not be good. The vivid
imagination would get the best of me.

Why so few words on hell as a place? Yes, I believe there is
such a place but I dare not judge who or how many are there in the
eternal fires. It is beneficial to consider hell as both a place
and a condition; in any case it need not be down on my beautiful
microcosm; as a condition it could be up in a hot and dusty tobacco
barn. Part of the sparsity of my words is because vivid
descriptions of hell come close to cruel and unusual punishment for
the average person. Some preachers may turn on the fear spigot and
mesmerize listeners through vivid sermons, even though hell is
better felt than heard. Hellish descriptions are not in vogue
today and are regarded as images of an outmoded revivalism. Far
better it is to capture the imagination by the infinite mercy of
God. Furthermore we have far more hell on Earth than most want to
see or hear about. A February eco-spirituality encourages the
description of current hellish conditions so people will turn from
their ways.

Hell as a condition has a location in the squalor of a slum,
the unclean senior citizen home, the despair of the addicted, the
oozing toxic waste near where children are playing, the drought
stricken area where wildlife is dying, the migrant camp, and the
extended belly of an underfed child in the Horn of Africa. But a
greater fear is the condition that could so easily develop in our
world, namely, a possible pandemic that could sweep across the
planet and cause many deaths. The bird flu virus that has spread
from southeast Asia to the western part of that continent and into
Europe has as of this writing put fear into many including health
experts around the world. This scourge would actually occur, if
a virus now transmitted from wild bird to domestic fowl and from
animal to animal would jump to transmission from an affected human
to humans. Vividly imagined scenes could become the reality,
similar to the 1918 flu pandemic or the Black Death in the 14th
century. We are haunted by being helpless in the face of such
episodes. What would we do?

Certain natural catastrophes such as pestilence, earthquakes,
hurricanes, and tsunamis create hellish conditions. Yes, we can
get out of their way, but some are too poor to move about, as we
witnessed in the Katrina hurricane. Organized response may include
stockpiled emergency supplies, quick response teams, quarantining
off affected areas, and work on vaccines and drugs. Spread of
disease is more prevalent today, because passengers can travel with
such ease and speed from affected regions to other parts of the
world. Travel restrictions would be necessary in times a pandemic.
Still, government preparedness personnel repeatedly stress that
individuals are far more effective than programs; we must take
personal responsibility when and where possible.

To fear hell as either a place or condition may be salutary,
if not obsessive. Believers in God's mercy find far more relief
than those who listen to the ranting of the fire-and-brimstone
types who captivate people through fear of eternal hell. A more
balanced approach is to proclaim a purgatory where those not ready
for the eternal light, work off their imperfections -- whether in
this life through extended illness or immediately after death.
Some today find this transitory state more in keeping with God's
mercy than an eternal one. A balanced eco-spiritual standpoint is
to see hell clearly as possible disasters facing our world and
people today. They may be naturally generated and quite possible,
but we as individuals must choose to live with them, prevent them
where possible, and assist others in times of need. For ultimate
assistance we look to the Lord. From the Earth will burst forth
our Savior. We can look down in anticipation, not fear. Springs
bring new life and the mercy and glory of the Creator. Hellish
conditions can be overcome with God's grace; ruin may come but we
are not alone.


            B. REFLECTIONS: NEED FOR REDEMPTION

We believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God.
The Nicene Creed

We have become aware of wrongdoing to our Earth: damage to
plants and animals, through destruction of habitat, allowing the
invasion of exotic species, and noise, water and air pollution.
Animal and plant protection demands our attention at this time;
noise problems require both community and individual controls;
water and air problems go beyond individual actions to embrace
community and global agencies in order to protect the commons; and
there is only so much that can be done about certain problems like
a possible pandemic or other forms of natural disasters; though we
can take preventive measures, we also need divine assistance.

The Earth, which is holy ground, has been desecrated by those
who are insensitive and greedy. The pain is evident for those
attuned with the seasons, place and community -- the NOW, the HERE,
and the WE. The NOW is the season of desolation; the HERE is where
we reside and find wounds; the WE include the Earthly creatures
about us and our human family. In order to become compassionate and
become worthy healers of the Earth we must take these five steps:

* Look into ourselves and find our personal faults;
* Listen through the noise to the call to repentance;
* Taste the temptation to avoid becoming immersed in
unpleasant things;
* Experience the direct needs of people who need our help; and
* Touch the wounds of the Earth with a healing compassion
taught us by Jesus, the perfect eco-model.

            1. The Fall: Stumbling when not Looking

With sweat on your brow shall you eat your bread,
until you return to the soil, as you were taken from it.
For dust you are and to dust you shall return. (Genesis 3:19)

I had a number of bike spills in my life, but the most
memorable occurred in Austin when studying at the University of
Texas. It was all in a flash. I was one moment riding merrily and
the next I was sprawled over the hood of a car and slipping down to
the dusty street. I was knocked down by a car braking suddenly at
an intersection when the driver, perhaps fully consumed with an
examination or paper to be finished, simply didn't see me, as can
happen when autos and bikes mix. There were bruises but no breaks,
thank heavens! It took a number of weeks for the skin on legs and
arms to recover, but it always made me more aware of the
unexpected. We can and we do fall.

Sin is when one misses the mark; and the failure of human
beings to take care of creation is a fall from grace, from the
willingness to take care of what God has given us to care for in
this life. Sin affects the individual, and sin affects all of
creation as well. The human race experienced its fall from grace
when it least expected that the Garden of Eden would end, that
Babel would be dispersed, and that the Babylonian Exile would
begin. All the kings could not put the fallen egg-shattered world
back together again. Falls from grace stand out in human history;
some are individual stumbles; some occur over time when empires
crumble and fall. History is filled with examples of these falls.

Awareness -- The contrast between the beauty of creation and
the reality of pain and toil is apparent. Now is the acceptable
time; now is the day of salvation. WE (individually and
collectively) must be willing to acknowledge our finitude, our
weaknesses, our collective falls. Scandals of all types stand out,
but part of the emerging of crises is a shared blame, a failure of
a people and not just individuals. The first shoe falls and we
recognize the misdeed, but we then listen for the second shoe of
aftermath, the social disfunction, the lingering results of
wrongdoing. At times, we love recognition, but again we see that
notoriety is one side of the coin, which includes shortfalls which
may come back to haunt us and our society. Misdeed and aftermath
go hand-in-hand.

