Michel Quoist
MEET CHRIST AND LIVE!

translated by J. F. BERNARD
GILL AND MACMILLAN

24. The rediscovery of nature

Recently, at a meeting of a militant Christian organization, a woman mentioned that she was involved in a movement to fight against pollution, and that she was gathering signatures locally, for a petition. Some of those present smiled and made remarks about 'fashionable crusades'. But, when we stopped to reflect on what she had said, it became obvious that the anti-pollution movement is a healthy manifestation of opposition to a very real danger.
We didn' t have to look very far to find signs of interest in nature all around us. We were astonished at the things that were mentioned in this respect-weekends in the country; a 'return to nature' by people on vacation; the enormous increase in the number of summer houses in the country, in the mountains and at the seaside. And, of course, there are constant campaigns against air-pollution and water-pollution; movements aimed at preserving natural parks and open spaces and at controlling urban sprawl; meetings, congresses and seminars on the preservation of the environment; and the first World Conference on the Environment, convened at Stockholm. (1)
Why this sudden interest in ecology? Row does the environment affect man? How does it involve God?
We reflected, and we prayed.

Man is a social animal. Left to himself, he is incomplete; and, left entirely to himself, he cannot survive. He contains many different elements within himself. He has various faculties which he must unify. Re is a member of an enormous group: mankind. He is a cell in an immense body: the universe. He is the son of a Father unique to his many children: God.
If, at one level or another, the links uniting those elements are broken, the result is imbalance, disorder, and, finally, the mutilation of man.
In order to be able to live, a man has need of all his physical, emotional and spiritual faculties. But if his sexual or emotional faculties are not integrated into his personality, then these links are broken, and a man is unbalanced because he is incomplete. Re is unable to live fully.
Man is made to live in society. Re cannot truly grow and live except in relationship to other men. Alone, he must remain underdeveloped and incomplete. In order for him to reach his full growth, he must enter into communication with all men. And, if these links with other men are broken, man is cut off, isolated.
The universe is an extension of man' s body. The human body is a piece of earth. Man, in order to live, has need of the earth, the air, the sun - the entire universe. Re is necessarily linked to these things. If the links are broken, man is isolated.
Man does not spring from nothingness. Re is the fruit of  the Father' s eternal love. Re is a son of the divine household. If he does not recognize his Father, his brother Jesus Christ, and his brothers in Jesus Christ; if he is not freely bound to them and does not live the divine life which is his right as a son, he remains seriously incomplete. In such a case, the bonds have been cut-and the cutting of these bonds is a sin.
This unity of man within himself, of men among themselves, of men and the universe, 
and of all mankind and the whole universe
with the Father in Christ, 
constitutes the infinite plan of God which is intended\o join together all things, forever, in the unity of the Trinity.
Whenever man struggles, at one level or another, to splice together these bonds in love (that is, in freedom, justice and respect for individual and collective values; for we are talking about a special kind of unity) , he is acting in accordance with God' s wish. As a Christian, he must be committed along with Jesus, who is himself committed to the unity of the world al every level.
In this sense, man' s ties to the universe are one aspect, but a necessary aspect, of his inner equilibrium and of the world' s progress towards unity. It is this aspect with which we are specially concerned. For, in many cases, these ties have been loosened, or broken; and, as always happens, disorder has followed the break and it is destroying the world.
From the beginning, the universe was given to man as a means of nourishment and growth. It is man' s duty to dominate the universe, develop it and place it at the service of himself and of all men.
Some men have taken common natural resources and used them for themselves, to the exclusion of other men. They have exploited these resources and capitalized on them.
Some men have more water than they need, while others have not enough. (In the underdeveloped countries, thousands of children die every year because of insufficient water. And even in the developed countries, there is a serious injustice in the distribution of water in some of the older cities. )
The air that some men breathe is pure, while that breathed by others is polluted.
Some men bask in the sun, while others live in houses where the sun never enters.
Some men live in the midst of green, open spaces; and others are surrounded by asphalt and concrete.
Some men build up great holdings of rich land, while other men have no land on which to grow food.
Man has not only made selfish use of the earth for the happiness and pleasure of a few, and condemned others to sickness and early death; he has al so exploited the earth without respecting it.
A man who makes use of his body selfishly, for his own pleasure and without reference to any law or measure, disturbs the equilibrium of life; and his weakened body then alienates his spirit. But the earth is an extension of man's body, and when it is not used in accordance with reason, it, too, is stricken with a contagious disease. Today, the earth is diseased. It has been infected by man. The water and the air are polluted, the land is exhausted, and our natural resources have been plundered. (2)
The first ones to suffer, as usual, have been the poor. Weakened by privation, many of them die before their time: factory workers who breathe poisonous fumes for years; children deprived of the sunlight; miners working in darkness. (3) But now pollution is no longer confined to the slums and ghettoes, those concentration camps of human misery. It has begun to spread, to reach the affluent suburbs, to affect commercial interests, to inconvenience the habitués of exclusive resorts. And so, it is attracting a great deal of attention.
It is not a question of 'halting progress', of depriving of goods those who are already under-consumers. It is not a matter of going backward. But it is a question of controlling and guiding progress in such a way that it will work for the overall good of man and of all men. This is God's first law, given at the beginning of the world. To violate that law is a sin.
It is easy enough to put the blame on others for what is happening to the world's resources. The fact is, however, that we are all polluters of nature. Together, we must share the blame for the world' s sickness; and each of us must try to do something about it. For example, we know what exhaust fumes from motor vehicles do to the air, especially in cities. Are we willing to give up the use of our private cars in cities and make use of public transport instead?
We must re-establish the relations with nature that we have broken off. Some people have never reconciled themselves to nature, and we must teach them to do so. Children must make nature's acquaintance and discover the joy of being part of the world. This is the role of a liberal and balanced education.
Everything that works towards a healthy contact between man and nature al so works towards man' s development, and thus fulfils God's plan for him and for the world.
But we must go still further. We must defend nature from its enemies. This is a duty which God has entrusted to us. We must make use of our bodies-which are a part of this planet-to guide nature, to master it, to humanize it, to make it serve man until it is time for the resurrection.
A commitment to nature (I mean a commitment to respect nature, to achieve an ecological equilibrium, and to develop nature and man' s links with it) is not one which is reserved exclusively for sensitive little old ladies with nothing else to do. Certainly, there is a hierarchy of values to be observed in one' s commitments; but a commitment to nature, when viewed within the greater context of man's responsibilities to himself, to society and to the world, becomes a necessary part of the progress of man and the universe towards the final harmony of Eternal Love.

