“You shall eat your bread, until you return to the earth, for out of it you were taken” (Gen 3:19).

Earth Day is intended to create awareness of the importance of caring for the earth. Consequently, this day is also an opportunity to reflect on our relationship with the earth.  This relationship is problematic in many ways due to global warming, contamination, the decrease in biodiversity, and the increase in various waste products.

And yet, we have an intimate relationship with the earth. Almost all the material we are made of was generated in the stars. We are “humus”, whose meaning is “fertile, fecund earth”, the origin of the word ‘human.’

All living things use the same 20 amino acids to make all the kinds of proteins they need¹. This shows that all living things on planet Earth, humans, birds, fish, animals, and plants are basically made of atoms of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, and a few other elements in smaller amounts. There are many similarities between us, plants and animals.

At the same time there is total interdependence. The animal world, humans, fauna and flora coexist, metaphorically, under the same rule.

Science shows that fish, birds, domestic animals, all wild animals and reptiles have memory, personality and language. The dolphins’ forms of communication, for example, are so developed that it is suspected that they have their own names.

Lab mice are constant victims of depression. After being locked up for several days, sometimes in the dark, they are often left cowering in a corner somewhere, their hair shivering and unresponsive to food and sexual stimuli, not unlike humans in a similar situation.

Humans and all living beings have water as their main constituent. In the body of every human being there is more or less 70% water, the same percentage as there is on the planet we inhabit.

Human life is reflected everywhere, whether in a drop of water or a grain of earth. All of this we can observe, contemplate and enjoy. From this earth we still draw the sustenance of our lives, feeding us with the same structure that we are.

Every time we are able to perceive this deep union, the fascination takes over us. We used to say Ubunto – I am because we are. We can amplify this statement to: we are because everything is what it is; we are because everything is as it is; we are because everything is part of the same web of interdependent relationships.

So what makes it difficult or almost impossible for us to have a respectful and loving relationship with the earth?

For years in our community we have been cultivating a compost bin for plants, foliage, and fruit leftovers. After a few months, when we open the box, we observe a profound transformation. What was once green, yellow or red has decomposed into black, fertile soil. With our hands we can touch the humus, that which we also are. Over time, the emptying of the compost bin has become a moment of reflection and spirituality.

It reminds us of the words of the Ash Wednesday liturgy: remember that you are earth and to earth you will return. That can sound either threatening or liberating.

In recent years the conviction has been growing in me that to reject death makes it harder for us to live. Clinging to life, at any cost, diminishes our creative capacity and prevents us from welcoming the cycles of life, death, and transformation into new life after some death.

In a recent conversation with Sister Sirley Mau, SSpS, she shared how she has lived with cancer for 6 years. This started in the endometrium and today has metastasized in several of her vital organs. Sirley says: “At some point I decided not to fight cancer anymore, not to submit myself to the invasive treatments that modern medicine offers. I believe that cancer doesn’t have to be seen as something that needs to be excluded from life, but as part of it. Life is, and always will be, more than an illness and pain cannot be greater than joy. If it wasn’t for my faith defying medicine itself, I wouldn’t know where I would be right now.”

“When we can only see the pain, perhaps we will lose sight of God. The more we think about an illness, the more power we give to it. I believe that love transforms and reintensiifies life. Today I gained a new quality of life. Love heals. I want to live the love of life that allows me, as a physical therapist, to collaborate with the healing of others. I want to enjoy life and celebrate the certainty of death as a culmination of life.”

For me, Sr Sirley has the humble awareness of being humus, as she fertilizes life.

May the earth day enable us to welcome the earth that we are.

¹ Data taken from the text: A Natureza em Nós. https://www.a12.com/redacaoa12/mundo/a-natureza-em-nos-1

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Petronella Maria Boonen, SSpS ( Nelly) is from Luxembourg, but joined the Congregation in Brazil. She has a PhD in Education and works as a Popular Educator and with issues related to conflict, violence, forgiveness and restorative justice.