麻豆社

Good morning.

Earlier this week, an environmental group tweeted, 鈥淭here was worldwide outcry when the Notre Dame cathedral was on fire. Why is there not the same level of outrage for the fires destroying the Amazon Rainforest?鈥� In fact, there is a growing sense of global outrage about in many cases the deliberate lighting of fires for deforestation. Political leaders gathering in Biarritz for the G7 summit are discussing what urgent action to take.

I find myself reflecting on that comparison between the fire in Notre Dame cathedral and the burning rainforests. Gothic cathedrals like Notre Dame were designed to inspire a sense of God鈥檚 creation reaching up to the heavens in praise and thanksgiving. They were adorned with elaborate representations of the natural and human worlds in their stonework and paintings. They would have been decorated in bright colours with stained glass windows casting rainbows on forests of pillars beneath starry vaults. Medieval Christians believed that all of creation participated in and gave praise to God. They spoke of the book of nature and the book of scripture as two complementary sources of divine revelation, and they recognised the multitudinous abundance of life as an expression of the manifold attributes of God.

From this perspective, the rain forest might be understood as a natural cathedral. Those towering trees raise their branches in praise of their creator, while contributing to the earth鈥檚 oxygen supply and providing a home to many species. Recent research has shown that trees communicate with one another in interdependent relationships mediated by complex networks of fungi beneath the surface of the soil. A forest is a living organism, of which a cathedral built by human hands is only a pale imitation. Yet both can awaken in us a sense of awe and wonder about the mystery of creation. They point beyond themselves to a reality that exceeds human control and domination. From this vantage point, we are able to gain a sense of perspective about what really matters in life.

It鈥檚 a clich茅 to say that the best things in life are free, but many of the things we cherish most are priceless and beyond commodification. A quote attributed to various sources warns that 鈥榃hen the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money.鈥�

The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil. As those hellish fires burn in the Amazon to clear the land, those words seem to me very relevant.

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