Addressing personal faults. Individually we fall from grace
but we can return, and that is a purification needed so that we can
move ahead. In this month of Shrove Tuesday (the time to be
shriven from our sins), we seek a February eco-spirituality that
accepts that we are not perfect; when we overcome the things that
make us stumble, we are more able to become better healers of the
Earth. So often people with the best of intentions become
stumbling blocks to others with whom they desire to work. A team
approach to Earth healing ultimately demands that each of us become
more affable and pleasant, less to blame for dissention among
members. Face it, our petty faults divide people, irritate them,
drive them away, and turn them off. The small barriers are real
ones nonetheless. But these can be addressed and these can be
overcome. Confessing our faults is a public acknowledgment that we
are imperfect, that we know where we stand, that we will take
responsibility, and that our spiritual journey is one of continued
effort and possible progress -- with the grace of God. And we
human beings need other people to hear our admission, to tell us of
God's forgiveness and to send us forth to renew our lives.

The wages of collective sin. We as communities can fail in
our collective efforts to make the environment a better place.
Nothing stands out more than the way we treat so-called "waste"
materials. Discarded waste stands for a community's refusal to say
that all of God's creation is good (Genesis). Like the fall of our
first parents, waste becomes a form of infidelity, and results when
both individuals and communities refuse to compost and handle their
own wastes. They prefer to send their waste elsewhere to mar the
beauty of some other place and lead to a form of visual pollution
(discarded junk, litter and building materials). Visible pollution
is disharmony to the eyes -- and that is highly detrimental to the
integrity of a community. Lax enforcement of regulations along
with carelessness by individuals is coupled with corporate
practices of introducing non-returnables -- a highly profitable but
irresponsible practice. Elizabeth Dodson Gray, a nuclear power
critic, says the rapid rise of the nuclear power industry in the
1960s was achieved by engineers "who never change diapers." If
they had, they would have recognized the pile up of nuclear waste,
which would bedevil the world for untold future decades. Waste is
the sign of our irresponsibility.

Moving beyond. We cannot walk backward through history. That
is why we must come to terms with our past so that we can look
ahead to the future. Realizing that we are at fault, that we are
sorry, that we ask God's pardon, and that we will strive to do
better is all part of becoming more fitting instruments in healing
the Earth. An eco-spirituality that fails to address our own
personal and collective issues will be limited for it will
constantly find blame with the other person or institution, and
consider that as satisfactory conduct; such an attitude never
addresses our own faults or our participation in collective faults.
Knowing ourselves for who we are, allows us to seek and find God's
mercy, the atmosphere in which compassion will occur. If we hate,
deny, excuse or run from ourselves to such an extent that we shun
coming to terms with our own imperfections, we are simply
handicapped in the healing process in which we are called to be
engaged.

            2. Discordance and Discord and Earth

From the beginning till now the entire creation, as we know,
has been groaning in one great act of giving birth; and not only
creation, but all of us who possess the first-fruits of the Spirit,
we too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free.
(Romans 8: 22-23)

Jim Sullivan and I took my parents on a trip in the spring of
1971 to western Kentucky to see the large coal excavation equipment
in Muhlenberg County. It was "down where the Green River flows" in
John Prine's words. The landscape down there could have been the
perfect setting for a moonscape movie. It was my first encounter
with a massive surface mining operation, and it made a lasting
impression. From there Jim and I journeyed to Charleston, West
Virginia, and got our first grant from Jay Rockefellar to perform
public interest work on coal surface mining practices in Kentucky,
West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Discord or disharmony is hard for many of us to endure. We
seem to have different limits to our endurance. If we look about,
we see discord all about -- individual acts of discord, that within
families, communities, social groupings, global relations and
discord within the Earth herself. But if we are not careful we may
omit a major source of discord -- the chasm between the rich and
the poor, the heights of affluence in a world where many do not
have the essential needs of life, the division of the haves from
the have nots. That is the most profound discord and the cause of
many individual ones as well.

Groans of discord. People have discord when they lack
organization and order in their lives or have substance abuses, or
omit their basic duties; they have discord with partners through
unresolved frictions and grudges, within families, and with
neighbors. Marriages do not always work out happily and small
fights become larger battles within families. Divorce rates soar,
broken families result, with abandoned or forsaken children or the
unfortunate ones who are shuttling between separated parents.
Discord damages the fabric of families, neighborhoods and small and
large communities. Continued friction leads to gangs, mobs, racial
groups, hardened religious gatherings and increasing oppression.
The twentieth century witnessed two global conflicts taking tens of
millions of lives along with countless smaller wars and clashes.
Concentration camps, refugee conditions, and tribal fighting among
rival groups resulted in discord of monumental proportions.
Unfortunately, the turn of a millennium did not halt global
discord. Acts of terrorism such as the attack on the World Trade
Center in New York in 2001 and the continued friction in the Middle
East make us all the more aware of unresolved causes of discord.

Environmental Discordant notes. Starting with Earth Day,
1970, many of us have become more sensitive to the wounded Earth
and endangered creatures. When we listen, we recognize the groans
are not human anguish alone, but those coming from hills being torn
apart, species becoming extinct, and the air and water being
polluted. Our Earth is in mourning. Scripture, especially the
Psalms (e.g. 96), tells how creation gives praise to God through
its very presence. Certainly even suffering creation gives praise,
but does a damaged creation distract our act of giving praise?
Yes, all creation gives praise in one chorus. When we are
disturbed by damaged creation, then we would expect that our total
praise would be reduced through distraction. When we as human
beings cause the degradation of the Earth and then neglect to heal
the wounds, we are at fault for allowing this form of "sacrilege"
to continue. Our motivation to praise in the midst of degradation
is lessened. Rather, we hear discordant notes and are motivated to
redouble our efforts to restore all creation so that our joint
praise will be enhanced.

Long-term problems and solutions -- Extensive exposition of
this environmental discord has occurred, especially since the 1960s
in such books as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and Ralph Nader's
Unsafe at any Speed. By 1970, I for one thought that environmental
discord would be short-lived and would be corrected through proper
and widespread exposition and governmental corrective measures
within the democratic process -- and this in a short time. The
obvious solution was an enhanced resolve by proper governmental
agencies at all levels to pinpoint and punish individual and
corporate culprits, especially dealing with air and water pollution
problems. But we early environmental activists were somewhat naive
in expectations. Restoration of pollution problems proved easier
on small matters (i.e., getting lead out of gasoline or excess
mercury out of waterways), than it did on the looming larger issues
such as global warming and conversion to a renewable energy
economy. Political and economic realities produced unforeseen
barriers. Environmental degradation could not be overcome by
knowledge and information alone; it requires a concerned public's
willingness to enforce proper and effective regulation, and this is
difficult.

