by Joan Mitchell, CSJ
During Advent we create wreaths using the boughs of trees that stay ever-green and symbolize the encircling, sustaining life and holy mystery in which we live. In nature Christmas happens as Earth turns toward the sun and the warmth that will bring plants to life in spring, that will green Earth again.
Chlorophyll gives leaves their green color as they transform sunlight into the air we breathe. We humans depend on trees and plants to make oxygen. The breaths we take in and out without thinking image the invisible Spirit, the giver of life, who sustains us.
Climate change calls the people of the world to become a green community that cooperates with Earth’s wisdom for sustaining all that lives. Care for our common home and for people who are poor is a Christian obligation.
In a sense God is green; that is, God is life-giving. In the prophetic poetry of Second Isaiah, Sunday’s first reading, the Earth greens and people become whole wherever God steps. Second Isaiah speaks from exile in Babylon. He no longer sees God as a divine warrior, commanding heavenly armies that will defeat Israel’s enemies and restore the nation. Instead Second Isaiah envisions God leading a new exodus that is not a triumphant military march but a healing, life-giving regathering of a scattered, defeated people.
Second Isaiah imagines God leading the exiled Israelites home through a desert that bursts forth with springs of water and blossoms wherever God passes. This God strengthens the feeble, heartens the fearful, and heals the broken. In Sunday’s gospel Jesus’ actions bring life and wholeness among the broken.
- What does green symbolize or express for you?