The mainstream Christian Churches have not sat idly in the midst of this development and debate. Many churches including the Catholic Church have gone on to offer positions and to integrate these positions within the official teachings of the Church. In Catholic Social Teaching the principle of being good stewards of creation or promoting the integrity of creation has been developed as a foundation to base the Church’s stance on the environmental issues of our day. The Catholic Catechism has this to say on the topic of the moral imperative to respect the integrity of creation:  

The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation. Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present, and future humanity. Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe cannot be divorced from respect for moral imperatives. Catechism #2415

While many Christian churches have turned to scripture to examine their position with regards to the environment the Catholic Church has the added benefit of having a tradition of natural theology. Early Catholic theologians have positioned that the natural world also reveals the moral principles and the Divine purpose of our lives. This of course is attributed to the fact that creation comes from God and that it serves the ultimate good. In the Eastern tradition St. Basil the Great tells us:

 I want creation to penetrate you with so much admiration that wherever you go, the least plant may bring you the clear remembrance of the Creator. …One blade of grass or one speck of dust is enough to occupy your entire mind in beholding the art with which it has been made. … The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. O God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living things, even our brothers, the animals, to whom Thou gavest the earth as their home in common with us. …We remember with shame that in the past we have exercised the high dominion of man with ruthless cruelty so that the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to thee in song, has been a groan of pain. May we realize that they live, not for us alone, but for themselves and for Thee and that they love the sweetness of life.

St. John of Damascus clarifies the object of our worship within our respect for creation:

The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God. … I do not worship matter. I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, who willed to take His abode in matter, who worked out my salvation through matter. Never will I cease honoring the matter which wrought my salvation! I honor it, but not as God. Because of this I salute all remaining matter with reverence, because God has filled it with his grace and power. Through it my salvation has come to me.

The Western Medieval tradition continued to accept this natural tradition. In the works of mystical spirituality we have the teaching of St. Hildegard of Bingen who boldly said:

Do not mock anything God has created. All creation is simple, plain and good. And God is present throughout his creation. Why do you ever consider things beneath your notice? God’s justice is to be found in every detail of what he has made. The human race alone is capable of injustice. Human beings alone are capable of disobeying God’s laws, because they try to be wiser than God.

Another mystic St. Bernard of Clairvaux offered us this powerful statement:

Believe an expert: you will find something far greater in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you cannot learn from the masters.

St. Bernard’s belief was by no means an isolated position when you place it next to a statement made by one of the great doctors of the Church, St. Augustine of Hippo, who in an earlier time (410 AD) stated:

Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead He set before your eyes the things that He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that?

When you consider some of the pioneering works of eco-theologians like Fr. Thomas Berry, CP or Sr. Miriam MacGillis, OP who suggest that we may benefit from developing a theology that is based on the revelation of creation as well as the revelation of scripture it would seem that they are not so unique in their thinking from this early tradition of our faith. After all, it was St. Paul the Apostle who wrote in the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans:

 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.

Fr. Thomas Berry, CP died last year. He was a Passionist priest and ecological scholar. His work on developing an ecological spirituality that is based on the emerging cosmology has caused some controversy because it is thought to be unique and outside of the recent tradition of our faith. But as we can see his work is not so much new and unique as much as it is reviving an older tradition which has been lost to us since the late 1800’s. A tradition that St. Paul of the Cross, the founder of the Passionist, believed in when he poetically said:

 Listen to the sermons of the flowers, the trees, the bushes, the heavens, the sun, and all the world. You will find they preach of love and praise of God, and invite you to magnify the greatness of the Sovereign Artist, who gave them being.

Catholic Social teaching calls us to take responsibility for our use and care of the earth. The decisions we make can make a positive difference by heeding the call to be better stewards and care about our impact on the earth. Global climate change has been a major topic in the public spotlight these days. While everyone from scientists to politicians are joining forces to address this reality, there are numerous simple things each one of us can do to make a difference.

1. Plan car trips ahead of time – If you are like most people who live in their car, take stock of the number of unnecessary trips you make in a given week. Plan your errands, meetings, pick-ups and routes ahead of time in order to cut back on your contribution to CO2 car emissions and gas use.