Affluence as discordance. I was once attacked for using the
term "sin of affluence" by someone who catered to the wealthy and
who said the "Church" should attend to the needs of affluent
people. Yes, the Church is for all people, but we need to give
special attention to the poor, not the affluent who have the
influence to take care of themselves. By the sin of affluence is
meant the inability to see others in need due to the insensitivity
resulting from possession of excessive material comforts. It is
the condition in Matthew 25 when the Lord passes judgment on those
who either see or do not see the hungry, thirsty and naked. It is
the words in James' Letter dealing with the rich. Sins of omission
could condemn us. Wealth is not an evil in itself, but affluence
in a world of destitution leads many to an inherent insensitivity,
which paralyzes our loving and sharing. If we are really sensitive
to the needs of those without the bare essentials, we could not
tolerate the continued arrogance of overly affluent ways.

Affluence incorporates control over wealth mixed with a
political power to protect what one has. And wealth mixed with
political power destroys democracy, fortifies itself with
sophisticated communications and transportation technologies, moves
money from place to place with electronic ease, favors friends in
high places, and extends corporate control over ever larger numbers
of people. The great divide between the powerfully affluent and
the poor widens. The affluent are mesmerized with what they have
been successful in acquiring -- but they are blinded to the
inherent unsafe and fleeting quality of these materials. For them,
then emerges a fixation on security -- police, security guards,
military, and restriction of free movement. And they expect the
non-affluent to donate time and even lives to secure that wealth.

The affluent person's soft life weakens the will's ability to
say "no." This form of discordance is often overlooked by liberal
minds who believe affluence is a viable option. Environmentalists
find it easier to point to corporate culprits who use false
advertising practices and other promotional devices to enhance
their economic power. Certainly this exposure is important and
must continue. However, we must attempt to tackle the mandate to
simplify our lives, even when much of the culture dictates against
it. An economy based on production of more and more consumer
products predicates a motivation of ever higher affluence. But
enough is enough and resources, including the ability to guard
excess, are limited. What must always be considered is whether
limited resources are being expended to help those without the bare
essentials of life. Thus within the quest for higher affluence
arises the discordant condition of human insensitivity.

A false silence. The groans that we hear from suffering
people and Earth disturb us. They may even nag the affluent.
Unfortunately prophetic voices are quieted because we are cautioned
not to criticize the hands that subsidize us. Do not question the
capitalism that has given rise to this pervasive affluence. Do not
doubt that handing out charity in small amounts should allay our
conscience. Do not question the democratic process but rather
attribute all blame to blatant abuses and let the rest go quietly
by. Of course, tolerate those who wish to simplify their own
lives, but do not impose that simplification on others through
regulations. In the long run, few speak against the discordance of
affluence -- lest they be marginalized. But we must.

Reemphasizing some silence. When speaking of discordant
sounds in our world, we must recall from the January treatment that
harmony has measured moments of sound and other moments of silence.
Today we find that some in our noisy culture are extremely
uncomfortable with silence; youth from congested areas are
frightened by the silence of the woods or wilderness; others
chatter incessantly on cell phones for fear of dying in the hell of
isolation. Now more than ever, space for silence must be created
and protected just like space for concordant sounds. Some interior
space can be created in the home, the workplace, the study hall,
the sacred space, and even in the heart; other silent space can be
created or discovered in natural areas with retreat cabins and
sites; and still other space may be afforded at given times during
events such as sacred liturgies or the periods immediately before
public events. Moments of silence should punctuate our day through
periods of prayer and meditation. They help return the harmony
that is being lost in our world. Then we will be more able to
recognize the discordance all about us.

            3. The Taste of Temptation

Immediately afterwards, the Spirit drove him out into the
wilderness and he remained there for forty days, and was tempted by
Satan. He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after
him. (Mark 1:12-13)

Temptations are part of the human condition. From Matthew
4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13 we read about Jesus' temptations -- to
wealth, fame and power by turning stone into bread, flying off the
parapet of the Temple, and falling down and adoring the Evil One.
Jesus successfully overcomes the temptations to success in this
world by a simple life, the ignominy of the cross, and obedience to
the Divine Will. Mark's less detailed Gospel (quoted above)
focuses more on temptations to omission than on evil deeds of
commission, but Jesus responds by appearing in Galilee proclaiming
the good news immediately after John the Baptist's arrest. Jesus
does not run from conflict but risks going publicly in Galilee. He
is later tempted not to go up to Jerusalem and ultimately to
Calvary.

We are never tempted beyond our powers and thus we turn in
prayer to God for the help to overcome the many temptations before
us, those we perceive and those we fail to see. Some temptations
deal with the ready enticements that surround us in our present
world: pride in our own accomplishments; coveting wealth and
resources belonging to others and even future generations; lust for
power and to satisfy bodily passions, anger over others or our own
limitations, gluttony in a world of accessible foods of all sorts,
envy over the success of others, and a sloth that makes us
reluctant to do what has got to be done. Of perhaps greater
importance than the sins of weakness are those of omission or
removing ourselves from the duty to act in this threatened and
endangered world. We are tempted to:

* deny that trouble even exists and our part in bringing about
the New Creation. We fail to accept opportunities to be creative;

* excuse ourselves from accepting the responsibility to follow
Christ in the building of the Kingdom. We are too insensitive to
have compassion and love for others; and

* escape from the consequences lest we become involved in
conditions that demand more radical sharing of what we regard as
ours. We will fall into addictions, which divert us from what
needs to be done.

Response -- The temptation is quite strong to talk about
others, "they" as persons or institutions to blame or to effect
change; we speak of "there" or some place away from us where
confrontation must occur, and "then" either in lost opportunities
in the past or future possibilities when we are not present. On
second thought, WE are all called in unique ways to be agents of
change; the place is HERE; the time is NOW, the present
opportunity. In matters dealing with action that must be taken,
temptation involves fleeing from personal responsibility, from the
present time, and the present place.

    a) Denial of Situations

We were performing an environmental resource assessment on some
property in central Tennessee when I asked the manager of an
adjacent tennis court whether the scantily clothed tennis players
have any difficulty spending so much time directly underneath high
voltage powerlines going from a nearby powerplant to the Oak Ridge
Laboratories. He looked at me and said in all seriousness --
"There are no powerlines." Denial amid the sight and sound of
humming high voltage wires stunned our team.

Denial is a common mode of avoiding reality. Those who deny
may be overly optimistic and unable to come to terms with troubles,
or they may lie to themselves one more time. To deny is to see
another unreal picture as overpowering. "Good times will never go
away." Denial of the current situation is prevalent today and
infests us all in some fashion from unrealistic debts to lack of
looking at causes for terrorism. People steeped in the glory of
constant progress cannot consider that history moves in any fashion
other than progressively upward at all times. For them, only
progress is ahead and to say otherwise is heresy.

