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Our Common Heritage

Could every being and species on the earth share a common inheritance? A common heritage that dates back to the beginning of the cosmos and follows the history of the universe unfolding. Could this legacy be embedded deep in our cells?

Thomas Berry, revered visionary and ecotheologian wrote about this sacred relationship between all beings and the cosmos. He understood the relationship between the natural world and humans to be a symbiotic one and that with the destruction of the natural environment goes the demise of humans. He spoke of the earth and its many species as “a communion of subjects not a collection of objects” and called this communion, the earth community. How much more magnificent does the earth seem when it is viewed with such beauty? Berry, along with other eco-spiritualists, described an earth-based spirituality that included the sacred in all living beings, human and non- human.

Recently I saw an American poet Drew Dellinger, speak in Guelph. His poetry combines cosmology and ecology in a way that forces us to wake up to the environmental destruction that we have created. His work is influenced largely by writers like Berry. The story of the universe, Dellinger tells, has been understood in a very physical, scientific approach with little relevance placed on any sacred meaning to the wondrous magnificence of the universe unfolding. Our story, he says, is one of human supremacy that separates us from each other and the other species on the planet. This story has allowed us to dominate and control nature because we see this as our human right that deems us superior and it is these beliefs have created the current ecological crisis.

Can we see embrace this new sacred story? The world came into form billions of years ago, starting an evolution to where we are now. We are all inherent cosmological dust manifested in varying physical form. Thomas Berry wrote that every being is a mode of the divine, meaning every animal, human and plant form. Who are we then? We are everything that was, is and will be. Berry asked, “Is stewardship enough? Do we need a more profound identity with the natural world, one that sees human and other earthly beings as members of a single community?” If we chose to believe that everything is sacred and connected, we could envision this new earth story.

Matthew Fox, renegade theologian and venerable force of the creation spirituality movement, writes “that people are born mystics – we are all mystics as children, but it’s taken away from us as we grow older. It’s taken away subtly by education which trains the left brain and ignores the right brain. They take away your crayons right when you need them most – at puberty. When you should be getting to your cosmic soul they give you football and shopping-malls. And that’s what religion won’t tell you – that we’re losing the planet. We have everything to lose, it’s basic. And that’s why the only resolution is an awakening of gratitude and reverence for the planet, and falling in love in more than an anthropocentric fashion.”

Could the spiritual be the missing piece to the ecological movement? We could transform our human and earth relationship to one of wonder and deep association. I have to ask where are our religious leaders and why have they not seen this profound connection? If everything is the divine unfolded in different form, then this becomes a moral issue for many. How would this affect our economic and political outcomes? I think we could fall in love with nature and connect with the deep mysteries of the universe in every sacred, drop of water, tree, every animal and the very earth itself? Imagine if all the world’s religious leaders implemented this principle in their churches, temples and mosques.

Dellinger asks, “what kind of ancestors are we to this planet that has sustained us? We are changing the earths climate. In 13.7 billion years this will be our legacy. This is what we will be judged by.” He finished with his poem Hieroglyphic Stairway, “ It’s 3:23 in the morning and I am awake because my great, great grandchildren won’t let me sleep. They will ask me in my dreams. What did you do when the earth was unraveling. What did you do while the planet was plundered? Surely you did something when the seasons were failing? What did you do once you knew?”