2. Use Earth-friendly cleaners and other organic products – The products that you use to clean your home may actually be harmful for the earth, containing damaging chemicals and upsetting the ecological balance. Seek “green” cleaning products that are biodegradable and designed with the earth in mind. Visit the National Green Pages to find cleaners and other products that are ecologically safe and organic. 

3. Use your bike – More and more cities are jumping on the bandwagon of cutting gas emissions by promoting bike paths for commuters. Consider using your bike to get to or from work, or if that is impractical, consider increasing bike use on the weekends to make those shorter trips to the store, The earth will benefit and so will your overall health.

4. Look for the Energy Star – When making purchases of new appliances, check to see that they are carrying the Energy Star symbol indicating that they are designed to be more energy efficient than other models. Appliances with this label not only use less power but can also greatly reduce your energy bill.

5. Plant extra veggies – As the gardening season gets underway, consider adding an extra plot of vegetables to provide fresh produce for a local soup kitchen or homeless shelter. The garden will be bountiful and others will reap what you sow.

6. Conserve Water – Water tends to be something we take for granted, but it is quickly becoming one of the precious resources of the earth that needs our care and conservation. Be more mindful of unnecessary water use and don’t leave the faucet running.

7. Change your light bulbs – One significant place to curb energy use is in the light bulb socket. Compact florescent light bulbs (CPL) are the newest way a small purchase can make a big change. These spiral shaped bulbs may cost more, but they use one-fourth the energy and can be found anywhere light bulbs are sold.

8. Hang a Clothes line – This may sound like a return to the 1950’s but using a clothes line instead of your heated dryer can cut back drastically on energy use. Additional benefits include that fresh clothesline scent and a smaller electric bill.

9. Consume less, Share more – Unbridled consumption is part of the dynamic putting an increased demand on the need for energy and fuels. Assess your own buying habits and consumerist tendencies cut back where you can, sharing unused or unneeded items with others. As the saying goes, “Live Simply so Others May Simply Live.” Visit the Christian Simple Living website for resources on being a responsible consumer. 

10. Support a local farmer – Most of the food we eat travels hundreds and sometimes even thousands of miles to reach our grocery stores and markets. Community supported agricultures (CSA) are local organic farmers from which you could purchase locally grown vegetables and fruits by being part of a local farming cooperative. Do your part to reduce our dependency on oil and fossil fuels and buy locally from a farmer in your region. Visit Local Harvest CSA to find information and the nearest location of a community supported agriculture.

For resources and further information on the official Catholic position with regards to the ecology please visit the Environmental Justice Program (EJP) of the United States Catholic Conference (USCC). EJP “calls Catholics to a deeper respect for God’s creation and engages parishes in activities that deal with environmental problems, particularly as they affect the poor.”  Visit their site for resources on climate change and children’s health.

#1 - Respect for creation is of immense consequence, not least because “creation is the beginning and the foundation of all God’s works”, and its preservation has now become essential for the pacific coexistence of mankind. Man’s inhumanity to man has given rise to numerous threats to peace and to authentic and integral human development – wars, international and regional conflicts, acts of terrorism, and violations of human rights. Yet no less troubling are the threats arising from the neglect – if not downright misuse – of the earth and the natural goods that God has given us.

#6 - The world “is not the product of any necessity whatsoever, nor of blind fate or chance… The world proceeds from the free will of God; he wanted to make his creatures share in his being, in his intelligence, and in his goodness”… Once man, instead of acting as God’s co-worker, sets himself up in place of God, he ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature, “which is more tyrannized than governed by him”. Man thus has a duty to exercise responsible stewardship over creation, to care for it and to cultivate it.

#7 - The goods of creation belong to humanity as a whole. Yet the current pace of environmental exploitation is seriously endangering the supply of certain natural resources not only for the present generation, but above all for generations yet to come. It is not hard to see that environmental degradation is often due to the lack of far-sighted official policies or to the pursuit of myopic economic interests, which then, tragically, become a serious threat to creation. To combat this phenomenon, economic activity needs to consider the fact that “every economic decision has a moral consequence” and thus show increased respect for the environment. When making use of natural resources, we should be concerned for their protection and consider the cost entailed – environmentally and socially – as an essential part of the overall expenses incurred.

