Eco-Spirituality:
Towards a Larger God
‘Spirituality’ is one of those words that
suffers from a multitude of meanings. It can refer to the
study of the spiritual life, or the practice of the
spiritual life. It can refer to the specific spiritual
traditions of a group (like the Christian Brothers) or to
the capacity of any human being to experience the spiritual
realm.
Eco-Spirituality carries all this freight of various
interpretations, as well as being a relatively new term in
the field. Here, I will use it to refer to the spiritual
life of members of the Edmund Rice Network, and in the
specific context of Eco-Justice.
The Brothers at the Congregation Chapter in Rome, 2002,
committed themselves to engaging in “radical
relationships of equality with all God’s
creation”. This is an extraordinary phrase. I
would read it as lying within the dominant theme of that
Chapter – ‘The Heart of Being
Brother’, and the whole Chapter as being a
significant oasis in our ongoing search for God.
What happened to the Brothers at the Chapter that they
ended up with this stance towards the world, or, even, the
whole universe? My own response is that, in listening to
their hearts, they discovered the ‘cry of the
Earth’. All the horror stories in the media, all
the threats of ecological devastation, all the obvious
signs of our troubled times and damaged Earth, found an
echo in their hearts.
Their response was not a policy statement or set of
strategies. They encouraged us to build relationships. For
a religious order inspired by a charism which says their
Founder ‘opened his whole heart’ to
Christ present and appealing in the poor, this was only
natural.
The striking thing is that these relationships are to be
‘radical relationships of equality’.
We find ourselves facing a conversion – on the edge
of a deep shift in our understanding and commitments. How
does this happen?
Edmund Rice, and those inspired by his charism, underwent a
profound ‘re-wiring’ of all his
components, a re-writing of his personal scripts, a new
vision. The word ‘radical’ points us
in the direction we go – down, to the earth, to the
roots of things. And ‘God’s
creation’ gives us the vision – God at the
heart of things, at the heart of an unfolding universe.
In reaction, we might be tempted to cling to where we are.
“What’s wrong with our present
spirituality? I can find God in our customary spiritual
practices.” But Edmund could have said the same
thing in 1789, or 1802. In fact, he was converted. He
didn’t just ‘see’ Christ in the poor, he
opened his heart to Christ in the poor. And so do we.
We stand at a new turning in our spiritual journey today.
We are not abandoning the poor, but we see them now as
embedded in cities and countrysides that suffer severe
environmental stress. Our response is not, firstly, a
programme of action. It is to move towards the Earth
(“God’s creation”) in a loving
relationship (”radical equality”).
The 480 religious orders, whose leaders met in Rome in
2004, at the Congress on Religious Life, expressed it in
another way. They call us to ‘dialogue with the
poor, dialogue with the Earth and dialogue with world
religions’ (cf Passion for Christ, Passion for
Humanity). Two years earlier, the Brothers spoke of their
hearts afire and building radical relationships with the
Earth.
In terms of Eco-Justice, eco-spirituality is the experience
of conversion and the ongoing relationship that motivates
and inspires our work. The Earth Charter gives us the
programme to take us, the human race as part of the whole
Earth Community, into a sustainable future.
Where do we end up? In the arms of God, of course. But a
larger God – the God whose original call to us in
“Christ present and appealing in the
poor” is now echoing through the whole Earth.
Creation, salvation and sanctification now take on the
universal dimensions they always had – but we now
urgently need. To move towards this larger God is the work
of eco-spirituality – and its abiding joy.
Moy Hitchen,
Congregation Promoter of Eco-Justice
See also www.thegreenfuse.org/spirit.htm as a good site in
this field.