I was born in the foothills of a volcano named Mount Taranaki in Aotearoa/New Zealand. I am conscious that the material part of me comes from molten rock, not just the molten rock from the nearby mountain, but from the original fireball 13.8 billion years ago, the original incarnation. We all come from stardust, from the death of a star. Recently I met an Aboriginal man in Armidale, New South Wales, who comes from a mountain tribe and as he showed me a piece of volcanic rock from his place I said, “That is you” and he smiled with delight at that recognition. We seemed to realise that blazing matter can disclose the fire of spirit, the fire of the Creator. We had an enlightening exchange about how the earth does not belong to us, but we belong to the earth. Indigenous people are aware of the sacredness of creation and respect it.
Mt. Taranaki, New Zealand. PHOTO: Simon O'Brien from Pixabay via Columban eBulletin.
Our Christian faith is becoming more aware of how matter holds spiritual potential. Earth cannot be viewed apart from the ocean. As Daniel O’Leary says:
“The sea, the senses, the soil, the seasons and the soul – all are related. They call to each other. They need each other because the soul needs a form, a shape and a context. The soul needs to be felt, named and experienced. This is why the spiritual is so physical – it spreads along the arteries of the embodied soul, through the timings and turnings of the universe itself… Our earth is a living, breathing, precious entity to be cherished daily. We are learning how to love the land we live on, how to walk beautifully on the fields and streets around us.”
God is inherently present to the whole of creation and every part of it. Teilhard de Chardin says: “The heart of all matter is the heart of God… What I call my body is not part of the universe which I possess totally; it is the whole universe which I possess partially.”
Sister Ilia Delio says powerfully: “If Christianity is not only to survive but to flourish it needs a new imagination for the earth community, a new dream for the cosmos, a new understanding of Christ in evolution as the mystery of the whole, which includes other religions, cultures, and the whole of the whole, and yes, other planets and forms of life. In short Christianity needs a new direction, one pointing not upward but forward, not toward “heaven above” but to a new future of healthy relationships in the cosmos, a new heaven on earth, which is what Jesus prayed for…”
The mystic apprehends the cosmos as the meaningful manifestation of God. Daniel O’Leary says: “God walks to us in two pairs of shoes, you might say, the shoes of nature and the shoes of the man Jesus”. Our Cosmic Christ is calling to us to realise that the heart of the planet and our continued existence depend upon our choices and actions about respect for the earth.
Columban Fr Brian Vale lives in Sydney and works as a Community Liaison with the Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations.
This article was published in the Columban eBulletin.