#8 - A greater sense of intergenerational solidarity is urgently needed. Future generations cannot be saddled with the cost of our use of common environmental resources… The ecological crisis shows the urgency of a solidarity which embraces time and space.

#9 - I would advocate the adoption of a model of development based on the centrality of the human person, on the promotion and sharing of the common good, on responsibility, on a realization of our need for a changed life-style, and on prudence, the virtue which tells us what needs to be done today in view of what might happen tomorrow.

#10 - At present there are a number of scientific developments and innovative approaches which promise to provide satisfactory and balanced solutions to the problem of our relationship to the environment. Encouragement needs to be given, for example, to research into effective ways of exploiting the immense potential of solar energy. Similar attention also needs to be paid to the world-wide problem of water and to the global water cycle system, which is of prime importance for life on earth and whose stability could be seriously jeopardized by climate change. Suitable strategies for rural development centered on small farmers and their families should be explored, as well as the implementation of appropriate policies for the management of forests, for waste disposal and for strengthening the linkage between combating climate change and overcoming poverty.

#11 - It is becoming more and more evident that the issue of environmental degradation challenges us to examine our life-style and the prevailing models of consumption and production, which are often unsustainable from a social, environmental and even economic point of view. We can no longer do without a real change of outlook which will result in new life-styles, “in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors which determine consumer choices, savings and investments”.

#12 - The Church has a responsibility towards creation, and she considers it her duty to exercise that responsibility in public life, in order to protect earth, water and air as gifts of God the Creator meant for everyone, and above all to save mankind from the danger of self-destruction.

#14 - Christ, crucified and risen, has bestowed his Spirit of holiness upon mankind, to guide the course of history in anticipation of that day when, with the glorious return of the Savior, there will be “new heavens and a new earth” (2 Pet 3:13), in which justice and peace will dwell for ever. Protecting the natural environment in order to build a world of peace is thus a duty incumbent upon each and all. … For this reason, I invite all believers to raise a fervent prayer to God, the all-powerful Creator and the Father of mercies, so that all men and women may take to heart the urgent appeal: If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation.

As with all the Passionist communities worldwide the Asian members are by no means strangers to social ministries. We had the opportunity to hear so many of the unique social ministries that these communities have organized in light of their own local realities. In India we were able to visit some of these powerful ministries in a poor village called Randham. Social ministries refer to ministries of the Passionist communities that serve the society in which they exist. In Randham we were fortunate enough to visit a number of these ministries, some which are traditional and others which are new and innovative. A traditional yet very powerful social ministry that they offer is education. The goal being to give the emerging generation the real opportunity to gain a quality education that will allow them to improve themselves and their own community in this highly competitive world while integrating the spiritual dimensions of social responsibility.

Other more unconventional ministries included a micro-credit Cow Loan program, a rice and peanut farming project and housing development. The cow loan program is particularly creative. The aim is to supply the local villagers with a natural resource that can sustain them. In India the cow is a very sacred animal, part of this is the religious tradition of Hinduism, but another part of this is that the cow is a great resource for the community. The Passionists have created a loan system where the villagers will have access to a 0% interest loan to purchase a cow. The villagers will then go to the Passionist milking station to sell the milk and a percentage of the milk will go to repay the loan for the cow while the rest go to them. After the cow is payed off they then keep the entire profit of the milk.

This is one example of a Passionist social ministry in Asia that is helping the poorer members of our society by giving them a number of opportunities through work, education and basic services. At the meeting we heard how diverse the social need is with the other Asian communities which include Japan, Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Papa New Guinea and Vietnam. The issues where diverse but we heard a commitment from these communities to promote a network of solidarity so that at a global level we can all support each other in promoting the Christian work of true charity which Pope Benedict XVI reminds us in his recent encyclical is justice. The Passion for Justice blog will become more diverse as we develop further solidarity with each other and sometime soon you will hear other voices throughout the world sharing our issues, concerns and social spirituality.   

