On the Spirituality of Nature

I haven't written on the subject of spirituality for a long time, and truthfully, haven't spent enough time on the subject in my own life. I have been on a journey of faith, and while I know Christianity is the one true religion, there is more to it.

We have, as a collective people, long neglected our earth. People are so focused on the hereafter (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) that they have lost sight of what is right in front of them. This wouldn't be so bad if it didn't result in environmental problems such as human-induced climate change, glacial melt, species loss, and polluted water sources. The loss of clean water in particular should be a wake-up call to humanity.

It is a sin to neglect the earth, to harm it or to turn a blind eye to the harm done to it by others. Pope Francis laid it all out in his encyclical Laudato Si. But I'm not convinced that Catholics took much notice. I have long felt a spiritual connection with the earth, and while I don't have much personal power to protect it, I feel the need to speak out now on its behalf.

When I was in college, I had mystical spiritual experiences with daffodils on campus. I know it sounds nutty, but they were there, waving hello to me in the breeze, "speaking" to me of God. God's presence resides in the trees, the stones, the flowers, everything. Do Catholics even see it? Do they hear Him calling to them through the woods, the sea? St. Francis of Assisi is one of the only saints I know of who felt this special connection to the earth and its creatures. I always wanted to be a Franciscan, for I felt a closeness to Francis' joyful appreciation of the Sun, the Wind, the animals.

The Great Spirit, or Creator, of Native American belief is, I believe, one and the same with the God of Christianity. The Native Americans don't see a break between God and nature; to them it is all one, and they respect the earth accordingly. These days I feel more at home with Native spiritual beliefs than with my own Catholic upbringing. God is transcendent yet imminent.

I know that there is no one Native doctrine, and I want to steer clear of cultural misappropriation, but on a basic level, Native faith is what speaks to me of God the best. God is everywhere, not just in a box in a church. I'm not in any way discounting the importance of adoration of God in the box in the church. He is truly present there, yes. But we have neglected the worship of Him who inhabits the earth as a whole, and the earth which sustains our physical bodies is suffering because we simply don't care enough. 

There is a mural on the side of a convenience store in Berkeley which delineates the suffering the earth undergoes at our hands. The last sentence reads, "Do we have the courage to care?" Well, do we?