Yesterday we meditated on the fires raging in northern California and today the fires raging in southern California are becoming even more alarming. Kudos go out of course to the first responders and the many people and groups reaching out to offer support for those affected by the devastation. Hard times often bring the best out of people, generosity and caring and compassion emerge.
Climate change is not an abstraction. It touches us where we live and work and go about our lives.
Spanish poet Antonio Machado teaches that Jesus Christ came to announce just two words: “Wake up!”
Wake up to the presence of the sacredness of creation and therefore of the kingdom/queendom of God all around us one might say.
This theme of waking up, of getting up, of rising up may well signify the very meaning of spirituality found in all religious traditions. Spirituality is our waking up—in our consciousness and our work lives and our ways of living—waking up to the divine presence everywhere, waking up our mystical awareness therefore.
Waking up also applies to our prophetic vocation which is to see where the obstacles to justice such as the causes of global warming can be found and to wake our imaginations and creativity to do something about it.
And of course it is primary to the work of prophets–To wake us up, to sound an alarm, to get us moving.
Kabir, a mystic from fifteenth-century India, spoke similarly of the need for waking up. He says:
Friend, wake up! Why do you go on sleeping?
The night is over—do you want to lose the day the same way?
Other women who managed to get up early have
already found an elephant or a jewel…
So much was lost already while you slept…
and that was so unnecessary!
My inside, listen to me, the greatest spirit,
the Teacher, is near,
wake up, wake up!
Run to his feet—
he is standing close to your head right now.
You have slept for millions and millions of years.
Why not wake up this morning?…
Oh friend, I love you, think this over
carefully! If you are in love,
then why are you asleep?
Yes, if we are in love with existence, creation, and all in it, how could we possible be asleep about the peril it finds itself in and about remedies to turn things around? Climate change and the fires and floods it is spawning is indeed a Wake Up call.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Passion For Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, p. 129.
See also: Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, Jen Listug, Order of the Sacred Earth.
Banner Image: An Elk Mountain Hotshot uses a hose during a burn operation to keep the intensity close to the line in check; Ferguson Fire, Sierra NF, CA, 2018. Photo by Forest Service, USDA on Flickr. Public domain.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you see Jesus’ message as the poet Machado does, “waking us up”? And Buddha’s and Muhammad’s message also?
Do you agree with Kabir’s message that we have slept “for millions and millions of years” but can still wake up this morning? Why do you think we prefer sleeping to loving and how can a crisis like climate change wake us up and get us up?
Recommended Reading”]
Matthew Fox’s comprehensive translation of Meister Eckhart’s sermons is a meeting of true prophets across centuries, resulting in a spirituality for the new millennium. The holiness of creation, the divine life in each person and the divine power of our creativity, our call to do justice and practice compassion–these are among Eckhart’s themes, brilliantly interpreted and explained for today’s reader.
By Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jen Listug
“The Order of the Sacred Earth not only calls us home to our true nature as Earth, but also offers us invaluable guidance and company on the way.”
~~ Joanna Macy, environmental activist and author of Active Hope
“The creation of the Order of the Sacred Earth is a magnificent step forward for humanity.” ~~ Andrew Harvey, author of Way of Passion and The Hope.
2 thoughts on “Fires & Climate Change Waking Us Up”
WOW!!!
YES!