For eleven days now, we have been meditating on the wisdom of creation spirituality teachings shared by Howard Thurman, Hildegard of Bingen and Meister Eckhart.  

We have seen the deep commitment of all three to our Mother Earth, a value deeply supported by Pope Francis in his excellent encyclical on Caring for Our Common Home, “Laudato Si,” which is deeply creation centered in its theology and calls us all to love and action on behalf of Mother Earth.

It is all the more disturbing, therefore, to hear the recent news that the politicians of France are calling for tearing down rare, large oak trees to rebuild Notre Dame.  Of course we want to see Notre Dame rise from the ashes after the great fire laid waste to her two years ago. Yes, she represents the best of the goddess revolution of the twelfth century that brought an awakened sense of light and wonder, stained glass and other advanced technology into the world—and that still moves many by its beauty, light and feminine grace.  

The twelfth century gothic revolution in architecture manifest in Notre Dame Cathedral owed much to the (then) great forests of France—indeed Notre Dame was called le foret–“the forest”, because the great oak trees had contributed so much to its structure; but also because the forests had inspired the gothic architecture of verticality and light.  

It was a sort of urban forest. Its tall pillars were tree-like and its windows let in the light as in a forest, creating a space where one went for silence and calm even in the midst of a bustling city. 

For 858 years there has been a profound link between Notre Dame and the Oak Tree forests of France.  But today the forests are few and the trees are few.  The plan is to cut down 1500 oak elders.

This will not do.  Such moral blindness in the context of catastrophic climate change will diminish the few remaining European forests.  Such a choice calls for prophetic interference.  It distorts what a Cathedral should be all about.  Instead of honoring the sacred, it traffics in the sacrilegious. We can do better than this.

In the spirit of Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Howard Thurman and Pope Francis, Stop this effort to sacrifice rare sacred trees to serve human needs.  Surely, with ingenuity and advanced technical know-how, we can find alternative ways to rebuild this cathedral, architects with a conscience, who respect the holiness of trees amidst the fragile circumstances old trees face today.

Yesterday, our DM spoke to the common battle for justice we find in Thurman’s Eckhart’s life and teachings.  Today is an invitation to contribute to eco-justice by signing the petition below to find another way to proceed, a way that protects our trees that in turn are home to thousands of creatures.  

Let us not commit sacrilege to rebuild a sacred place of worship.  Find another way!  Let the Green Man in all of us rise to this occasion.

See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/16/france-centuries-old-oaks-rebuild-spire-notre-dame-fire-trees; and https://savetheancientoaks.netlify.app/  

Sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/SaveAncientOaks
If the hyperlink does not function, please copy and paste the URL into your browser.

April 16, 2019 A Requiem for Notre Dame de Paris, The Soul of a Nation

See Matthew Fox, “The Green Man,” in Matthew Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine, pp. 19-32. 

And “A Dream—’Your Mother Is Dying’—A Crucifixion Story for Our Times,” in Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, pp. 11-34.

Banner Image: Oak tree on mountain plan. Photo by Nikola Knezevic on Unsplash

Are you disturbed by this news and its ironic message of tearing down sacred trees to buttress a (presumed) sacred temple made by humans?  The French government is making the decision very soon.  Please act on your contemplation asap.

The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine

To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature,  to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God

The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance

In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
 “This book is a classic.” Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth.