Michele Dunne, OFS
One day, some months after I began formation as a Secular Franciscan, I had a strange and wonderful experience. I was driving through Rock Creek Park, a route I took frequently to get from my house to other parts of Washington DC. It was late summer or early autumn, and the many trees in the park were full of lush green leaves. I was looking at the trees as I drove, and suddenly something changed for me. Instead of just admiring the trees as beautiful objects, I became aware of them as living and dynamic beings. More than that, I saw them as charged with divine life—in fact, as fingers of God, reaching from under the surface of the earth through the ground and into the air. The trees were not just static objects but living agents of God’s love, actively embracing humans and all other creatures, providing us food, shelter, and many other gifts. My eyes filled with tears and my heart burned with gratitude for the ways God loves and embraces all of us through His holy trees.
That experience was for me an unexpected gift, and since then I have never looked at trees quite the way I did before. I’ve spent a bit of time learning to identify some of the trees common to our area so that I can call them by their names, and now I have a few tree friends, mostly large trees in nearby parks— a massive tulip poplar, a pair of white oaks that face each other like dancing partners—whom I stop by to visit. And I’ll even admit to hugging them from time to time (apparently this is not uncommon among Franciscans!). Recent science reinforces the fact that trees are dynamic living beings who communicate with each other through their root systems as well as through the air about matters such as potential threats and exchanging nutrients.
Trees are just one element of the glorious creation of which we human beings are part. Most of us, myself included, live in ways that take us far away from a harmonious relationship with the rest of creation. I too often view creation—animals, plants, elements like air and water—simply as commodities to be consumed. And I tend to consume more than I truly need, which hurts creation and wastes resources that other people might need more than I.
The new Laudato Si’ action platform from the Vatican asks all of us, as individuals and communities, to take another look at our consumption patterns and attitudes towards creation. How can we appreciate anew God’s glorious creativity and great love for us, and how can we make a response in love to God and all our sisters and brothers throughout creation, just as St. Francis did? Please give this some thought and let us discuss in October as we conclude this Season of Creation