New temptations -- We encounter more denial than we are
willing to admit: overweight people, habitual smokers, and problem
drinkers are often prone to denial about their respective
conditions. A bumper sticker stands out: "Attacking my smoking
habit may be dangerous to your health." Don't challenge any form
of denial; rather than focus on harsh reality it is so much easier
for your health to lay out ideal situations that are far more
manageable. This basic denial may open one to strange
individualistic spiritualities, which blank out the unpleasant
surrounding world and allow one to congregate with like-minded
people who reenforce a collective denial. Many overlook the common
occurrence of denial on the part of communities and social groups
through popular hype, false advertisements, inflated resumes,
corporate and research progress reports, doctored financial
records, and other tendencies toward a progress in which we can
benefit.

Affirmation is the opposite of denial. The Creator says an
eternal "yes" to the goodness of Creation and thus the fullness of
affirmation rests in the creative act. Whenever we participate in
legitimate celebration, general support for others, charitable
giving, works of mercy, or ongoing care for hospice patients, we
say "yes;" we hear the Virgin Mary saying "yes" to being the
Mother of the Savior. We affirm the glory of creation against
pessimists, a better future over those in despair, a quality to
living against those who adhere to the culture of death through
abortion and euthanasia. One puzzled person was listening to a
popular writer's talk and asked him frankly what he really held.
He responded in a facetious manner that he believed in
"everything." I must respectfully disagree. There are times we
must say "yes" to what is good, but evil or overuse of goods are
not good; then we are morally obliged to just say "no."

    b) Excuse

Excuses sometimes come when they are least expected or
desired. At our Nature Center on the Rockcastle River in 1987 we
heard that Tommy, our manager of development, had just been
murdered; we were conversing with him only an hour before and
nothing seemed wrong. John, an assistant at our Center, was most
needed at this key moment in our neighborhood's life. However,
John said his constitution could not take such shocks, so he packed
his bags and abruptly departed for home in the deep South within
two hours of the murder. It was an evening when we really needed
him most. Maybe his excuse was an inability to deal with his own
Dad's death, but that was never fully explained. He thought he
just had to go; he did and never communicated with us again.

Valid excuses -- We should not be hard on the Johns of this
world. In fact, escape may be a way in which they cope with
difficult situations, which could cause them a nervous breakdown or
chronic sickness. A legitimate excuse is acceptable from people
who recognize their shortcomings and get out of the way to let more
experienced people handle the emergency. It's better than fainting
while trying to give critical aid and then becoming a hindrance
instead of a help. However, if an excuse is a non-acceptance of
responsibility, it's a different matter. If a parent only finds
excuses for not controlling a wayward child, we ask "Why don't
they handle the child properly?" If we are approached for
charitable giving, we could excuse ourselves and say we need our
money for the proverbial rainy day. When someone asks us to help
with a neighborhood program we could excuse ourselves saying we
have other pressing things, we are too old, we do not feel well, or
our ox is caught in a ditch. The creative mind always finds
excuses.

Acceptance of responsibility -- The opposite of excuse is
acceptance of responsibility. Jesus takes up the burden of human
wrongdoing in order to save us. He accepts the Father's will in
the most profound form of an obedience that is better than
sacrifice (I Samuel 15:22). By obeying God's will we radically
open ourselves to entering more perfectly into God's plan. We
follow the path of our Father in the faith, Abraham, who was
willing to sacrifice his son Isaac. Jesus' obedience is the most
profound return of everything given for he does so willingly. "In
the scroll of the book am I not commanded to obey your will?"
(Psalm 40:8). Jesus accepts the lowly position and does so in full
obedience to the Father's will. We are called to imitate him as
well. We too must accept the divine call and obey God's will; in
such cases excuses fade.

    c) Escape and Addictions

Jake was a friend who was very active until he was married,
but he simply couldn't share fully with his new wife. He became a
changed individual and seemed to escape into the web of watching
television all the time. Perhaps we think excessive tv is better
than booze, drugs, or malling, but tv can be a form of not coping
with life's situations or connecting with those near and dear.
Needless to say, Jake's marriage soon fell apart.

Many times over the past three decades I have spoken to
audiences on the need to conserve resources. Perhaps the
weaknesses of modern American educational philosophy haunt many of
us. Contrary to what many think, simply knowing the proper action
to take does not mean it will automatically happen. No particular
person is to blame for the lack of an operative conservation ethic
in this land. Isn't it the culture that encourages the consumption
of material goods for the sake of our national economy? This
philosophy of spend and spend all the more, spreads to other lands
through the electronic media and infects more and more people in
this resource-limited planet. Many want to be like Americans and
their affluent ways -- and what happens when the Chinese and
Indians have enough money to do so? When excessive affluence of
particular individuals is seen as impossible for a variety of
reasons, they often resort to individual forms of escape -- but
this escape may do violence to them.

We realize the addictive behavior of drugs, tobacco and
alcohol. I have just returned from burying a young man who
suffered from a drug overdose. Addictions take a terrible price
and we are almost powerless in what to say or what treatments to
support. Some programs and methods are more successful than
others; numerous addicts have changed and have joined Alcoholics
Anonymous. In fact, these successful ex-addicts are potential
resources for assisting others still addicted. But what can so few
reformed individuals do? Our national economic policies are bent
on domestic consumption; advertised medicine, richer foods,
alcohol, and personal credit all play into the hands of substance
abuse and addictions of various sorts. The four trillion dollar
personal indebtedness of American consumers should frighten us. At
the start of the current War on Terrorism, President Bush urged
consumers to spend and buy more. But with people sated with
spending sprees, where is the will power to simply say "no to
excessive consumption?"

You don't cure an alcoholic by tours to distilleries or by
attending lectures on what alcohol does to the brain and liver.
However, you may persuade this person to accompany an AA member to
the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. The problem is partly ignorance,
but more a lack of will power, which has been eroded through
affluence and the sating of the appetites with material things.
Consumers think they deserve more and more goods, because those in
more affluent positions seem satisfied. This raises the disturbing
question as to whether excessive consumers are truly rational. Do
they need to be regarded as "addicts," driven to spending sprees
and malling? To hone our response in rationalistic argumentation
may be a mistake. Convincing takes more, and that more is far more
difficult to attract.

Involvement is the opposite of escape. While many of us are
tempted to avoid responsibility and to distance ourselves from
troubles, we look around and find that being disciples of Jesus
results in involvement. Jesus comes among us as a simple person in
a remote part of Palestine, and he mingles in the temple, heals
those with illnesses, teaches disciples, confronts the Pharisees
and others, drives the moneychangers from the Temple and suffers
and dies for us. Jesus calls us to be involved -- and that means
with those who suffer in some way. If we are active, we must
become actively involved; if we are aged or sick, we must be
interested enough to offer our sufferings for others so that they
may become more deeply involved themselves.

