Beauty In Being

I am blessed to lived on the northern end of a long, wide belt of parkland that stretches almost thirty miles from West Contra Costa County, California to Southern Alameda County. Although there is heavy urban development to the west and suburbs to the east, it is a beautiful, functioning wilderness that is truly a gift of God.

Most days, weather permitting, I walk our Greyhound, Honey, for about an hour over a ridge near our home. Last year, not to far into our walk, I was startled by a vulture taking flight from some bush near the trail. I walked over to where it been and saw the remains of a deer. I noticed that a variety of insects were already busily feeding on the putrefying flesh and I found the process to quite fascinating. Over the course of the next several weeks I would take a short time out from our walk, while Honey would busy herself romping and frolicking over hill and dale, and check the progress of the deer disposal operation that the local carrion creatures were performing. Little by little, the corpse disappeared. The flesh was soon gone then the hide started to disappear. The skeleton disintegrated until it was just an unrecognizable pile of bones. Eventually, the deer was gone completely. I marveled how something so ugly as death and the consumption of rotting flesh could have such an interesting and desirable result. Then it occurred to me: there is no ugliness in nature. Certainly there are things that are unsightly, disgusting and even nauseating, but there is no ugliness. I found a new affection for the much maligned vulture that I had previously believed to be one of the ugliest critters in creation. The vulture, a symbol of death in our culture, frequenter of haunted houses and other scary places, does not cause death but merely cleans up after it. Francis of Assisi might have called him "Brother Vulture" after being startled by his abrupt departure from breakfast that morning. That is the beauty and lesson of Saint Francis, all creatures have a part in creation and all are beautiful in their own way.

The biblical book of Matthew (25:40) quotes Jesus as saying:

"whatever you did for the least brothers of mine, you did for me"

Consider, if you will, the next time you are walking on a city street and you see a homeless person muttering to himself or rummaging through dumpster, or perhaps when you consider the problem of undocumented immigrants or paroled felons. As in the species of nature, there are no disposable people. To torment the afflicted or to oppress the poor or to deny basic health and dignity to other human beings is a crime against creation.

Now I am not suggesting that we all go out and find a homeless person and put him in the spare bedroom, or throw the borders open to unregulated movement or allow murderers and rapists to leave prison and roam the streets freely. What I am suggesting is to approach social problems with the love of families and not the wrath of avengers. Instead of getting hung up on the surface, look more deeply into the potential. Strive to find beauty in what seems to be ugly, not simply destroy for the sake of convenience. Respect the dangers but appreciate the beauty. Life is sacred, this is true throughout creation, animal, vegetable and human. Let us be circumspect when we take life be it for food, or the common good or whatever reason and let us not do so lightly. Let us look at those less fortunate then us with loving eyes and contemplate how we may help instead of how to get them out of our sight because they upset us. Let us reorder our priorities and make the focus of our journey one devoted to love, life and community as opposed to material profit. Just pick up a news paper and as you contemplate the events of the day ask yourselves: As a people are we prosperous? Are we fulfilled? Are we peaceful? Are we happy? What does our future look like? If we don't like what we see, how can we change it?

When considering our neighbors we would be well advised to remember Brother Vulture. Ugly at first appearance but valuable in his presence. Remember that what we do to the least of our brethren we do to creation. That which we do to creation, we do to ourselves.