We know that God our Creator fell in love with the whole concept of water, then brought it into being. "He made the sea; it belongs to him," sings Psalm 95. God didn't leave the seas empty, either: "Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures." Can't you imagine God's joy and delight in beholding mammoth whales, octopi shooting ink from the opening we'd call their anuses to confuse predators, and playful dolphins swimming in pods, even helping injured or sick members by lifting them to the water's surface so they can breathe?
The Holy Spirit also loves water - the first line of the Book of Genesis is this: "In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind (a metaphor for the Holy Spirit) swept over the waters.
Jesus, too, was, a lover of water. He was baptized by full immersion in water. For a part of his ministry, he lived in Capernaum by the sea; he sailed on Lake Genneseret with his followers, often taught while sitting in a boat, calmed storms on the lake, and even walked on lake water. If you need further convincing, he called himself "Living Water" - the water which our souls need to live. "Oh God, you are my God,for you I long," sings Psalm 63; "for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry, weary land without water....For your love is better than life."
Jesus must have enjoyed picnics on the beach as much as we do. The resurrected Jesus reveals himself to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. The fishermen, out fishing, of course, see Jesus sitting on the shore; he's made a charcoal fire and is cooking them a fine breakfast of fish. He calls to them to come and join him and bring some of the fish they'd just caught, to eat along with the bread he's also brought. He rises to feed them, eats with them, and then, three times, asks Peter if he truly loves Jesus - if he does, his marching orders are to feed the Lord's lambs, and tend to the Lord's sheep. Perhaps the disciples remember that earlier Jesus had told them "I will make you fishers of men."
The message is clear for the disciples: the Lord will always feed their - and our - spiritual hunger, be Living Water for their - and our - spiritual thirst. But real faith always inspires action. We are all Called by God to be fishers of men and women, children and youth. We are all Called to feed the Lord's lambs, tend to the Lord's sheep. We understand that that means to feed their faith. We just don't take the marching orders far enough.
We don't connect tending human beings to tending creation. We don't consider humankind as being vitally interconnected with the rest of creation. We think of our faith life as only being connected with our souls' lives. Yet, Jesus began this last scene by feeding his disciples' bodies. Humans' physical lives are as important to God as our spiritual lives - because we need both our bodies and souls to make us whole. Our bodies pine for God's tending as much as our souls do. And, the health of each one of us is totally dependent on the health of our planet, the planet God fell in love with at the beginning of time.
In "Laudato Si," Pope Francis' encyclical (teaching) on care for the environment, he talks about "The Gospel of Creation," which extends back to the Book of Genesis, "when humankind was called to 'till and keep' the earth. But we have done...too much tilling and not enough keeping....Pope Francis reminds us that God, in Jesus Christ, became not only human but part of the natural world. Moreover, Jesus himself appreciated the natural world, as is evident in the Gospel passages in which he praises creation....
"Pope Francis links all of us to creation; we are part of nature, included in it, and thus in constant interaction with it. But our decisions about production and consumption have an inevitable effect on the environment. Pope Francis links a 'magical conception of the market,' which privileges profit over the impact on the poor, with the abuse of the environment....He critiques an unthinking reliance on market forces, in which every technological, scientific, or industrial advancement is embraced before considering how it will affect the environment and 'without concern for its potential negative impact on human beings.'" (from "Ten Top Takeaways from 'Laudato Si," by Fr. James Martin, S.J. in the June 18, 2015 edition of "America" Magazine.)
The current administration has unequivocally chosen the creation of jobs as being the most important accomplishment for them, and so it has eliminated a number of laws which enshrined environmental protections. But, at what price? If human beings are part of creation, if our physical, mental, and spiritual health is inextricably connected with the health of the planet, shouldn't job creation and protection of the environment be considered equally important? This isn't an either - or choice; morally, it should be a both-and choice.
Which brings us back to water....
Water is of major importance to all living things. In some organisms, up to 90% of their body weight comes from water. Up to 60% of the human adult body is water. The brain and heart are composed of 73% water, and the lungs are 83% water.
If you still wonder if protection of the environment is a faith issue, consider this: 60% of Jesus' body was water; when the Son of God took on human flesh, he became part of the natural world - and the natural world, fresh from the hand of the Creator, became twice-holy.
Water...part of our bodies, of major importance to all living things... thus President Trump's executive order to jettison the permanent bans on new offshore oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, is morally wrong. On May 3, 2017, several Conservation and Alaska Native groups filed a lawsuit against President Trump. What are the effects of off-shore drilling on the environment? The groups who filed the lawsuit say
"Trump's executive order could open up more than 120 million acres of ocean territory to the oil and gas industry, affecting 98% of federal Arctic Ocean waters and 31 biologically rich deepwater canyons in the Atlantic Ocean. Offshore drilling in these undeveloped regions threatens to harm irreplaceable wildlife, sensitive marine ecosystems, coastal residents and the businesses that depend on them, and our global climate."
Drilling in remote and inaccessible Arctic waters could injure polar bears, whales, and walruses, and imperil the lives of the Native peoples that depend on them. Drilling there is particularly dangerous and risky because it would be effectively impossible to clean up an oIl spill in icy, remote Arctic waters. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ITSELF HAS CONCLUDED THAT THERE WAS A 75 PERCENT CHANCE OF A MAJOR OIL SPILL IF DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION IN THE CHUKCHI SEA MOVED FORWARD UNDER EVEN A SINGLE LARGE LEASE SALE.
Drilling in the Atlantic's protected areas would threaten unique and critical habitat for a multitude of whale species, as well as swordfish and sea turtles. In addition, Atlantic drilling threatens the region's vibrant fishing and tourism industries - a spill equivalent to the BP Gulf oil disaster could coat beaches stretching from Savannah to Boston.
All development and burning of oil and gas from the Arctic Ocean alone could release nearly 16 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the equivalent of over nine years of tailpipe emissions from every truck and car on the road nationwide.
(The groups filing this lawsuit include the League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Alaska Wilderness League, Defenders of Wildlife, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, REDOIL (Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands), Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, and the Wilderness Society. This information is from EarthJustice.)
I return to my beginning song from Psalms: "He made the sea; it belongs to Him." God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, made and delights in the bodies of water on this planet and the unique and wonderful aquatic life forms inhabiting them. I shudder to think of God's holy and formidable wrath at our befouling and despoiling of water, when clean water is indispensable for all kinds of life, not just human life. When Jesus asks all of us to feed his lambs and tend his sheep, he asks us to allow our faith to lead us to action to protect and conserve all of creation, for all of creation is interconnected. We cannot harm any part of it without affecting the whole. Whatever affects the indigenous people of the Arctic affects us, for we are one body in Christ. If they weep, we too must weep; if they suffer, we too must suffer.
When we fall in love with anyone or anything, we will do all that it takes to protect them, save their lives.
God fell in love with all of creation as soon as God created everyone and everything.
Ungrateful creatures that we are, we surely haven't fallen in love yet with this planet, even if it feeds us, gives us water, gives us air. Not by a long shot. If we don't - and soon - Nature will betray us as we have betrayed her. If we want to believe that we love this earth, we have to protect her, purify her, in wonder and awe at her beauty and bounty. It's part of respecting God the Creator, of being inspired to unity by the Holy Spirit. It's part of having the mind and heart of Jesus. It's part of our marching orders from a God Whose Son's precious human body is 60% water.