                    4. The Odor of Sanctity

The virtuous will say to him in reply, "Lord, when did we see
you hungry and feed you; or thirsty and give you drink? When did
we see you a stranger and make you welcome; naked and clothe you;
sick or in prison and go to see you?"
(Matthew 25: 37-39)

In the aftermath of the Great Depression we had little
spending money, hardly ever more than a single nickel or a dime,
never a jingle in our pockets. At school we would crave the sweets
others were able to buy with their bigger allowances. That desire
for extra food would become our preoccupation before getting off
the school bus and finding a homemade snack ready in the kitchen.
Later in life I wondered what it would have been like had Mama not
been thoughtful enough to have some extra food waiting for us.
What would it have been like to really be hungry at bed time?

In order to be fully human we must be sensitive to the
essential needs of others. That means that we address the needs of
those who are hungry, thirsty, naked, and homeless. We cannot
remain insensitive and thus deny, excuse or escape from the
problems of our day. Jesus is a ready model on what to do at this
time; he heals the sick, feeds the multitudes, and tells the people
to give Jairus's little daughter something to eat. Jesus intends
to ask us on that final day whether we joined him in the works of
mercy. "You fed me" or "you didn't feed me" will be his telling
statements to each of us. Success in our mission boils down to
these acts of mercy. To be a saint is to be Jesus' disciple and
follow him in what he does.

Note: the "odor of sanctity" may not be needed; it was a
saying for centuries and may have been derived from the fact that
early holy men in the desert and abandoned places gave up bathing
in their pursuit of holiness. That is not to be imitated
if we are to be approachable to those in need or to those who ought
to become more sensitive in their own lives.

Feed the hungry. Lack of necessities is a reality in our
world. Many go to bed hungry and some are, as I write, in a
condition of starvation --in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Malawi, Zambia, and
Mauritania. Malnutrition involves children with pot-bellies and
discolored hair and elders who die from opportunistic diseases due
to improper diet. People in destitute regions leave homes and
wander about looking for food. Over one billion undernourished
people reside on this planet, and that number increases each day.
Alleviating that condition is no easy matter; it requires a massive
international effort: coordination, transportation, storage
facilities, and distribution networks.

On the other end of the scale we find escalating food demands
or overeating problems. More affluent countries consume more red
meat, dairy products, and eggs requiring larger amounts of grains,
farmland and other resources to produce. Nations like China are
becoming more affluent and are eating resource-rich foods.
Worldwatch's Who will Feed China? argues that, if every Chinese
person consumes one egg a day, that country will wipe out the
entire grain reserves of the planet in a very short time. Some
estimate that well over half of Americans of all ages suffer from
problems related to overweight. Frequent access to soft drinks,
fast foods, and sweets upsets the delicate nutritional balance of
an entire generation of Americans. In this land of plenty, people
become malnourished by neglecting fruits, vegetables, nuts, and
unprocessed beans and whole grains. Countering commercial
promotion with proper nutrition is increasingly difficult; a diet
of oversized burgers, fries and soft drinks is harmful and does not
satisfy basic hunger, thus triggering increased food consumption --
and associated problems of obesity, diabetes, and heart troubles.

Clothe the naked. To clothe another is to clothe Christ, born
and wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a borrowed manger; and
later dying without even his clothes, on a borrowed cross. Jesus'
Earthly start and ending delineate a period of his connectedness to
those who lack the basics of life. Lack of clothes and shoes is
difficult for anyone in a cold climate, for those needing decent
clothes for school, and for those desiring to celebrate in church
or elsewhere. Some empty their old wardrobe in a sense of
generosity and give the worn items away. We close our eyes lest we
see the naked in our world, but hurricane Katrina proved an eye-
opener; on television and in the printed media we saw poorer folks
with little more than the clothes on their backs. Yes, the
embarrassed nation and a world responded and in a very generous
manner.

Shelter the homeless. The homeless include a variety of
people such as orphan children of AIDS victims in African villages,
Palestinians in refugee camps, people who are homeless in our
country, or a family living in an inadequate tar shack or on a
mountainside near a Brazilian city. Homeless people have no place
to call their own and make a bed on grates in a city or, if lucky,
in homeless shelters. Others have their own hovel but it is not
properly built, nor is it safe, nor will it survive some of the
moderately severe storms that afflict many parts of the world.
Actually, a billion people could be classed as living in inadequate
housing as described above; and another billion deserve better
housing. Affordable housing is a hope for those seeking minimum
privacy or a safe place to locate away from frequent natural
disasters. It is the hope of those residing near polluting
factories, in temporary refugee shelters, and in slums and migrant
camps. Ideally, such people will build a shelter, if local
materials and land are available. However, many people do not have
basic funding, materials, skills, or land on which to construct
their residences.

Cure the sick. A plague called AIDS, which has already taken
over thirty million lives, creeps across our globe. However, AIDS
is only one of many scourges that human beings face. It has been
especially strong in sub-Saharan Africa but is worldwide with
serious outbreaks starting in heavily populated China, India and
Russia. AIDS has taken the lives of 20 million people in Sub-
Saharan Africa. The virus afflicts 30 million including 3 million
children in that region alone, and it has resulted in 12 million
orphans through early deaths of one or other parents, and many
times both partners. In some of the most affected African
countries over one-third of the adult population is infected with
precursor HIV.

In his January 28, 2003, State of the Union message, President
Bush recognized this plague. The cost of anti-retroviral drugs,
which can extend life for many years, has dropped from $12,000 a
year to under $300 a year. He sought fifteen billion dollars over
five years to combat the epidemic in afflicted nations of Africa
and the Caribbean. Even with these offers we ask what comes first:
corporate profits or the need for medicines? Besides AIDS, a
number of quite worrisome tropical diseases that have cures exist
and infect large populations of the very poor. Existing drugs are
too expensive and most drug research is concentrated on cures for
affluent nations' diseases; comprehensive vaccine programs are
costly and production of lower cost generic drugs is sometimes
hampered.
-------------
The early Fathers of the Church took the essential needs of
the community quite seriously. They said that if neighbors did not
have sufficient food we could not receive the Lord in Communion
worthily. We must first help them. And who are our neighbors in
an age of instant communication? Must we include those on the
other side of the globe, for neighborhood is generally considered
to be far smaller? Sharing the Eucharist and sharing essentials go
hand-in-hand. Knowing need and responding is Word taking flesh and
Spirit extending love.

