“ECO-SPIRITUALITY IS THE NEED OF THE HOUR”

DONE BY, MR.JOE ALLWYN ST.THERESA YOUTH GROUP (STYG) ST.THERESA CHURCH, CRAWFORD

I.MBA 09PBA137 ST.JOSEPH’S INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, ST.JOESEPH’S COLLEGE, TRICHY

INTRODUCTION

The term "eco-spirituality" draws attention to the cosmos as a place of God's self-revelation. Ecology studies our total environment and all the living or non-living creatures that dwell with us in this cosmic house. Eco-spirituality studies our relationship to God as it develops in the context of our relationships with the cosmos in its totality. The challenge of eco-spirituality is to find God within -- not apart from -- this totality, and to view the totality as a dynamic, interdependent process centering on the risen Christ and growing to perfection in love. "Thus you may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph 3:1819).

One not need be a priest in order to experience the sacred in the midst of nature. What is required is openness of perception, or what the poet and naturalist Annie Dillard calls "looking well." It is possible to find such "seeing" among professional scientists, especially physicists and biologists, today. Their vision of the cosmos as an emerging, integral system of interconnected and interdependent parts leaves them stunned with beauty and wonder. In the space of a brief article, mathematical physicist Brian Swimme communicates his excitement by words like: stupendous, elegant, admiration, enchantments. From such enchantment with nature, it is only a short step to religious experience and to the considerations of eco-spirituality.

SPREADING CRISIS

Our beautiful planet does not present a totally enthralling spectacle today. We have all heard about the major ecological problems: air pollution; holes in the ozone layer; nitric- or even sulphuric-acid rain; soil erosion; contamination of fresh water and of the oceans; deforestation, especially of tropical rain forests; hazardous waste disposal; and the total destruction of many biological species. What is threatened is the biosphere on which present and future generations depend.

Basic moral questions are involved in the continuing abuse of the environment. Humankind is so interconnected with the earth that environmental irresponsibility quickly touches human rights and human life.

Pope John Paul II, speaking in Detroit on issues of social development, made a fine statement of the problem without spelling out specific solutions. He said: Pollution of air and water threaten more and more the delicate balance of the biosphere on which present and future generations depend and makes us realize that we all share a common ecological environment. The world's ecological crisis has been widely noted, and some initial steps have been taken to solve it. As the Industrial Age draws to a close, ours is the generation that has to begin shifting gears and moving towards a new style of living if there is to be a civilization of any quality left for future generations. Since action flows from thinking and from willing, the first step should be a renewal of our perceptions and a conversion of heart. The first step towards the well being of our planet is not political but spiritual.

A CHANGE OF ATTITUDE

The deeper causes of the environmental problems we face lie in the human heart: the pathologies of fear, greed, selfishness, arrogance. Eco-spirituality knows there will be

no healing of the earth unless there is a healing and conversion of hearts.

Our conversion-process may be slow and lengthy, but a good beginning can be made on the level of perception. Self-centered, myopic perception needs to be enlarged in order to see the cumulative, long-term effects of environmental abuse. For example, the effect of one internal-combustion automobile on the quality of the atmosphere is negligible; the effect of millions of cars driving millions of miles is painfully noticeable. As perception broadens outward from one's own immediate concerns, one can see the needs of the local or regional community. Beyond that context, one can begin to perceive the needs of the total living and non-living world community.

As our perception shifts from the small picture to the total, global picture, we open ourselves to a new possibility. Our goal is to forge a lifestyle that is sustainable within the global community, where all have a right to live from the limited resources of the earth. However, the ideal is not to jettison all technology and go back to the Stone Age. The ideal would be to utilize appropriate technologies that are more harmonious with the environment and based on renewable resources like wind or solar energy. Such technologies are in existence and have proven successful, though they are not always as cost-effective as the more wasteful technologies. Adopting them would be a major step toward a simplified lifestyle. Only a change of attitude can lead to a voluntary change of lifestyle. Eco-spirituality has a contribution to make in the transformation of these underlying attitudes.

FROM SELF TO NEIGHBOUR

Eco-spirituality of itself cannot and should not attempt to solve such major problems as environmental poisoning or destructive industrial methods. At most, spirituality might

foster an awareness of these problems, encourage people to grapple with them, and especially encourage people to have unbounded trust in God's creative love. Solutions can be found if there is imagination, cooperation, and unbounded trust. Solutions will be found if enough people recover a contemplative appreciation of the earth in its beauty and fragility.

One of the goals of eco-spirituality is to help transform human minds and hearts in the context of all their relationships, so as to bring people into creative harmony with the will of God in all these relationships. Eco-spirituality is concerned about whole persons and all persons, even in their relationships to the environment. We have largely gone beyond a purely mental approach to spirituality. We realize that our whole self must be oriented to the search for God. We relate to God not only with intellect and will but also with our bodily feelings, emotions, and sexuality. For example, cultivation of a personal, prayerful relationship with Christ and to integrate these into a more holistic and ecological spirituality. Jesus and me, plus the universe!

As our perception broadens, our notion of neighbor expands. To lend a helping hand to our neighbor also means to care for endangered species of animals, birds, and plants. To live at peace with our neighbor means to function in harmony with the primary processes of the planet the atmosphere, the water, the land.

FROM NEIGHBOUR TO COSMOS

The spreading ecological crisis demands that we take responsibility for the house we live in, which is this planet

where we live side by side with all our neighbors -- all other living and non-living creatures. From the matrix of this material cosmos human beings emerged, according to God's plan, many millions of years ago. The second account of creation in Genesis describes in its own way how humanity was formed from the reddish clay of the earth. In some sense the earth is our common mother. The commandment to honor our father and mother can be extended to include our mother earth in all her materiality. Today this maternal earth is nurturing and sustaining each of us in life; some day the same earth will receive back our lifeless bodies and incorporate them once again into the flux of elements and particles that make up the cosmos, until the final resurrection.

Humankind has a biblical mandate to exercise dominion over all creation as God's administrators (Gen 1:26). Instead we are called to administer wisely so as to foster life and development, and not to destroy the Creator's work. The Lord's Prayer -- with its petition "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth" -- can be a prayer for healing, life, justice, and harmony on earth, brought about by God's power through ourselves as God's instruments or co-creators. Our generation has a moral responsibility for the future, to leave to the next generation something more that a barren, depleted wasteland.

CONCLUSION

Eco-spirituality, as it has been called, is far from being a type of armchair spirituality. For some, eco-spirituality will

mean a "mysticism of service." For others it will mean a conversion to a simpler style of living. For still others it may mean a contemplative awareness of the beauty and fragility of our planet, and a sense of solidarity with all living and non-living beings. For all of us, a commitment to eco-spirituality is like the leaven that will slowly raise human consciousness in our post-industrial age. In this way we may be able to transmit a truly human quality of life, both interior and external life, to future generations.