Lord, thank you for letting me find my friend who was lost:
my friend, the earth.
The earth, after all, is made up of the same stuff as I,
and it needs the light and warmth of the same sun.

We had lost touch with each other for a time. I no longer saw,
or visited,
or even spoke to my friend.
I thought,
or rather we thought, my brothers and I, 
that we no longer had need of the earth.

Lord, we have found our friend again, but it is sick,
wounded, and exhausted.
You gave it to us once, and we took it into our hands 
when it was unspoiled,
savage,
but able to be tamed.
Some of us betrayed it to the 'developers'
who forced it to prostitute itself,
so that they might take their unbridled pleasure from it. 
And now, disfigured and contaminated,
the earth sickens us when we draw near.

Lord, the earth has no arms,
it has no voice.
Let me be its defender.
Let me fight on its behalf
For it was you who gave me the earth, Lord; 
you gave it to me and to all men.

In protecting it
and developing it as you wish,
Once more I will save it,
and, in saving it,
save all my brothers.

[1] The conference took place in June 1972, under the sponsorship of the United Nations. More than 1,200 delegates from 179 nations met to study the means of saving our planet.
[2] Magazines and newspapers contain startling figures on this subject. Half the water in the Seine, for example, comes from the sewers of Paris. Mankind burns annually 4'5 billion tons of coal and discharges 100 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Even more striking is the fact that a four-engine jet flying from New York to Paris uses the equivalent of 40 tons of oil and 90 tons of oxygen - i.e.. the total amount of oxygen produced daily by 7.500 acres of forest.
[3] This is not a bit of demagogic rhetoric or an alarmist's complaint. Statistics reveal a shocking discrepancy in the average longevity of men according to occupation and social class. Literally millions die prematurely from the effects of pollution - the pollution of those very resources which should ha ve enabled them to feed themselves and to develop.