Awake with love for one another and for Earth
Posted on June 24, 2024, by JoAnn Gates
Our care for one another and our care for the earth are intimately bound together.
Pope Francis, Laudato Si’
How does my spirituality influence my way of living on Earth? I ask myself this as I begin to write. Two minutes of pondering and I remember the mysterious truth of it: For me, there is no longer a “my spirituality,” separate from any other aspect of my life. For me, there is no longer a God to be pleased, appeased, convinced of another’s need. Somewhere along the line, my spirituality became who I am; and God / Love / Source / Divine Mother simply disappeared into life.
St. Symeon (949-1022), Eastern Orthodox monk and poet, said it this way:
We awaken in Christ’s body
as Christ awakens our bodies,
and my poor hand is Christ.
He enters my foot, and is infinitely me.
I move my hand, and wonderfully
my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him
(for God is indivisibly Whole,
seamless in His Godhood).
…. We awaken as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.
by Sandy Ardoyno SL
“Our care for one another and our care for the earth are intimately bound together,” Pope Francis states in Laudato Si’, his 2015 encyclical on the environmental crises. And I would paraphrase: Our care for one another and … for Earth, and our love of God, are intimately bound together; are, in fact, all expressions of love of/for the One Love. We plant a seed, we bandage a wound, we sit silently in the church pew: all one love. We watch the news, we distribute food to immigrants, we pray the rosary: all one love.
Francis begs us, “I ask you, in the name of God, to defend Mother Earth.”
In his words, I hear echoes of Archbishop Romero the day before his assassination: “In the name of God, and in the name of this suffering people … I implore you … stop the repression!”
Defend Mother Earth! Defend our coastlines! Stop killing one another! Defend our kin who cannot feed their children! Defend birds and fish poisoned by polluted waters! Defend all creatures of/manifestations of the One Love!
All creatures in the One Love. Love all with the One Love. Love the One Love in all our loving.
Photo courtesy of Susan Classen CoL
To read all the articles in the Spring/Summer 2024 issue of Loretto Magazine, click here.