                5. Touching All through Compassion

And am I not to feel sorry for Nineveh, the great city, in
which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who
cannot tell their right hand from their left, to say nothing of all
the animals.
(Jonah 4:11)

I must confess that I have not always felt true compassion for
all animals. I know that this lack of compassion was strongest
when I was quite young, though we were taught never to mistreat any
domestic animals, for they were our livelihood. In fact, I always
had a certain affinity for all the cows, to whom we gave names; and
I learned where to scratch them near the ears -- and they enjoyed
it. However, I would kill a wasp at a wink or participate in the
hog killing event and plunge in with a certain glee. But
compassion did creep through on occasion. When about nine I once
confessed to killing a bird with a clod. The good confessor said -
- "with a what?" I said a "dirt clod," for our clay soil could
become as hard as rock in the hot summer. I think I heard him
laugh, but maybe that was my imagination.

When we are sensitive to the hungry, thirsty, naked, and
homeless, we enter into their world; our assistance makes us all
one human family. We save them, and in the process save ourselves,
for charity is reciprocal. The proximity to them warms our hearts
but that involves an expenditure of energy and can even make us
exhausted. In contrast, when we overlook the hungry, thirsty and
homeless, we show an insensitivity caused by affluence and
scattered unnecessary concerns. We do not see or feel or hear; our
sins of omission will overwhelm us and become our undoing; we
become lost and we fail to connect with the world's suffering ones
-- and we are the worse for it. Rather than suffering with them,
we are condemned to eventually suffer alone -- and that is hell.

Divine and godly compassion. From a purely spiritual
standpoint, do we risk becoming less sensitive while we seek to do
godly deeds? For the Christian, the answer is found in the deeper
Mystery of Love. Divine love does not deplete our horizons but
enhances them. Love invites us to go beyond the lone hero or
heroine to share service with others who want to work together. By
being truly compassionate we enter into God's infinite compassion;
we tap that resource by seeing our own finite nature and we are
moved to join with the Source of divine compassion. As we grow in
compassion we become more godly and so we take on the character of
God's mercy. We affirm in the Creed that God sent Jesus, the
beloved Son, to show us what divine compassion is all about.

Extending not narrowing compassion. We are invited to plunge
into the infinite ocean of God's love. We do not have to limit
compassion for other human beings in order not to tire in our work;
nor do we have to limit compassion only for those suffering who are
very close to us. Somewhat ironically, by expanding our sense of
compassion for some, we can include more and more. From an
expanded spiritual sense of compassion for fellow human beings,
comes an awareness of social justice -- the establishing of justice
and right harmony for all those who are treated unjustly. We look
beyond individual acts of charity that could give us individual
satisfaction, and embrace a wider world; we look to transforming
the structures of society, and to do so along with others. The WE
embraces all like-minded people who want a socially just world and
work for it.

Compassion for the Earth. If we accept the invitation to
expand our sensitivity and compassion, we can go beyond the
afflicted human family and consider the "suffering" plant and
animal species under threat of possible extinction; we can include
those sensate animals that we must not harm; we can give special
love and protection to those animals and plants that are
aggressively threatened in some improper manner. Compassion for
animals is really not a modern western concept nor one found only
in Buddhism, Jainism, or other Eastern Religions. It is often
found in the Old Testament e.g., Don't muzzle the oxen during the
threshing season. The Jonah story quoted above shows God's
compassion going to non-Hebrew peoples and even to the animals.

Social and eco-justice. Justice extends beyond individual
suffering people who enter our lives in our local here and now; by
extending our here and now we perceive the needs of other peoples.
We look beyond our pets and domestic livestock and reach out to all
the creatures of the Earth. Primitive people who are hunters and
gatherers are worth studying; they are often more in tune with
wildlife than those of developed lands; they show compassion to
wildlife (animals and plants) in a partnership manner, seeking
forgiveness when one needs to be harvested for food, or only taking
as much of the plant species as needed. Often we fragment the
community of the plant, animal and human world and lack the
environmental sensitivity to see the integrity of all creation. We
accept our pets but little beyond except some animals in a petting
zoo. The compassion sought here must be a complete one, one
seeking social justice for human beings and one seeking eco-justice
for all creatures -- and the two are one even though they may have
different focuses at given times.


                            C. ACTIONS

How do we respond to the desecration of creation and to the
injustice to the human family? We do not want to deny, excuse or
escape from either wounded people or wounded Earth: to harm the
Earth is to harm the human community; to allow injustice to human
beings is to permit harm to the total environment. As a mountain
activist, Becky Simpson says through a rather profound theological
insight: "When the Earth is damaged, we work to stop the harm;
when people suffer, we come to help them." And her life proves her
words, through efforts to stop strip mining operations and flooding
of her community, and through hundreds of home repair and
charitable projects in Harlan County, Kentucky, over the years.
And this is done by a family with no steady income. I learn more
on this matter of combining environmental action and social work
from mountain people with no academic degrees than from others.

An eco-spirituality must face a single wounded situation with
two distinct parts: the earthly or creature dimension; the human
being with a spiritual destiny and worthy of special consideration.
A secularized eco-spirituality so divides the issue that it focuses
on solely the one, namely ecological damage with no reference to
human destiny; it makes people a part of the environment and solely
another animal. On the other extreme, a religious right, celestial
eco-spirituality sees the human being apart from his earth, a
temporary home of little consequence; all that is important is
personal salvation and use, and even damage to the Earth is
acceptable. An incarnational eco-spirituality will be discussed in
March but the glimpses are already evident: eco- and social
justice.

Cruelty to Earth is cruelty to the human community; cruelty
to people is also often expressed in environmental damage as we
have seen. The dreams of the green movement pioneers after that
First Earth Day in 1970 have not materialized. Some rather easy
victories such as cleaning up landfills and certain water polluted
rivers and waterways have been won. But new issues of far greater
magnitude such as global warming, depletion of the ozone layer and
inability to resolve the nuclear waste issues continue to haunt us
today. How can we become involved in halting the destruction of
our Earth, purchased by the blood of Christ?

    1. Environmental Actions: Record/Monitor Ecological Damage

It was sad for, as hard as Mike and Jean tried, the couple was
unable to stop the bulldozer from moving across the abandoned
roadway on their property, which they had lovingly made into a
beautiful nature trail. And the logging trucks immediately
followed and cut the big trees at the far end of their property,
even defying them by moving the property's boundaries. The couple
called us and asked what we could do for them. We said we could
help by recording what had happened and encouraged them to take
proper legal action. Their legal efforts were to no avail and they
eventually moved away from their ravished land.

