Perhaps the first thing to keep in mind is that the one is the means to the other. One undergoes an ecological conversion to achieve a kind of integral ecology.  

Integral Ecology 

Beginning with the end in mind, then, the goal of integral ecology is achieved by nothing less than becoming a saint. The saint is that person for whom the love of God flows into and thus pours out from every aspect of one’s personality to such an extent that they are able, as Jean Mouroux puts it, “to unite in their experience that which is already one.” In their spontaneous movements and thoughts of daily living, they sense the unity of all things under the abiding reign of divine love.   

As a result, they practice a loving regard for all created things, beginning first with their neighbors and extending that concern to all in the created setting of which we find ourselves a part and with which we share in the gift of being. 

This is not the fey antics of a disaffected aesthete, nor the glutton whose tastes are so refined as to have been cut off from the ground and grit of real things; it is, instead, the ruddy, toned, temperate stature of the man or woman fully alive and delighting in the love of God.  

They are temperate in their habits of consumption and use, always ready to savor the inestimable value of created things in their unique splendor. Both cathedrals and caterpillars stop them in their tracks. They pray real grace before each meal, acknowledging that what they are about to receive is pure gift. They are actively attuned to the needs of their neighbors because they are in lively consort among them, first in their circle of family and friends, then beyond the horizons of their immediate social exchange. The real needs of others impel them on a daily basis; the real dignity of others elicits constant admiration and esteem.  

They have a determination bordering on stubbornness. When all others seem to yield to “what is obvious,” they hone a vision of life that is always brimming with a resilient hope and possibilities. They live off the capital of the faith they’ve come to receive and invest in deeply.  

Finally, they live out of a persistent and enduring insouciance, not from some self-centered care-less attitude, but from a God-centered care-full attitude. They know themselves to be created, loved, embodied, situated at this time and place, in this setting and scenery, to do nothing less than to vigorously, rigorously, generously, lovingly pursue with every fiber of their being the love and adoration of Jesus Christ, the one through whom all good things have been made and the only one through whom all good things will be restored, redeemed, and renewed.  

Integral ecology captures that form of living where the narrative arc of the whole plan of creation, sin, and salvation is played out in both the interior and exterior movements of one’s soul.  It is the style of the saints, those for whom Divine Providence extends its mantle over every corner of existence. Creation, taken in as a whole or beheld in each instance of being, is finally illuminated from within by the creative spirit of God; it sings the glory of their maker; carries the resonance of a symphony of meaning; and bears the aroma of new life.  

Ecological Conversion 

We need an ecological conversion. We need that occasion of conversion whereby the love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit comes to animate every aspect of our thoughts, our words, enlivening those good deeds we have done and restoring those we have failed to do.  

The path of such a conversion can follow as many directions and turns as there are ways and means through the human heart. This journey of a lifetime toward integral ecology can begin in a single moment of awe, that unexpected encounter with created grace that so dilates the heart that one now breathes in the living Spirit of Christ on a sustained basis. Something happens in that rapturous encounter with beauty whereby one begins to discern that going forward means undergoing a change. One cannot simply live the same any longer if one is to be true to what was just seen, or heard, what was just touched and beheld. In other words, what has been given to us in those moments of awe is meant to be held, to remain with us and provide an enduring source of grace, renewal, and reform.  

Still others come to a life of integral ecology by means of discerning a kind of fracture, a rupture between who they know they are in their heart of hearts (or want to be at least) and the kind of life they’ve inadvertently woven about them. What should be a nexus of intricate relationships, a delicate tapestry of brilliant connections and concerns, has become instead a web of entanglements and anxieties, a knot of burdens and responsibilities that seem inescapable and endless. Life becomes an endless test of endurance and less of a journey to fulfillment. They sense that their habits of daily living, of the seemingly endless preoccupations with consumption, end up consuming them. That at the end of the day, they come to see that it is their very soul that has been bought, purchased, exchanged, or sold at the cheapest price to the loudest bidder. In the secret of their hearts, they seek a solace indescribable because it is so rare. It haunts them. They seek the solace and silence of real things, created things, things brimming with light, immersed in a fabric of intelligence. They seek a life of contemplation. They seek what they once suspected is the original message of creation: that God is love and that love made this; made you and I.  

Or finally, they may trace a path toward integral ecology by simply dwelling on the opening words of the Gospel of John, “In the beginning was the Word.” The observation shared by the evangelist is not a history lesson or an object of learning in cosmology; it is the enduring affirmation that things are because Love is. In “the beginning,” that is at the origins of all things, there is light; there is love. What you and I simply glimpse in our fleeting flashes of awe from time to time is, in fact, a privileged, graced insight into what is enduringly present since the dawn of time and will remain so until the conclusive fulfillment of all things. This Word of God, this presence of Divine Intelligence and Love, remains veiled in things lest having been shown in His fullest glory, we would shrink in sheer terror and overwhelm. He shares glimpses of Himself according to what we are able to receive. And what we are able to receive, “in the beginning,” is his Word, his presence writ large throughout the fabric of created things.  

Our instincts about the beauty and goodness of things rest on sound evidence, however fleeting. But soon, over time and with patient attending, that passing trust is woven into a fabric of dependence and relationship. Creation inspires awe, and awe demands a moment of affirmation, response, or what tradition calls “worship.” From age to age He has been gathering a people to Himself so that from east to west and north to south some kind of offering, some effort at recognizing that we owe this Creator our worship may be made.  

But now that this Word, this Presence, has become flesh in Jesus Christ, the path of ecological conversion, that journey from alienation amidst the cacophony of things into the chorus of glory, takes a distinctive path through those rituals of worship that He himself established. We offer bread; we offer wine. He, in turn, becomes that Bread, that Wine, so that in offering this new Bread and Wine, we offer Him and share in His very life because we share in Him.  

In other words, all paths of ecological conversion lead to the eucharistic table eventually, whereby the fracture, the dissonance, the anxieties and alienations that mark our murky ways in weakness and sin are finally reconciled and united in the one, cosmic offering of our efforts united with His own life, given back to His Father in a divine act of thanksgiving.  

In sum, at the eucharistic sacrifice, we finally unite in our experience that which is already one, and the plan of creation, incarnation, and redemption is brought to fulfillment. Through this event, the journey of one’s ecologically converted life must pass; through this event, a vision of integral ecology is grasped.  

CJT