The first part of the Nicene Creed states, “We believe in one God, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.”
Today is Earth Day, all over the world, and here in Minnesota. God has given humanity the responsibility to care for this earth. Have we done so? I don’t think we have. With the rise of technology and the knowledge of how to turn rock into steel, we have come to pollute our air and waterways.
From the orthodox Christian point of view, life is eucharistic. The word “eucharist” means thanksgiving. It is used as the definition of the Sacrament where we receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. But in viewing life and the creation, we must see it all as a Eucharistic celebration. The celebration is the outcome of being responsible for our earth and all of its contents.
This life we live, and this earth we live on, was a life of communion with God. When Adam and Eve sinned, we lost the earth as a means of communion with God. The earth before the fall of humanity was filled with the Divine Presence of God. Since then, and now, the earth appears void of the Divine Presence.
The Holy Scriptures tell us that in God “we live, move, and have our being.” That includes the earth! When we purposely destroy rain forests that disrupt the ecology; when we purposely shoot pollutants into the air creating holes in the O-Zone layer, we go against the sacramental meaning of our relationship to this planet. God gave humanity everything it needed to survive. God gave us fruit, vegetables, and plants to eat from. But then, after the fall, and after the great flood of Noah’s time, God allowed us to eat meat. This isn’t a plug for being vegetarian, but humanity was vegetarian in the beginning. The killing of an animal is opposed to the understanding of our relationship with the earth and all of creation that God inherently gave us.
Fr. Alexander Schmemann wrote in his book entitled Holy Week: A Liturgical Explanation for the Days of Holy Week, “…world and food, once they are deprived of their initial sacramental meaning as means of communion with God; once they are not received for God’s sake, and filled with hunger and thirst for God; once, in other words, God is no longer their real “content,” can give no life, satisfy no hunger, for they have no life in themselves.” This is what has become of humanity. Nothing satisfies, so we go for more. Nothing gives life, so we think we can create it. Our hunger and thirst is not for food or that which satisfies, but it is a hunger and thirst for union and communion with God.
As we celebrate “Earth Day” today, let us look to God as our source, as our satisfaction, and the One who fills our hunger and quenches our thirst. For nothing is more important to the earth today, than our coming back to what was once sanctified; what was once transformed into a world of thanksgiving and adoration of God our Creator. Let us yearn and repent toward a more perfect eucharistic life, that is filled with God, and watch it become again a Divine and immortal life that He has given to all humanity especially to those who believe in Him.
God bless you!
In The Hands of the Refiner 