The late Irish Catholic priest and philosopher John O’Donohue called the land “the firstborn of creation” and the “condition of the possibility of everything.” The earth itself, he insisted, holds the memory of the beginning of all things, the memory of God. When Sallie McFague offers the metaphor of “body” to describe the relationship between God and the world, she is reminding us of both scientific truth and a sacred mystery. “What if,” she asks, “we saw the earth as part of the body of God, not as separate from God (who dwells elsewhere), but as the visible reality of the invisible God?”
What if, indeed? I suspect that if we did, we would be both more responsible toward the soil and more aware of God-with-us.
– from “GROUNDED” by Diana Butler Bass – HarperOne