Reverencing Earth
…michael a. bengwayan
I remember the first time I
saw the Giant’s Causeway in Antrim, Northern Ireland. I had seen pictures of it but there was no
preparation for the overpowering presence of being there, walking toward the
unfenced rim, seeing the ocean through giant stairways carved from solid basalt
rock. I could see after an involuntary gasp at the vastness of the ocean atop a
throne of stones. I was struck by the stillness of the whole panorama. I could not say anything because there was
nothing to say. It seemed my words were swallowed up by the enormous chasm in
front of me.
The proper response was not
words but silence. I felt, dumb, so primordial. I felt the same reverence
I felt when I was in the rainforests of
Kalimantan, Indonesia Or in the old
Resurrection Church in Baguio where I
served in as a sextant when I was a boy. The Giant’s Causeway evokes that sort
of reverence. It is a place of tremendous majesty. To throw a stone over the
wide expanse even seemed like a desecration.
This kind of reverence
people spontaneously feel is the attitude we need to cultivate toward the
entire Earth. Eco-spirituality honors the Earth. We walk the Earth with
humility and reverence, not with arrogant air of an insensitive landlord. We do
not worship the air as divine but respect it as a revelation of our Lord. To
reverence the Earth is to respect the artistry of our Creator, the Divine
Artist.
Every feature of the global
landscape has a value even though we may not be able to identify that value or
explain its role in the total ecosystem. It took millions of years for the
ocean to carve the Giant Stairway, and every feature of the Earth’s surface is
the result of similar geological processes. The antiquity and functional
success of these planetary systems demand reverence.
Our physical environment
forms us in obvious as well as subtle ways. We are shaped by the landscape and
imbued by the spirit of the place where we live. It could be said that the
Earth gave birth to us and conditions the way we live and support ourselves. It
has all the maternal qualities of fruitfulness, guidance, benefiscence.
It is because the Earth
shapes and nurtures us that the Earth is our Mother. Mother Earth deserves a
loving reverence similar to what we show our human mothers.
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