The Diversity of Sacred Lands in Europe - IUCN

All creation groans and sighs...
Humanity and borders
In the Finnish language, the early semantic strata associated with the concept of
pyhä (’holy’) relate to a place on the landscape. The reference is to a border.
Many place names, such as Pyhäjärvi or Pyhäjoki, bear this out. These are particular
places in the wild, as far as which people have been permitted to travel,
though no further. Holy outlines an area belonging to man – demarcates it.
The word in this sense is still valid today, although it is no longer literally associated
with a place on the landscape. When we speak of the ‘holy’ we are still expressing
the idea of the borders of human existence. A holy day (for example Sunday)
or holy object signifies a spiritual terrain isolated from others that speaks of
somewhere beyond, a place that does not belong to man. It is a border which demands
that we step back – we have to pause, just as we do at a geographical one.
It requires our humility, sensitivity and respect.
A sense of the holy and its protection are essential if people are to understand who
they are. To be human is to stand before what is holy and to relate to it. That is the
only way we can identify the borders of humanity and human activity.
Holy spaces are the doors to the meaning of everything
The Christian interpretation of life is not detached from these archaic, distant
meanings of the Finnish word pyhä - holy – but actually relates to them. This is the
case with the stories of creation in the beginning of the Bible, which are basic depictions
of human existence. They even use imagery that recalls the ancient meanings
of the word.
In the beginning, according to the stories, man is part of the same reality in which
God is walking in cool of the afternoon. The holy is not somewhere on the outside.
The world does not exist by chance but by the will of God. All creation is holy, because
it reflects the holiness of its Creator. But man’s tragic destiny is to become
separated from this, to be expelled from God’s garden. As is well known, it happens
in the account of the Fall, the apple and the serpent acting as its agents. Its
core meaning is that man will rise to the position of God and above everything
else. The stories describe the basis of existence. Man is totally dependent on his
Creator and creation, and his relationship with these is the most fundamental of all.
It is a relationship with what is holy. The relationship is not simple or calm; it is contradictory,
broken.
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