As we go off to celebrate Thanksgiving here in the United States I would ask that all of us adopt the spirit of solidarity with the poor members of our human community and to offer a prayer for them and the missionaries who serve them. Consider and reflect on this spiritual quote from Saint Paul of the Cross and may all of us celebrate is the true spirit of Thanksgiving.

Therefore, let us love the dear God, who loves us so much placing everything in the Wounds of Jesus and offering them to the Divine Father, begging him through the grace of his most holy Son that he give remedy to all the evils and send his faithful servants so that the power of the Cross and Passion of Jesus Christ will triumph.

It is with the lens of the social spirituality, articulated in the last blog post, that the regional and international Passionist community has taken to develop these offices or ministries of JPIC. Through JPIC, the Passionists have set three objectives or tasks.

Promote Social Ministries: Engaging in social ministries is not a new initiative for the Passionist family. We can trace early expressions of social ministries from the Passionist founder himself. St. Paul of Cross is known to serve the community as a hospital and military chaplain. He was known to advocate for the poor and to use the opportunity of his missions to organize social charity for the poorer members of society. He also advocated for peace in the midst of a battle during the “War of the Polish Succession.” He was also known to value the integrity and wisdom of the environment and believed in having Christian retreats in places where people had the opportunity to enjoy the presence of God through the beauty of God’s natural creation.

The Passionists have continued to organize various aspects of social and ecological ministries. Through JPIC we look to further these expressions by promoting these isolated ministries into the visible life of the community. The office looks to develop relationships with these social ministries and our institutional ministries like parishes and retreat centers. The JPIC office is also looking for opportunities for the public to engage in these ministries or to create new ones through the Passionist communities and spirituality.

Coordinate Advocacy: The second objective is to empower our Passionist family to engage in the world as a member of civil society and to offer its spiritual wisdom on social issues that concern us. Based on our spirituality we are concerned with social policies or actions that cause tremendous suffering to humanity and creation. We are organizing to be in solidarity with those who suffer. Whenever possible we will walk with those who suffer from the injustices of our global society and we will tend to the needs of those that may be marginalized. Where the dignity of human life and the integrity of the environment are being violated we will be advocating against policies that cause such violations.  

In working with civil society the Passionist JPIC Office will be working with the Catholic Church and several other faith based organization to promote policies that will transform the world into a vision of Justice and Peace that respects the integrity of all creation. This is a vision that we consider to be based in scripture and reflected in that vision which Christ called, “The Kingdom of God.” At the international level we are fortunate to have our own UN organization, Passionists International. At regional levels we will have a number of JPIC offices that will advocate on domestic and foreign issues.

Education and Formation:  The third objective for the office is to develop and create resources on the Passionist spirituality of JPIC. We start by emphasizing Catholic social teachings and principles which are powerful aspects of our faith and tradition which are sadly neglected. On top of this we will promote the social and ecological dimensions of our own spirituality which again is focused on the memory of Christ’s Passion.

Through JPIC we will develop resources for lay and vowed formation. We will also develop liturgical resources on social spirituality either in observance of Holy Days or in observance of social issues. Using some of newest forms of technology like blogs or social networks we will also promote this spirituality along with the other objectives of Passionist JPIC. In North America the JPIC Office is also developing workshops and retreat programs for our retreat and parish ministries.

May the Passion of Jesus, Be Ever in our Hearts

In 2006 the Passionists held their 45^th General Chapter. A General Chapter is a worldwide gathering of the Catholic Religious Community to set direction and elect its own international government. In the Catholic Church many international religious communities have organized themselves in this way from the moment that they are founded in order to develop a governing structure for the spiritual mission of these communities.

