Return to the earth: Not a curse, a call

Return to the earth is not about perishability, but as transformation and a new possibility—simply a re-entry into the cycle of life’s renewal. This natural process shows also a soul-forming process in us here; it fundamentally rejects the view that the world is full of evil. The Earthly life, with its struggles, choices, and relationships, is the necessary environment for our growth into the image of Christ. Our moral choices, love, pain, and mercy are the crucible and the clay that actively shape our eternal character. Every bit of the world, its history, structures, and choices have shaped our souls. Some are created, some are brutally destroyed. Those whom we intend to desroy are essential for the completion of our own souls. The earth has yielded its fruit; in us, we are born of the earth and we return to it. Therefore, we must see in us the flowering of the earth which God has beautifully arranged. It is not a place Satan fills with lures and temptations. The earth and our own body are the sacrament of God’s love. To reject or devalue the Earthly life as a halt in a strange world is to devalue the very environment God chose for our formation. The overemphasis on the perishability of earthly life is something that tragically undervalues God’s creation and the profound work accomplished here. Therefore, let us approach our temporal lives not with hatred, but with reverence, recognizing in every struggle and joy the ongoing, sacred work of the creator.

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