Creation and Environmentalism

The Earth Moans When We Make Unjust Use of its Fruits

"'If my land has ever cried out against me, or if its furrows have wept together.' Therefore, neither the land cries out nor weeps. What does he mean? Certainly the land does not really groan, but inanimate beings perceive injustices. As the prophet asserts, 'The earth stood up and shuddered.' Now the earth moans every time we make an unjust use of its fruits." -- St. John Chrysostom, Commentary on Job 31.35-40

Shedding Tears for the Whole World

"A person who dwells in a state of Grace is ready to weep for anyone. He weeps when he sees the suffering of an animal, a plant, a person... Such a person is always ready to shed tears for the whole world...Those are tears that save." -- Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

Language of Creation

"To begin, it is worthwhile to ask why God did not say, when the heavens were created, 'Let us make the heavens' but instead, 'Let there be a heaven.... Let there be light,' and similarly for each other aspect of creation. 'Let us make' suggests deliberation, collaboration and conference with another person. So what is it whose pending creation is granted so great an honor? It is humanity, the greatest and most marvelous of living beings, and the creation most worthy of honor before God.... There is here this deliberation, collaboration and communion not because God needs advice-God forbid saying such a thing!-but so that the very impact of the language of our creation would show us honor." -- St. John Chrysostom

We Were Created to be Perfected

"Let Us make man according to Our image and likeness" -(Gen. 1:26).

From this, begin to know yourself. These words had not yet been applied to any of the creations. Light appeared, and the commandment was simple. God said,

"Let there be light."

The firmament came into being and there was no deliberation concerning its coming to be. The luminaries came to be without any previous deliberation regarding them. The sea and the boundless ocean: a command and they were brought into being. The wild beasts: one word and they came to be. At this point, man does not yet exist, and there is deliberation regarding man. God did not say as He did for others,

"Let there be man!"

Note the dignity befitting you. He has not initiated your origin by a command, but there has been counsel in God to determine how to introduce into life this living being worthy of honor.

"Let us make man,"

the wise One deliberates, the artisan ponders. Do you not fall short of His art, and does not He, with care offer to His masterpiece its intended achievement: perfection and exactitude? -- St. Basil the Great

Notes on Adam

"There are thousands of patristic references to Adam – an immeasurable chaos. However, it will be hard to locate a verse that refers to Adam in an absolutely univocal manner; i.e., a verse that cannot but imply a specific person.

"An endeavor like this is a difficult one, for two reasons:

"a) Because the Fathers had no cause to outrightly state (per our rationale) that Adam 'is not a symbolic person'. Such an issue had not been put forward as a theory during their time, which is why they did not preoccupy themselves with something that they regarded a given fact; and

"b) Because in the case of Adam, a multitude of symbolisms do also apply, however without them annulling his literal existence as a person – as the hypostatic beginning of mankind." -- Fr. John A. Peck, "Was Adam an Actual or Symbolic Figure, According to the Fathers of the Church?", GoodGuysWearBlack.com