Like other Catholic religious communities, the Passionists take the opportunity during these gatherings to reflect on the state of their mission and spirituality in light of our ever changing world. This has been especially true after Vatican II when the document on religious life requested that religious communities reflect on the spirit of their founder or foundation in light of the contemporary reality. During this recent gathering the Community offered a single decree that proposes a reconfiguration of the international community on the basis of globalization and the social and spiritual issues of our time. Along with this decree, 10 recommendations were listed as priorities for this new reconfiguration. The fifth priority included the following statement:

Another priority is that of commitment to justice, peace and the integrity of creation.  This commitment is profoundly rooted in our charism.  Our Constitutions express our desire “to share in the distress of all, especially those who are poor and neglected…” (Const.#3).  We believe that the power of the Cross offers us the strength to discern and to alleviate the burden of suffering experienced by the poor and the marginalized of our world.  The preferential option for the poor has a central role in the process of Restructuring, guiding us to channel and utilize our resources. Furthermore, the ecological crisis of the world in which we live invites us to be concerned about the safeguarding and the protection of creation.

Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) is identified by the Passionist and by a number of other Christian religious communities and organizations as the lens through which many Christian communities are re-interpreting the social mission of the Gospel. There is a holistic and spiritual quality to this acronym that goes beyond the more secular term of social justice. Justice and peace are identifiable values within our Sacred Scripture and Christian tradition. The Integrity of Creation places us in relationship to a larger sacred reality: The reality of God’s natural revelation which we identify as Creation. Integrity of Creation also reminds us that the values of justice and peace can only be realized when we affirm a deep relationship with God and all of creation. It reminds us of the dignity that all creation shares including both humanity and the environment.

During the General Chapter the Passionist reflected on JPIC from their unique spirituality. Passionist spirituality is based on the memory of Christ’s Passion. Our devotion to this sacred historical moment reminds us of the redemptive power of suffering. We recall that Jesus suffered a truly unjust death at the hands of the social powers of his day. We also recall also how God redeemed the world through Jesus. In the Resurrection our early Christian forbearers witnessed two things: the reality of who Jesus was as the incarnation of God and humanity, and the redemption of our humanity from the power of sin. Passionists are attentive to the power of sin that continues to cause social suffering, similar to that which Jesus suffered. This spirituality is described under article 65 of the Passionist Constitutions:

His Passion and death are no mere historical events. They are ever-present realities to people in the world of today, “crucified” as they are by injustice, by the lack of a deep respect for human life, and by a hungry yearning for peace, truth, and the fullness of human existence.

• Wis. 2:12, 17-20. The just person, characterized by gentleness and patience, is tested, persecuted and even killed by the self-confident wicked.
• James 3:16-4:3. Jealousy and strife beget inconstancy, conflicts and vile behavior. Wisdom is innocent, peaceable, impartial and sincere.
• Mark 9:30-37. Jesus’ announcement of his passion and death leaves the disciples speechless. In the meanwhile they argue who was the most important among themselves. Jesus’ reply: whoever welcomes a child for my sake, welcomes me.

Thoughts for your consideration: By Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, CP

There is a saying to the effect that, should a butterfly flap its wings in one part of the world, there will be repercussions of that infinitesimally small action elsewhere in the world.  This assertion is based on the principle that everything is connected, so that nothing happens in isolation.

There are concerns of Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation (JPIC) associated with this assertion.  And today’s biblical readings lend themselves to an illustration of this principle, and this example.

For instance, the gospel depicts Jesus in a teaching mode regarding His disciples.  Having just warned them about what lay ahead for Him (sufferings, death and Resurrection) He discovers, surely to His chagrin, that there was absolutely no linkage whatsoever between His remark and the disciples’ receptive capacity, as they focused on their advancement in His company.  So He decided to do some linkage of His own, advocating a sense of  lowliness on their part, by esteeming the value of an insignificant child whom He embraces, for  achieving status with Him and His Father by their doing likewise.  He suggests an interconnection here between their external behavior and an interior mindset.

St. James, likewise, focuses on relationships in the behavior patterns of his correspondents.  He notes the foul practices and disorders erupting in their midst, escalating into wars and conflicts.  In his opinion, they derive from within: their passions, their ambitions, and their jealousy.  Like Jesus before him, he appeals to a matter of the heart (the wisdom of prayer) as a solution for these external troubles.

The author of the book of Wisdom gives his own witness to the interconnections prevailing between the inner and the outer phases of our lives, by posing the case of a just person who criticizes others for their transgressions and violations of their training, thereby rousing their anger.  So they decide to try his/her gentleness and patience by violations and torture, to see whether such a one’s interior trust in God will suffice to sustain abuse from without.

