When the full moon comes each month, I find myself creeping out the back door of my home with a group of friends to stand in our backyard to hold a full moon celebration. I admit feeling uncomfortable talking to Grandmother Moon, Mother Earth, and Father Sun. Who knows, my neighbors might hear us as we sing, “The Earth is Our Mother, We Must Take Care of Her; Her Sacred Ground We Walk Upon With Every Step We Take, Hey Unga, Ho Unga, Hey Ung, Ung.
Although these patterns of worship are foreign to my Christian tradition, I have come to value the Spirituality of the Native American people and what it has to teach me. Theirs is a deep attunement to God. Their awareness of God is found in their environment around them, what we might call the Imminent God. They see God in the Moon, the Sun, the Trees, the Rocks. They see God in the People around them. They appreciate the sustenance they receive from the Earth, The Beauty therein.
Though this ritual may never become totally my own, I see this experience with Native American Ritual as a very important transition for me. I am beginning to experience God within all the Earth, to see God’s Sacredness and Beauty in my everyday life. My own religion sees God as Good, Loving, Sharing, and Caring; but in the last centuries emphasizes God’s presence in the Eucharistic celebration in the Mass. The rest of one’s life was spent “in the World”. The value of this world was a place to live in order to reach heaven after death; therefore how one treated the Earth is of no concern. Fr. Thomas Berry believes this emphasis came about during the 13th Century plagues and has since permeated Christian Theology.
Spiritual life for me, even as a seminarian, was very separate from my everyday life. Martin Buber, the Jewish Theologian, gave me the first inkling of the connectedness between God and the World. For him, the whole World is God. Expressions of “love and care” are God made manifest to us.
Finding God in all things was a common denominator for Theresa of the Little Flower – Catholic, Martin Buber – Jew; and the Native American – “Pagan”. Many feel this is our one hope of survival, to gain a respect for the sacredness of our Earth, our Universe.
This uneasy submersion into Native American Ritual has provided me with an experience of the sacredness and presence of God in all things. Because of this I will continue to creep into my backyard with my friends, hoping my neighbors do not see me.
rjamesschenk.org 