Recording evident misdeeds to our Earth is painful, especially
to those of us who love this Earth so much. I firmly believe that
Jesus loves the Earth and that his love is shown in the compassion
he expresses during his passion and death. That is my core
insight on the touching of Calvary's rock (see January). To show
compassion for people is to show compassion for the Earth; to
expose injustice to people is to expose injustice to the Earth. We
can never say we are compassionate when we allow this integral
injustice to continue to exist. To fail to act is a sin of
omission against those who suffer injustice of any kind.

Recording environmental damage is the first step in healing
the Earth. Information overcomes ignorance of the problem, which
allows continued environmental degradation. In the First Book of
Samuel, Eli suffers because he did not address the issue of his
sons' wickedness. Recording damage takes the spiritual stamina to
see what we have neglected, and this can be painful for us; we
never like to be reminded of our irresponsibility. To
painstakingly record something is to place ourselves publicly in
the fray; we hear the call, step forward to do something, and
respond in the best way possible. We do not deny that the travesty
has occurred, nor excuse ourselves because it is painful work, nor
escape when we should act. We immerse ourselves in the eco-
spirituality of the raw realism of February; we sharpen our
senses, accept our calling, and take the first steps to do
something about it.

Failures to record good deeds. Paradoxically we often use the
same tendencies to neglect to record the good deeds of the elders
who are experiencing their waning years. When they die, we lose a
valuable link with our past. I regret not having recorded my
father, because he had such a clear mind until the very end, and he
died quite suddenly. We deny that the lives of the elders will
end; we accept their excuse to wait until later; we permit this to
be a reason to wait; we listen as they try to escape to something
more lively. We have entered into the temptation of the elders not
to record their fragile and soon to be forgotten wisdom.

Monitoring and recording. Some will add that recording takes
education and organization, and to some extent that is true. Over
one billion of the world's people are illiterate and are unable to
record through writing. Although their illiteracy is a grave
injustice, all, even the illiterate, can record what is observed;
they could be encouraged to talk to those who can record the
situation more permanently through electronic or written copy. The
un- or undereducated lack certain recording outlets, but they can
do good monitoring work, and are often the first line of
environmental defense in heavily impacted areas; often it is the
poor who have to endure the worst forms of pollution. Recording
examples of pollution can be done through teamwork: some are
faithful monitors; some put information down in more permanent
fashion; some report it to governmental agencies; and some with
more legal and technical skills implement the anti-pollution and
other needed actions to halt the degradation and initiate a
restoration process.

Citizens can be observant and record the damage done mentally
or in a permanent written or recorded electronic fashion; they may
help pinpoint the culprits, and join with other like-minded people
seeking redress for the wrongdoing being committed. Joining
citizen monitoring groups is one way; recording and taking
materials to the media or governmental agency is another; ongoing
monitoring and recording of water or air pollution problems are
still a third way. We must in all cases remain alert and document
environmental degradation.

    2. Periodic Retreats to help Confront Desolation

A quarter of a century ago three religious sisters came from
New England came to assist the poor in the hollers of Eastern
Kentucky. They befriended an old lady and family and inspired them
to help to expose a coal company that was polluting their creek.
The issue got serious enough that the grandson of the old lady, who
was living with her was dropped at the porch dead from "accidental
causes." The old lady was obviously heartbroken, and so the sisters
wanted to have a social celebration in recognition of her courage
within the community. I was invited and went. It was a small
affair at the community center. In the nearby church was a
revivalist whom the coal company had paid to come in and get the
people's minds away from social issues and on their own faults (a
practice known only too well throughout the developing world). We
looked in the window at the far better attended revival and I saw
a young lady raving on the floor overcome with emotion. Her young
child stood over her in utter fright. So was I frightened. This
is what coal companies can do to people.

The world is filled with February desolation, for the keen
observer is often overcome with horrible feelings of pain for those
loved, whether the earthly creatures in general, those in
particular, or human family members who suffer injustice or illness
of any type. This feeling is natural and the more one is immersed
in the start of the healing process, the deeper the feeling of
pain. We do not intend to make this go away and yet desolation
could paralyze us. We must cope with our inner feelings in order
for us to enter into the restoration process and not burn out.

Dealing with environmental degradation requires a special
prayer life that, if lacking, has often led to "burn out" among
activists; and there is no easy way to protect ourselves from this
condition. However, St. Ignatius of Loyola was well aware, through
reflection on his painstaking process of confronting his own
waywardness, of the need to prepare himself for future action. In
his Spiritual Exercises, in which he records his own inner
struggles and reflections, he speaks of desolation and consolation,
the inner battles of the spirit. His words are timeless and meant
for all people who struggle for justice; they help us "discern"
the movements of the spirit within each person, and in an Ignatian
way we must recognize that we come from different circumstances.

Identifying and confronting desolation. I feel terrible just
before the weather turns from tranquil to stormy, from unseasonably
warm to cold. Maybe we must be in tune with these climatic
conditions and stay prepared and never even entertain reasoning
about major decisions, for this is not the time to make them. We
must understand our sources of desolation that could lead to either
mild or more chronically-related depression; good advice is to seek
assistance always -- a medical doctor, counselor, clinical
psychologist, psychiatrist, spiritual director, or wise friend.

Retreat. Most of us need quiet time and space to consider how
we can cope with the degradation of the Earth and the injustice to
people. We must retreat to some quiet place away from
distractions. The difficulty here is that some want a personal
connection to talk things over; others want a personal connection
with God in the great outdoors. I generally make a retreat in a
natural setting and find this grace-filled. At times I need
special help and get that as well from a spiritual director.
Place, time, and social connections are all quite important. Some
of us are distracted by plush circumstances; on the other hand,
one may find gnats and bugs too distracting in natural settings and
need more of a settled habitat or program.

Putting our house in order. An annual getaway is important
for the activist. Note that Jesus quite often got away to a lonely
place to pray. We need to get away also, lest our work overwhelm
us and desolation erode our enthusiasm. We need to seek and
preserve any consolation that comes our way -- and doing the works
of mercy can be quite consoling as can restoring a broken and
wounded Earth. A consolation is a gift from God and something we
should reflect upon and thank God for; this good feeling is not of
our own doing but from God. Having said this, one must admit that
consolation is not automatic, for some of the specially called and
loved saints have had long periods of desolation before coming to
the consoling embrace of God. But for the ordinary person, God is
merciful and generous and will never require us to bear more than
we can handle at a given time. Overcoming desolation with
consolation is one of those spiritual battles that makes us more
effective when we see the negative effects of human wrongdoing.