Each of these scenarios is an instance of a butterfly flapping its wings, impacting another phase of life.  Such was the case when Jesus embraced a child so as to change the disciples’ conduct; and when James proposed to his correspondents that they secure a bit of wisdom so as to improve the way they acted; and when the Wise Man praised the example of the just person’s patient, trusting relationship with God before the persecution undergone for upholding righteousness.

There are JPIC issues at stake here: interpersonal rivalries threatening comradeship, disorders escalating into wars and conflicts, social disruptions deserving criticism.  None of these exist in isolated fashion, separated from the rest of life.  They emerge out of ambition, passion, and hatred.  They too resemble the flapping of a butterfly’s wings, but instead of initiating values of harmony, peace and order residing within they are initiating a negative set of values which will also have powerful repercussions. What we do here and how we behave in the moment is crucial. Immediate actions and attitudes may seem insignificant but whether we realize it or not, they are impacting our internal mindset and external surroundings.

Questions for your Reflection:

• What set of values dictate our behavior and attitude toward ourselves, each other and the world? Can we name these values? How do we maintain consistency in applying these values?
• None of us can claim to be impervious to negative attitudes. Prayer, solitude, meditation and retreats are organized ways to process these moments. How do we integrate these methods to specifically address our own negative attitudes? Should we consider promoting these methods within our own family and local community?

Thoughts for your Consideration:
The sea is an awesome image that reveals the great power of creation. On the one hand the sea is turbulent and destructive. Yet the sea is also life-giving and calming. The early apostles who lived around the Sea of Galilee were very much aware of this awesome power.

I myself live by the Atlantic Ocean. I am privileged to witness the great power of the Sea. In the morning as I head over to work I can see the various shipping boats as they are heading out. As we near the middle of summer most of us become attentive to weather forecasts reporting indications of hurricane patterns. In the two-thousand years that we have progressed from the days of those early fishermen, we still can connect with their ambivalence over the destructive power of the sea.

In the first reading we find God using the image of the sea to humble the arrogance of Job. But in this passage God uses the image of the sea to convey two ideas. First, God affirms the Divine power to control the sea. Secondly, we get a sense that God’s own power is very much like the sea’s. The book of Job is about a human who is trying to comprehend the destructive power of God in allowing a good man like him to suffer. In this light we, like Job, become aware of the fact that we are only one component in a great fabric known as creation. For us to make the attempt to accept the will of God we must place ourselves in a mystical relationship with the rest of this great fabric. Then and only then can we hope to comprehend what St. Paul of the Cross called, “the greater Good.”

In the Gospel reading the disciples become aware of Jesus’ divine essence in that he has some control over the force of the sea. And yet Jesus admonishes his disciples for not having enough faith. What is Jesus calling us to do in this passage? Are we expected to have such power as to control and dominate the sea itself? Or is Jesus challenging us to reconsider our relationship with creation so that, through the prism of faith, we may be able let go of our fear of the sea and begin relating with this awesome power in a way that allows us to coexist. Such a challenge is baffling when we consider our traditional relationship to this force of nature, and yet this is the challenge that Jesus places on us.

In the second reading, St. Paul places this overall invitation to relate with creation in an historical perspective. We are called to be witnesses to Christ who for our sake died and was raised. And now all of creation is asked to be renewed under the transformation that began with Christ. That calls us to a special relationship with all of creation. It calls us to adopt a new vision of solidarity. We are familiar with the need to be sensitive to the global human family and begin to at least attempt to see events from the perspective of others. But today we are called to relate in a new way to the rest of the great fabric known as creation. Fr. Thomas Berry (who died on June 1st, 2009), once said:  “We often marvel at other people, particularly impoverished peoples.  Why are they so happy amid such difficulties of life?  They have developed a way of dealing with life creatively from within the structure of their own inner development.  What do we do?  We decide that we cannot accept the disciplines that strengthen from within.  We want to control the outside, we want to change things.  We want to control the very structure and functioning of the natural world.” (Befriending the Earth, p. 116.)

