Living into Sabbath

Mary Rowell CSJ on behalf of the Ecology Committee

The season of Winter calls us to quiet waiting on life hidden in the dark earth. The liturgical season of Advent similarly invites stillness as we await the re- birth of Christ in our hearts and world; Christ ever-present and yet to come.

The Biblical Tradition echoes the patterns of Earth. Wendell Berry says the Tradition “elevates just stopping above physiological necessity, makes it a requirement, an observance of the greatest dignity and mystery”. It is called, Sabbath. Sabbath is an essential part of the evolutionary and spiritual process. It is a time set aside to honour creation according to the very patterns of creation. We humans must make a choice. Berry asks, “Will we choose to participate by working in accordance with the world’s originating principles, in recognition of its inherent goodness and its maker’s approval of it, in gratitude for our membership in it, or will we participate by destroying it in accordance with our always tottering, never-resting self-justifications and selfish desires?”

These are strong words and yet what a beautiful reflection for living winter and for entering fully into the season of Advent this year.  Earth and Tradition call us into a time of rest and reflection – a time of joy. In his beautiful book, “Living the Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight”, Norman Wirzba says, “Just as God’s Shabbat completes the creation of the Universe – by demonstrating that the proper response to the gifts of life is celebration and delight – so too should our Sabbaths be the culmination of habits and days that express gratitude for a joy in the manifold blessings of God.”

Without a sense and practice of Sabbath how easy it is to forget the gifts of God and to enter into restless, joyless and destructive patterns of being. The personal, social and ecological costs of forgetting Sabbath, Norman Wizba maintains are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. They include stressful living to the point of breaking, a loss of meaningful relationship, a lack of peace, the destruction of Earth and its accompanying rise in human poverty and suffering.

So we are invited to reclaim a sense and practice of Sabbath. Winter and Advent, our waiting times, provide the best opportunities by calling us to rest in the rhythms of life. We are gently challenged to remember who we are and who we are called to be. Like plants that will yield fruit in the Spring only if they lie dormant in Winter we are invited to a fallow season. Wayne Muller writes of this most beautifully; “We must have a period in which we lie fallow and restore our souls. In Sabbath time we remember to celebrate what is beautiful and sacred; we light candles, sing songs, tell stories, eat, nap, love. It is a time to let our work, our lands, our animals lie fallow, to be nourished and refreshed. Within this sanctuary, we become available to the insights and blessings of deep mindfulness that arise only in stillness and time. When we act from a place of deep rest, we are more capable of cultivating what the Buddhists call right understanding, right action and right effort.” May this Winter, this Advent be for us such a contemplative time; a time for God, a time for Earth, a time for one another, a time for gratitude that when Christmas comes we can once again birth Christ in the World in peace and joy. Earth teach us the way!

Why Green Our Faith

Guiding Spiritual Principles For Integral Ecology

In this time of grave ecological crisis, a global cry is rising up shouting, “What must we do to protect and cherish the integrity of the planet?”  Pope Francis, in Laudato Si, is offering one way forward by challenging us to envision integral ecology which holds social justice and ecological justice together as one. This is at the heart of the encyclical’s message.   How will the human family live into integral ecology. It is critical that faith communities actively participate in the dialogue. What is needed are sound guiding principles that will allow us to see more clearly how our Christian faith and integral ecology are interconnected. The emerging field of ecological ethics is striving to do this.

Many principles are being developed to help us as “believers (to) better recognize the ecological commitments which stem from our convictions”. (LS 64).  Following are a few which exemplify the wide range of contexts needing consideration:

Evolutionary Context:  All creation has emerged from an evolutionary process. Humans are not separate beings; rather, we are an integral part of the web of life.

Ecological Context: Humans have a responsibility to care for and protect the existence of and the biodiversity of all life systems now and into the future.

Social Context: Economic activities and institutions must promote human development in an equitable and sustainable manner. Gender equality must be affirmed as a prerequisite to sustainable development.

Spirituality Context: All is sacred. All creation has intrinsic value and dignity within their relationships of inter-relatedness which must be respected, apart from their usefulness.

Sustainability Context:

Every aspect of creation also has an instrumental value. Everything is needed by another to sustain its existence. A self-sufficient community will only use what is required to sustain healthy and balanced eco-systems.

One principle not often referred to is that of Beauty.  Jame Schaffer gives us a profound reflection: “Beauty is constitutive of who we are and manifests as intrinsic generosity expanding our experience of inter-dependence and inter-relatedness with all life.” 1

For the full flourishing of the planet it is imperative that we choose to integrate these principles into our beliefs, lifestyles and actions.  A Covenant Model of Global Ethics 2 offers a ray of hope particularly recalling the covenant with Noah made between humans and all living beings. Covenant means to come together by making a promise. For Integral Ecology there is the promise to protect the common good.  However, we know that we are promise- makers and promise breakers. In humility we acknowledge where we have alienated ourselves from the web of life. In hope we rise up again and again to build a new covenant with Earth, with God’s grace and the good will of all peoples. The Paris Summit is the gleaning of such a covenant as countries search together for a global vision to mitigate the impact of climate change.

Encouraging us, Francis offers another principle:“Caring for eco-systems demands farsightedness.” (LS 36). Yet deeper still is Love for earth and the human family which springs forth from our indwelling and sustaining relationship with the Divine.

1. Jame Schaefer, “Valuing Earth Intrinsically and Instrumentally: A Theological  Framework for Environmental Ethics”, Theological Studies, 66 (2005): 783-814.

2. J. Ronald Engel, “A Covenant Model of Global Ethics”, Worldviews 8, 1 (2004), 29-46