continued from my examiner column http://www.examiner.com/interfaith-spirituality-in-columbus/spirituality-and-springtime . . . .
In learning from nature's seasonal cleansing rituals we understand there are cycles of destruction followed by growth; it is a sacred reality. It seems a necessity, an impersonal process of which all are a part regardless of any artificial religious claim. After our harsh winter, this Spring seems particularly welcome and yet, watching flooding in Australia, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and reading about massive ice sheets falling off the glaciers, one can only wonder about the scope and scale of this massive global enterprise. We are so interdependent and yet behave as if we are simply not a part of the sacred whole.
The Taoists may have had this in mind with the philosophy of 'The Way'- things are neither good nor bad, but all have their place and reason, time and season. It all simply is. We work to understand and contribute goodness and compassion to the mix, realizing that there will always be natural evil; always be injustice . . . yet we try to alleviate suffering and make a difference; contribute love and understanding to the mix. Ever inventive, humans create myths and mythic characters to try and understand it all. Yet we are in a new place and time as a species, which makes each spring all the more poignant with massive extinctions underway and die-offs of entire species. It makes the time of ashes on our foreheads (Christians) and color sprayed upon each other (Hindu), costumes and revelry (Jewish) and honoring the ancestors (Shinto) all the more deeply moving and tres symbolic as our holidays fall upon the time of the full moon, the Vernal Equinox.
One of the great figures of recent past is Passionist priest and scholar, Thomas Berry, who wrote The Sacred Universe and The Great Work- among others. Berry earned a doctorate in world religions and chaired the American Teilhard Community (de Chardin) from 1975-1987. He was awarded 8 honorary doctorates- see http://www.earth-community.org/bio.htm. Caroline Webb, student of Berry, writes that ‘Thomas Berry understood, as few others have done, that with the degradation of nature goes a diminishment of the human. There can be no lasting advancement for humans if it entails devastation for other beings and the great systems of planetary functioning. Over and over again he states that if we only view nature as an object to be used, our future existence is in peril. We cannot exist long-term unless we re-join the community of life from which we emerged, that has shaped us in every regard and is the revelation of ultimate and sacred reality.’
In fact, his insights are the fertile soil out of which many now find inspiration and the seed for their own writing. Read some of Berry’s breath-taking quotes here: http://www.earth-community.org/quotes.htm With the nuclear disaster in Japan and television commentators once again talking about disruptions in oil production in the Gulf, one wonders how many times we get to revisit the opportunity to transform ourselves and our planet. Yet the planet is a self-healing organism as one sees in Chernobyl which is doing fine with-out people. If you are looking for a good read connecting the world’s spiritual traditions with environment, anything of Berry is food for thought.
Another Catholic ‘heretic’ Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr, writing for the Huffington Post explains that Christians need to revision their tradition. ‘Two thousand years ago was the human incarnation of God in Jesus, but before that there was the first and original incarnation through light, water, land, sun, moon, stars, plants, trees, fruit, birds, serpents, cattle, fish, and "every kind of wild beast" according to our own creation story (Genesis 1:3-25). This was the "Cosmic Christ" through which God has "let us know the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made from the beginning in Christ" (Ephesians 1:9). Christ is not Jesus' last name, but the title for his life's purpose.’
In fact, his insights are the fertile soil out of which many now find inspiration and the seed for their own writing. Read some of Berry’s breath-taking quotes here: http://www.earth-community.org/quotes.htm With the nuclear disaster in Japan and television commentators once again talking about disruptions in oil production in the Gulf, one wonders how many times we get to revisit the opportunity to transform ourselves and our planet. Yet the planet is a self-healing organism as one sees in Chernobyl which is doing fine with-out people. If you are looking for a good read connecting the world’s spiritual traditions with environment, anything of Berry is food for thought.
Another Catholic ‘heretic’ Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr, writing for the Huffington Post explains that Christians need to revision their tradition. ‘Two thousand years ago was the human incarnation of God in Jesus, but before that there was the first and original incarnation through light, water, land, sun, moon, stars, plants, trees, fruit, birds, serpents, cattle, fish, and "every kind of wild beast" according to our own creation story (Genesis 1:3-25). This was the "Cosmic Christ" through which God has "let us know the mystery of his purpose, the hidden plan he so kindly made from the beginning in Christ" (Ephesians 1:9). Christ is not Jesus' last name, but the title for his life's purpose.’
Rohr unpacks this further and ties three religions together, citing the theological thought of an early Christian philosopher, Thomas Aquinas. "The immense diversity and pluriformity of this creation more perfectly represents God than any one creature alone or by itself," adds Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) in his Summa Theologica (47:1). He continues, ‘For most of us, this is a significant shaking of our foundational image of the universe and of our religion. Yet if any group should have come to this quite simply and naturally, it should have been the three groups of believers that call themselves "monotheists". Jews, Christians, and Muslims all believe that the world was created by one God. It would seem to follow therefore that everything, everything without exception, would bear the clear imprint and likeness of the one Creator.’ From Creation as the Body of God, Posted: March 4, 2011
So to take this one step further, the imprint of Creation/Creator is that of rebirth, re-awakening, new chances, hope, the riotous color of Springtime and increasing light, the playful joy of love, self sacrifice for love and the very celebration of life itself even in the midst of turmoil and chaos, uncertainty and fear.
[Image titled 'a Rajah and his wife celebrate Krishna festival (Holi)' and is from Holi celebration: "Handcoloured engravings by Frederic Shoberl from his work 'The World in Miniature: Hindoostan'. London: R. Ackerman, 1820's." Columbia.edu Wikimedia Commons.]
[Image titled 'a Rajah and his wife celebrate Krishna festival (Holi)' and is from Holi celebration: "Handcoloured engravings by Frederic Shoberl from his work 'The World in Miniature: Hindoostan'. London: R. Ackerman, 1820's." Columbia.edu Wikimedia Commons.]