Today, rather than fearfully oppose the sea, we are invited to extend our empathy towards it.  A couple of Berry’s quips, for which he was famous, might help us with this new challenging perspective: “People say you can’t treat people as things; I say you can’t treat things as things.”   -and- “We are literally cousins to every living being”.  So many of them live in the sea.

In the beginning, the story of Genesis says. In my own life as a Passionist, I especially remember two things that date all the way back to 1951. (I won’t tell you how old I was.) Fr. Coleman Haggerty was teaching us about evolution. This was so far back I don’t know whether he was for it or against it, but for some reason he made a point of the Greek translation of that phrase: “in the beginning” . . . en arche (ἐν ἀρχῇ). He noted that these were the same words with which St. John’s Gospel begins . . . because linking the two texts suggests a cosmic dimension of Christ. The words, then, gained what Thomas would call a “numinous” quality for me. The other thing I remember was that 1951 was also the year that Thomas’s teaching career at the Prep Seminary ended—in no small part because in that McCarthy era, he felt he could not teach college level European history without having the students read Karl Marx! This began my interest in his confident intellectual leadership. Today, it allows me to interpret, in terms of the new cosmology, our reading from Genesis when it says humans “have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and the cattle and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground”. It would be better to think about Thomas’s quip: “Maybe opera is the degradation of the bullfrogs.”

Genesis speaks of God. Thomas spoke with a sense of mysticism about the Divine. His thoughts are particularly apt on this, the day before the Feast of the Trinity. “There exists in the Christian world” he said, “this sense that the inner life of the divine is community. To say that community is at the heart of the ultimate simplicity (we attribute to the Divine) is a challenging statement.” Barbara Reid, OP, a scripture scholar teaching at Catholic Theological Union, says: “Augustine liked to speak of the three persons as ‘Lover, Beloved, and Love.’ Hildegard of Bingen favored ‘Fire, Burning, and Flashing Forth.’ One might name them ‘Eternal Giver, Receiver and Outburst of Joy’. There is no limit to the ways we can speak of the profound mystery of the Three in One.” She further notes: “the saving activity of God is concrete and visible both in great moments and in the routines of everyday life.” (America Magazine. May 25, 2009)

Thomas would so agree with her that there is no limit to the ways we can speak of the profound mystery of the Three in One. He considered the model of differentiation, inner articulation, and communion— insights emerging from our scientific understanding of the universe—as another way. He thus offered a vast theological program to further articulate the numinous meaning of ἐν ἀρχῇ.

Our second reading is insisting we realize that Divine love is gifted to us; the gift is primary . . . our love of the Divine is secondary. The genius of the author of this epistle is that he gives us a practical guideline: “No one has ever seen God, yet if we love one another God dwells in us and God’s love is brought to perfection in us.” In the several beautiful and moving eulogies of Wednesday’s service in Greensboro, various members of Thomas’s family introduced us to the many ways this man of towering intellect also proved to be a man of outstanding heart. By St. John’s standard: “The person without love has known nothing of God, for God is love.” Thomas certainly proved himself to be in possession of profound knowledge of the Divine. That is what he meant in yet another quip: Resist Ecstasy!

But Thomas gave us a challenge in what he called the Third Mediation of the Divine. Succeeding the Christian mediation found in sisterly and brotherly love, but not dispensing with it, the Third Mediation of the Divine is discovered in the numinous universe. He said: “The basic mood of the future might well be one of confidence in the continuing revelation that takes place in and through Earth. . . . Sensitized to such guidance from the very structure and functioning of the universe, we can have confidence in the future that awaits the human venture. (Dream of the Earth, 137)

