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LIVING ON OUR ONE EARTH

Everything has been moving apart into greater individualism and separation for much of the last 2,000 years, until this round globe started filling up, and we met one another on the other side—other religions, cultures, ethnicities, and beliefs. We cannot plead ignorance of one another any longer. This globalization made us aware that God created and loves not only “Catholics from Kansas,” but Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists, as well, and even other Christians! (Sort of amazing that we should even have to say this!) The one thing we all have in common is that we are all breathing the same air, relying upon the same Brother Sun, and walking on this same Mother Earth, which absolutely feeds and sustains every one of us! It is indeed “a common good.” We now have an ability to read reality truthfully, experiencing ourselves first and foremost as members of ONE Earth community, even before we are this or that. No other people in history have been able to look back at this lone planet hanging in space. There are no national borders visible. We are the first to see and hopefully think globally! If we do not soon learn to respect and protect this limited planet with its limited resources, Christ at his “second coming” will return to a total wasteland of plastics, pollutants, and “eternal” Styrofoam. We have not followed God’s command to “cultivate and care” for the garden he has given us (Genesis 2:15). It might not be worth returning to.

Adapted from Soul Centering Through Nature: Becoming a True Human Adult

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(Richard Rohr: via Daily Meditation: Living on our One Earth — Jan. 17, 2012)