Walking With God Underwater

By Dominic Vogelbacher

Reflection

Humanity faces a predicament. We need to use natural resources to sustain us without destroying nature in the process. We must strike a delicate balance between both consumer and caretaker.

In Genesis, God grants us dominion over all of nature, granting us rule over all living creatures and commanding us to “subdue” the Earth. With this power, however, comes massive responsibility. Every aspect of the natural world has been left under our care.

Pope John Paul II, an avid outdoorsman who was known as “the environmental pope,” articulated this well. In his 1990 World Day Address, he argued that “theology, philosophy and science all speak of a harmonious universe, of a ‘cosmos’ endowed with its own integrity, its own internal, dynamic balance.” At the same time, he stressed the importance of proper usage and distribution of the resources of the Earth, “which are for the benefit of all.”

This balance has to be managed throughout our daily lives. We constantly use our intellects and capabilities to exercise our dominance over nature. Often, this is harmful in some way or another. Road construction causes deforestation and habitat fragmentation, which we all take part in when we drive. Eating meat and plants is another way of exercising our dominance, by consuming the fruits of agricultural processes that are only possible due to the exertion of our power over nature.

Having spent the past eight years living in the Blue Ridge Mountains, my responsibility to take care of nature makes the most sense to me when I’m in the forest. Surrounded by dirt, trails, trees, and streams, I’m comfortable and grounded. I’ve done trail maintenance to fix erosion caused by hikers, and seen the disastrous effects of forest fires that were started by human carelessness. Because I’ve spent so much of my life in the forest, I feel a strong connection to it, and I understand my obligation to take care of it.

Dominic Vogelbacher (right) and Aiden Kelsey with fish they caught.

The ocean is different. It’s alien. We can’t walk on it. We can’t breathe it. We can’t see the other side, and the bottom is an endless void.

In Genesis, the ocean was used to wipe out an entire generation, and a legend of a great flood can be found in “almost every culture on earth.”

Perhaps the reason that predatory sea creatures like the Leviathan, Cetus, and Loch Ness Monster are a common theme throughout human mythology is that we feel that we aren’t the masters of the sea in the same way that we are of the land.

Scuba diving changed everything.

My first breath underwater was nothing short of transcendent.

Through incredible technological advancement, I achieved what humans were incapable of for millenia.

I opened my eyes wide and breathed comfortably. I saw more fish in five minutes of exploring a shipwreck than I’ve ever seen in my life.

Through the power of human ingenuity and intellect, I was able to exercise my dominance and subvert the standard limitations of nature.

It was epic, awesome and beautiful.

But the more I learned about Barbados and its environment, the more my experience weighed on me. Dr. Leonard Nurse, a Nobel Laureate and professor emeritus at The University of the West Indies Barbados, told our class about the drastic increase in the frequency of coral bleaching and the disastrous effects on the fish population. I thought back to the bleached coral that I had seen on my dive.

He also told us that the widespread issue of microplastics inside fish was preventing them from properly responding to environmental challenges. I thought about all the fish that I had seen, each and every one of them affected by our consumerism and pollution.

The power that I wielded–breathing underwater–is a privilege. It’s a result of our God-given intellect, which allows us to subdue nature. But as I quickly realized, that power compels a large obligation.

In his Address, Pope John Paul II declared that the “ecological crisis” is “the responsibility of everyone.”

As we extract the resources of the sea, so too must we take responsibility for it. We all exert our dominance to benefit ourselves and humanity; we love being consumers. But we each need to accept the responsibility that our status requires. We need to take up the mantle of caretaker.

When I dove into the underwater realm, I glimpsed a portion of the world that I had never seen–but have always been entrusted to protect.