Ecological Spirituality is one of the seven goals offered in the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Action Platform, but what exactly is it? The term sounds a bit modern. Far from it. Ecological Spirituality is deeply rooted in Catholic theology and social teachings, our liturgy and throughout the Scriptures themselves. In Chapter VI of Laudato Si’, Pope Francis explicitly links ecological spirituality with a profound internal conversion in which we come to see our place and our vocation as stewards of God’s work. Ecological spirituality, then, is the lived awareness that all Creation is sacred, interconnected and sustained by God’s love – an awareness that inspires reverent care of the Earth and all its creatures, including our neighbors. In other words, we are to become God’s ecologists.
As a forester, I am an applied forest ecologist. My vocation is to protect forest health and function as we utilize forest products and other benefits for the common good. This requires an understanding of how the different components of a forest ecosystem interact – the trees, other plants, wildlife, soil, water, etc. Maintaining the ordered relationships between these components keeps forests functioning. Thinking as a forest ecologist, I want to explore the concept of God’s ecology beginning with the definition of ecology itself.
Ecology comes from the Greek word oikos (house) and logos (word, speech). In Ancient Greek philosophies, logos came to signify the principle or reason that governs the Universe. Saint John brought this use of the word into his Gospel when he declared “In the beginning was the Logos.” (John 1:1). Here, he affirmed that Christ is the principle and reason for all of Creation, our common home as Pope Francis refers to Creation in Laudato Si’. Saint Paul echoed this when he told the Greek philosophers in Athens, “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). In my vocation, the forest is the oikos; the logos is the natural relationships that have evolved between the forest species. In God’s ecology, Creation is the oikos and Christ is the logos.
Pope Francis points out that Creation is much more than just nature and the environment. In Chapter IV of Laudato Si’ he develops the idea of an integral ecology in which the oikos expands to include all things – the physical environment, nature, humans, human culture and institutions. This is profound and goes far beyond the thinking of most ecologists who only study a component of the natural world – like a forest. “The earth is the Lord’s and all it holds, the world and those who dwell in it.” (Psalm 24:1). This implies that all things are connected through their relationships and all things point to Christ. It also implies that Creation is not a commodity to be exploited whether it be natural resources or people. In God’s ecology, there is no ownership. It is all God’s, and we are merely stewards of what is in our possession. Everything we do must be done in consideration of the consequences to all other things in God’s oikos. Ecological spirituality is essentially the act of getting this concept in our head and conducting our lives from this mindset.
One way ecologists understand relationships and the impacts of actions on them is to trace the flow of energy through an ecosystem. Energy is stored in molecules. Carbon based molecules are the basis for all known life on earth. Plants extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and with solar energy fixes it into carbon based sugars. These carbon based sugars become the building blocks and energy source for all other living things. In their use, they are eventually broken down during respiration which then releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. This completes the cycle.
What then is the energy source in God’s ecology? What can we trace to understand and evaluate our actions in Creation? Saint John answers this explicitly.
Beloved, let us love one another because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8).
God’s love is the infinite and inexhaustible supply of energy that flows through all Creation and back to God. The prophet Isaiah captures the cycle of God’s love beautifully:
For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55: 10-12).
Our stewardship and care for Creation is about receiving God’s infinite love and allowing it to flow to all other components of Creation. Exploitation of natural resources and people and polluting the environment disrupts the flow of God’s love. This is why the whole law and all the prophets depend on love of God and love of neighbor. (Matthew 22:34-40).
Nowhere is God’s ecology more celebrated and enacted than in the Eucharist:
Blessed are you, Lord God of all Creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life.
Here we see the integral ecology of God where God’s love, nature and humans all come together in cooperation to give back in thanksgiving to God and build up the body of Christ. Next time you recite the Lord’s Prayer during Mass and say “your kingdom come” think “may God’s kingdom come, God’s ecology be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is the essence of ecological spirituality. This is where the interior conversion that Pope Francis talks about occurs.
I have given some examples on seeing God’s ecology when reading the Scriptures and celebrating the Liturgy. I have found one particular prayer book to be extremely helpful in this process: Living Prayer: A Book of Hours for the Renewing of Creation published by Liturgical Press out of Saint John’s University. If you go through the entire four week cycle of morning and evening prayers, I promise you will start to see God’s ecology throughout all the scriptures and become aware of it in your daily life and relationships with Creation.
Gregory Harris
The Basilica Creation Justice Committee