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It may be asked, "Why are
the Boundary Waters alone being proposed as Sacred Ground,
and not other places as well?" This is an excellent question,
and it gets right to the heart of the matter. The Boundary
Waters are not the only place that is sacred; indeed the
deeper question is the one which asks, "Where is there
a place that is not sacred, not holy, where God is not
present?"
We are convinced, through
meditation, prayer, the witness of Scripture, and reason
that the only full answer to this second question is that
there is no place that is not meant by God to be Sacred
Ground. We have clearly spoiled many places, on vast and
small scales, and we spoil ourselves in the process. But
the larger character of Creation remains: God sees it
as "very good" (Genesis 1); it is "full of [God's] Glory"
(Isaiah 6 and the Sanctus of the Eucharistic Prayers);
it is "God's Body" (Dr. Sallie McFague, Vanderbuilt Divinity
School, and others, and at least implied in Scripture
in many places – notably John 1, Colossians 1, and
Ephesians 1).
So, to call the Boundary
Waters "Sacred Ground" is appropriate only when coupled
with the second part of the declaration. It is appropriate
only when we also call this place a "window to the Kingdom
of God"; that is, only when we see these lakes, hills,
bogs, and all the creatures that live there as declaring
the sacredness of all places. The Kingdom must be meant
to be everywhere; this we have to say if we really believe
in God as the One, "...in whom we live and move and have
our being" (Acts 17:28).
This is really the reason
for this declaration: we need "windows to the Kingdom".
The Boundary Waters do not need to be titled in this way.
We need to make this claim. We need to recognize and cultivate
relationship with special places that focus for us the
holiness of all Creation. In this sense, to say the Boundary
Waters are Sacred Ground is akin to calling Baptism and
Holy Eucharist "sacraments". The sacraments are not somehow
more sacred and more holy than all our actions are meant
to be, but they are crucial for helping us to focus on
the inherent fullness of God's Presence at all times and
in all the situations in which we act (cf. Robert Taft,
S.J., The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West).
The ritual sacraments are also "sacred ground" in this
sense, as has been recognized for as long as we can tell
into the mists of human consciousness. We need the "windows
into the Kingdom" of the sacraments; we need the "windows
into the Kingdom" of special places. We are a people of
the Incarnation, and it is in the tangible, in the Flesh,
that God grows us into temples of the Spirit – so
we can be God's Body in the world, to other people, and
to the entirety of God's Creation.
To be converted from being
mere users (and often gross abusers) of resources to being
honorers of God's Presence in our relations with the rest
of nature, we need to accept the gifts offered by "Sacred
Ground".
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