We celebrate the forests of the world for their many gifts: hydrological services, timber, shelter and food. But perhaps their greatest gifts to human kind are magnificence, splendour and wisdom.
Of all the animals of the earth, we – though we have to say it ourselves – are the most elegant, well balanced and upright. Among the plants, our elder brothers the trees may make a similar claim. It is therefore natural for us to feel a co-naturality with the trees, a certain haptic exhilaration at their height as they prayerfully stand tall and extend their limbs to the heavens. A man born blind when first he saw exclaimed: “I see men like trees walking.”
Trees manifest fidelity, constancy, endurance, and a generously creative response to adversity. In the press of competition they adapt, or, if all else fails, give way in a spirit of advaita or non-duality, as if saying to their all too near neighbour: “it is all the one; whether you live or I live, the forest survives.” And so saying, give as nourishment of their very bodies for their friends.
Their fidelity is manifest at this time of year when the coming of Spring is only a vague rumour, completely unsupported and even denied by swirling cold winds, frosts and snows… Yet they know its coming is as certain as the dawn and faithfully, with rising sap and swelling buds, prepare to welcome it.
Their constancy in an uncertain world is delightfully reassuring. Touch wood! Oak is always oak even after years of neglect and being ignored. “Like the stars when called by name, answering ‘Here we are!’” (Baruch 3:34).
Terrible predictions of terrors to come are all about us. Nature is all poisoned and destroyed. Nature will survive but with terrifying carelessness will cut off those who misbehave and poison the poisonous. The ever-moving present is like a tsunami crashing through time. We are like dolphins playing in the wave. We can do little to alter its course, but we can exult in its speed and power.
Let the sea and all within it thunder. Let us, with the trees of the wood, rejoice at the on-going revelation of the symphony of creation, at the coming of the Lord, for He comes to rule the earth. With justice He will rule the world, He will judge the peoples with truth!
Anthony Keane OSB