    3. Negative and Positive Environmental Actions

A community in Eastern Kentucky complained strongly about
water pollution and the lack of governmental assistance in building
a water system for their community. We suggested that they could
build cisterns to furnish clean rainwater instead of using
contaminated ground water. They never listened, being somewhat
institutionalized into thinking the government could solve the
problem. Building cisterns and catching unpolluted rainwater was
an individual or community-based exercise and outside their
purview. Within a few years the affected community still had no
federal assistance and complained that cancer rates continued to
climb because of polluted water. I again urged them to build
cisterns, but they laughed again. Doesn't an excessively negative
environmental critique breed only an inability to take positive
steps on one's own. And this ultimately works to the detriment of
individuals and communities so captive to the whims of big
government and to the degradation of big industry.

Today our technology is more advanced than ever before in
human history. With that technology we are able to beam instant
pictures from virtually anywhere on this planet back to our homes
and living rooms. Over the radio we hear the haunting cry of
people in need. And in this age of computers, rapid and efficient
travel, and instant means of communication we hesitate to share
totally with those in need. Our neighborliness should be at its
highest in human history, and yet we are beset with over one
billion of the world's people needing the bare essentials of life,
namely food, housing and basic health. The greater horror is not
the poverty of the poor but the non-redistributed excessive wealth
of the affluent. Chasms grow with each passing year. Arthur Simon
in How Much is Enough? says that the income of the average American
household, including dependents, is $30,000 while the poorest 1.2
billion people live on less than a dollar a day.

Let's be truly neighborly and become aware of poverty and move
to practical acts of mercy and love. The World Bank reports that
poverty rates dropped from 1.3 billion (below a dollar a day) to
1.16 billion in 1999 principally because of improvement in China
and India. However, in that period poverty in Eastern Europe and
Central Asia rose from 6 to 24 million people, in Latin America
from 48 to 57 million people, in the Middle East from 5 to 6
million and in Africa from 241 to 315 million people. Reference:
"World Bank Report" by Nicholas Stern, in the Lexington Herald-
Leader, April 14, 2003, p. A-9.

Multiple social and environmental issues. We are aware of
social injustice and environmental degradation and the host of
problems can tempt us to panic. Where should I focus attention?
Should I expose the negative aspects or work on positive
restorative issues? But maybe these are like two poles from which
electricity flows. A negative environmentalism is highly necessary
but sees damage done to some part of the planet; a positive
environmentalism seeks to reverse some of the damage done through
appropriate technological methods. One is tempted to say chose one
or the other; in actuality, it is best to do a little of both.
This approach allows a balance in our activism; excessive
negativism is draining on people and also leads to a false sense of
practical solutions with no connection to personal experience. On
the other hand, excessive positivism may captivate people with
homesteading details and lead them to a false sense that the
negative will be exposed and cured -- not seeing that often its
continued presence can undercut and even defeat their positive
activities. A complementarity exists of exposing the negative
(degradation) and accentuating positive (restorative)
environmentalism.


                SUMMARY: SEEKING A COMPASSIONATE MODEL

God expects more from us than a legacy of Earthly damage, done
in part by us individually and in part by our failure to challenge
a system of greed and insensitivity. Can we stand before the
throne and say -- "You were coming soon, so we used up all the
Earth's resources and made no allowance for any possible folks to
follow?" If we see the fallacy of such reasoning, then we can
accept the continued and expanding glory of God's creation as part
of our responsibility. We started in January with personal
experiences of what we found to be the HERE, the NOW and the WE.
We found our eco-spirituality to be sensitive to time, space, and
society; we rejoiced in the glory of creation, not just untouched
nature, but nature developed for the good of the human family. We
realized that God is calling us to a particular task at this time -
- and we thank God for being privileged to live in such times of
crisis; our call is certainly a compliment.

In February, we confronted greed and insensitivity that have
resulted in damage to and destruction of the environment, and when
left unattended have harmed human beings and other creatures. More
is involved than sins of corporate greed and intertwined
governmental acquiescence; the damage involves our own individual
unwillingness to assess the problem, to address the issue, and to
work together for solutions. Accepting personal responsibility
requires a certain spiritual empowerment, raw nerve, courage, and
focus. We learn how to act from those who go before us and who
show strong leadership abilities, and we crave those periods of
silence and reflection so we can come to know ourselves. How can
we confront the current situation and make a difference? Some show
prophetic leadership -- but we are not these individuals.

Jesus, perfect model. What is evident is that historic models
of environmental activism are few in number and differ in culture
and temperament. The environmental crisis is so very recent in
history that we have few models to choose from. Maybe we must
expand our vision and look beyond this particular crisis. As
Christians, we naturally turn to Jesus, and to our astonishment
find that he is the perfect ecologist. His life is one of perfect
balance. He is able to show compassion for Jerusalem: How often
I longed to gather your children, as a hen gathers her brood under
her wings... (Luke 13:34); he is willing to be aroused to justified
anger at what the moneychangers and merchants had done to the
Temple commons: my house will be a house of prayer...(Luke 19, 45-
46), for all the peoples (Isaiah 56:7).

Jesus as merciful. God's massive mercy is always ready to
spill forth for Jesus is merciful; at the same time this mercy
does not become a mushy sentimentality, a failure to confront the
establishment. For Jesus, mercy and righteous anger can coexist
comfortably. And ecological balance is exactly that: a balance and
harmony. Jesus is our model for compassion and his compassion is
infinite compassion, whereas ours is so utterly limited. And Jesus
also teaches us righteous anger which we will soon consider.

When we reflect on how many things are wrong in our world, we
seek immediate social justice here, now, and involving all of God's
creatures. We demand a comprehensive view that includes both eco-
justice and social justice. We look at the deeper causes of
environmental damage and investigate both social and ecological
injustices, e.g., strip mining of coal, massive unsustainable
harvesting of trees, and promotion of non-renewable-fueled
automobiles. To simply describe disasters and not address major
sources of the troubles is skirting the issue. Some would like to
say the fault lies with victims or their close associates. That
stops the search for deeper causes, and in a planet suffering
immense damage, that is not sufficient. A democratic society must
get to the core of things and consider environmental regulations
that are broader in scope.

We are limited as to what an individual can do on such global
issues; simple living is not enough though it is a sound
beginning. The confrontation of the polluting institutions through
organizing, legal, political, and economic means is absolutely
necessary as well. Such confrontation is more effective in
democratic societies, where totalitarian regimes will not suppress
dissent. However, even in free societies the task is not easy. We
must face the issue squarely and we must act. But it demands our
own purification, our self-denial, and our willingness to confront
the establishment. We must participate in the Lenten season of
eco-spirituality and clarify our view of what must be done. And we
must gain the courage to truly become Earth healers.
 

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