The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Jesus on Truth, Passsion, and Speaking Truth to Power 02/27/2023 |
One of the useful lessons I learned from the spiritual historian Louis Cognet in my studies in Paris was this: Sometimes it is best to go to the opposite of a spiritual concept first in order to
understand the concept. |
Thus, to understand justice, one may begin by considering injustice and its consequences first. To understand peace, one might first meditate on
Putin’s war and all its consequences and death and destruction. | Music video for John Lennon's classic anti-war/pro-peace song, Power to the People, inspired by the Black Panthers. Originally posted to YouTube by johnlennon |
And to understand Truth, it is sometimes useful to go to untruth, to lies, first and consider their consequences. How there would have been no January 6 insurrection sans the lies of a “rigged election” that were knowingly promulgated by Fox News and Rupert Murdoch’s conscience-free journalism. This week one DM reader offered a criticism that “calling people bad names” is not something Jesus would do. After all, while being nailed to the cross, he asked for forgiveness for his captors who “did not know what they were doing.” I feel I should respond to this criticism so it can be an educational moment for us all. |
Daniel Berrigan SJ, reciting his poem “Some” dedicated to all who
work for justice, followed by protest montage w/Dar Williams singing “I Had No Right”. | First, it was not the executioners who were responsible for Jesus’ death—indeed they were carrying out orders and very likely had no idea who Jesus was or why the Empire was so threatened by him as to torture him to death on a cross. The orders came from above. Thus,
“they did not know what they were doing.” |
Second, Jesus said these words as he was
dying, not while he was going about teaching and preaching and reacting with a conscience to what was going on in his society. For that, he was plenty direct when taking on evil. Read his admonitions in Matthew’s gospel, chapter
23, where he takes on powerful people in his society: Alas for you, blind guides!....Fools and blind! |
Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You...have neglected the weightier matters of the Law—justice, mercy, good faith!...Straining out gnats and swallowing camels!...You who clean the outside of cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance. You are like whitewashed tombs that look handsome on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of corruption. | |
Serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape being condemned to hell? This is what all prophets are called to do--and that includes all of us. Jesus spoke truth with passion to power people. One should be on guard about so withdrawing into one’s contemplative cocoon that one feels more spiritual than others who are speaking out with passion about injustice and lies. One of many teachings I admire from Buddhism is this: There is such a thing as “idiot compassion.” To allow Mr. Murdoch, one of the most powerful men on the planet, to go unchecked and continue his destruction of democracy by selling lies that he knows are lies is idiot compassion. |
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See Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo, The Lotus & The Rose: A Conversation Between Tibetan Buddhism & Mystical Christianity. Fox, Original Blessing, pp. 257-306. Banner Image: Ferguson uprising demonstration. Photo originally posted to Flickr by MCC Current. |
Queries for Contemplation Do you admire the quest of Jesus for Truth and his passion in criticizing unchecked powers of the powerful? |
Responses are welcomed. To add your comment, please click HERE
to go to our website and scroll down to the Comments field. |
The Lotus & The Rose: A Conversation Between Tibetan Buddhism & Mystical
Christianity
How can we move away from “us vs. them” thinking as our surroundings feel more divided and polarized than ever? Co-authors Matthew Fox and Lama Tsomo discuss how Tibetan Buddhism and Mystical Christianity answer this question from unique points of view, with many commonalities and practical tools to break down the barriers between us.
"The Lotus and the Rose is an extraordinary
example of what can happen when spiritual leaders from different traditions open up and speak from the heart." -- Paul Chaffee, The Interfaith Observer. | |
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation
Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply
developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story"
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See Matthew Fox's full calendar HERE |
Join Matthew Fox for a lecture and Q&A on “The Reinvention of Work – A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Time” in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat, Thursday, March 16, 4:00-6:00 pm PT.
Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox and Isa Gucciardi for a new Lecture & Q&A on “ Liberation and Salvation: Healing Teachings in Buddhism & Christianity” at Convergence Hosted by
Cameron Trimble, Tuesday, March 21, 4:00-6:00 pm PT Register HERE. Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Matthew Fox speaks on "Jung and Teilhard in Dialogue" to the Creation Spirituality Communities at their Global Kinship event in January 2023. | |
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