Finally the Gospel for this Mass of the Resurrection deals with the counter intuitive Evangelical norm of “turning the other cheek” and learning to love those who would present themselves to us as enemies. Each person here, I am sure, could cite numerous examples of this altruistic behavior in Thomas’s life story that would surely make us expect that St. Luke’s sense of the exuberance of the Resurrected life applies to him: “Give and it shall be given to you . . . good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over.” However, I feel that St. Luke is also giving us the opportunity to contemplate a further aspect of the numinous cosmos. St. Luke’s sense of exuberance suggests what Thomas called the asymmetry—the wild disproportion—between the gift and response.” He cites the sacrifice parents make for their children. If the child responds with gratitude, the asymmetry is accomplished. Yet that too can demand sacrifice. Thomas said, further: “The thing that exists in our times and the root of the tragedy might be considered to be our unwillingness to make the return for what has been given us. . . . We did not choose to be here, the story (of the universe) selected us to be here. Once we are here, we must be willing to fulfill the destiny assigned to us; that is our grandeur, that is our blessedness, that is our joy, that is our peace. . . . We are not making the journey simply by ourselves. We are making it with the entire universe community, the human community, the life community, the earth community. . . . All the great enormous sacrifice.” He later names that sacrifice as “the entire industrial system” and describes that system as “taking beneficial resources and giving back poisonous products, rather than the return of gratitude.” (Befriending the Earth, 132- 133)

But the last note is not tragedy, but dance. Along with Thomas, we are aware that the story of the universe has “brought us into being and guided us safely through the turbulent centuries, (so) there is reason to believe that this same guiding process is precisely what has awakened in us our present understanding of ourselves and our relation to this stupendous process.”

The time has come to lower our voices, to cease imposing our mechanistic patterns on the biological processes of the earth, to resist the impulse to control, to command, to force, to oppress, and to begin quite humbly to follow the guidance of the larger community on which all life depends. – Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth, pg. xiv introduction

Fr. Thomas Berry, Passionist priest, internationally-recognized historian of cultures and “earth scholar,” passed away on June 1, 2009 at Well-Spring Retirement Community, Greensboro, North Carolina. He was 94.

Rev. Berry’s writings and lectures on the relation of humans with the cosmos and the earth have notably influenced the intellectual and spiritual history of the 20^th and early 21^st centuries. He was awarded seven honorary doctorates and was the author of a number of books, most notably: The Dream of the Earth, 1988, winner of the 1992 National Lannan Non-Fiction Award; The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Em, 1992, in collaboration with mathematical-cosmologist Brian Swimme; and The Great Work: Our Way Into the Future, 1999. Berry also authored eleven collections know as the Riverdale Papers.

“Thomas Berry will be remembered as one of the great religious environmental thinkers of our time. He was one of the first to suggest that the current environmental degradation comes from the loss of a sense of the Earth is a sacred community. He was truly a voice for the Earth,” said Fr. Joseph Mitchell, C.P., director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center located in Louisville.

Berry was a member of the Passionist Province of St. Paul of the Cross. His early career included teaching in China in 1948, but he left when Mao Tse Tung came to power in 1949. He continued his Asian studies in the U.S. at Seton Hall and Columbia Universities and also taught at the Asian Institute at St. John’s University (1961-1965). He was Associate Professor of Religion at Fordham University (1966-79) where he instituted the doctoral program in the History of Religions.

In 1970 Thomas inaugurated the Riverdale (NY) Center for Religious Research.  Annual conferences explored themes such as Energy: It’s Cosmic-Human Dimensions; The Future: Technological Society Man’s Covenant?; and The Ecological Age. Scholars from around the world came to the center to participate in rethinking their disciplines in light of newly-understood relations of humans to the earth. These activities culminated in the 1998 founding of the Thomas Berry Foundation, an integral part of the Harvard-based international Forum on Religious and Ecology (FORE).

Rev. Berry is survived by brothers Francis Xavier, Benedict Regis, Thomas Gabriel and Stephen Badin; a sister, Margaret, and many nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held in four places: St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church, Greensboro, NC, June 3rd; Immaculate Conception Passionist Monastery Chapel, Jamaica, NY, 11 am, June 6^th; Mass and interment, Green Mountain Monastery, Greensboro, 11 am, June 8^th; and a public memorial service at St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York City, details to be arranged.

Donations honoring the deceased may be made to the Thomas Berry Foundation, c/o Professor Mary Evelyn Tucker, Department of Religious Studies, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA 17837.

Please visit the official Thomas Berry Site.