December 14 2022.
HOLY BODY; HOLY EARTH.
Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6: 19-20)
We, as the top creatures, are by all indications, the only entity with a God-consciousness. In Colossians 1: 15-20, Christ describes himself as “The First born of all Creation”. That to me suggests that Christ, as the first human ever, made Creation possible, while we, as Psalm 82: 6 confirms, are “Gods, Children of the Most High”. Believe me: we are of the highest status among creatures.
“Everything is connected to everything else”.
When God’s Holy Spirit dwells in us, then this permeates our entire being, because everything is connected to everything else. That is the First law of Ecology. The others are, “Creation knows best”, “Nothing comes free”, and “Nothing ever disappears.” They too have become my rules for life.
This first law gives us special responsibilities, which means that we, in our daily lives, have to reflect the status of being ‘temples of the Holy Spirit’.
Our responsibility, owing to our high position, extends even further: not only are we of divine origin, we LIVE in a divine setting as well.
“Sacred Nature” traces how ancient religions always have regarded the earth as holy. Psalm 24 unambiguously states that “The earth is the Lord’s and all it contains”, affirming creation’s sacred status.
Since life is a unity, my mind too needs cultivating so, for more than 30 years I have written a daily log of 500 words, based on the lectionary, in which I wonder and wander, give my imagination free rein, do this right after my breakfast every day. Last week, in my ‘first thing in the morning’ exercise of exploring the Scripture, I was confronted with 2 Peter 3: 10, “and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare”.
That made me think of COP15, meeting this week in Montreal, discussing this very text: “Everything done in the created world”. That points to us and ‘biodiversity”. Yes, these 12,000 delegates there are discussing 2 Peter 3: “How to remedy the harm we have done to creation!”, because Biodiversity, the concept, indicates life in all its facets.
Biodiversity is essential for the processes that support all life on Earth. It keeps us healthy. It keeps us fed. It keeps our economies running. In fact, half of global GDP is dependent on nature, according to a report from the UN Environment Program. Food production depends on pollination. Construction depends on timber. Infrastructure and energy production depend on reliable water sources that flow from healthy ecosystems. Yet, ironically, how these sectors operate is also suffocating biodiversity by depleting natural resources, spoiling forests and seas, and crowding out and killing native species.
“Human kind cannot bear much reality”, writes T.S. Eliot in Murder in the Cathedral.
We are what we eat. What we are physically, depends on our diet. What we are spiritually, is often the result of our upbringing. By the grace of God, I was born in a devout, extended family. As grown-ups, we are on our own, attacked from every possible angle by material and spiritual forces. It is almost impossible to develop a balanced life, and yet we must. We must do everything possible to maintain the holiness of our status: that means striving for a long and healthy life, which includes diet: it is our duty from Day 1.
The five pillars of a longevity diet are:
- Whole grains like corn, rice and oats (complex carb)
- Greens
- Tubers, including potatoes and yams (complex carb)
- Nuts
- Beans (complex carb)
Ever since I read (45 years ago), “Diet for a Small Planet” my wife (now deceased) and I have followed a vegetarian diet, based on the five points outlined above. I see it as my holy duty to treasure my body as holy. Fortunately, I still am able to cultivate a large vegetable garden, so that most of what I eat is homegrown.
To stay physically fit, I walk each day for about an hour, almost always in a forest setting. Again, I am fortunate there as well, a choice we made in 1975 moving from the city to Eastern Ontario.
All this has not been my doing: I believe in divine guidance and thus adhere to: Psalm 119: 105: Your word – Christ, Prophecy, Scripture – is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (in God’s holy creation).
Yes, I believe in divine guidance: I believe that we are here for a purpose, perhaps an impossible purpose: To be a holy person in a holy earth, in preparation for perfection to come.