The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers |
Yesterday, Good Friday, we meditated on Passover and the promise of deliverance it offers, with
implications, of course, for the commemorations of Holy Thursday and Good Friday. |
We especially focused on children because they are central at a Passover celebration and it is to them that the story of hope and
Exodus and freedom from slavery and “Egypt” is to be told. The young need and deserve stories of hope and liberation. | |
Maundy Thursday tells us what living well is all about: Washing the feet of one another, especially the poor. Letting our capacity for compassion come to
fruition. Love. Tomorrow is Easter and that, too, is a story of liberation. Resurrection is a story of deliverance from the fear of death—therefore an invitation to live life fully. And gratefully. And lovingly.
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| The great psychologist and cultural historian Otto Rank tells us that most of human history has been determined by great “immortality projects” like building pyramids that will guarantee our
immortality. Building of empires, of Towers with one’s name on it, of money and power that is more than any individual needs or can spend—all this detracts us from love and living. Such immortality projects are |
at bottom, he believes, born of a fear of death and/or a denial of death. Rank, though Jewish and not Christian, credits Paul and Jesus with the “most revolutionary idea” that humanity has ever come up with, namely, that resurrection applies to all. All the effort to bury the pharaoh just right in a massive pyramid so that his subjects can participate vicariously in his immortality can be thrown out the window now because resurrection has been democratized. That is the meaning of Easter. |
Empires can chill out. Greed for infinite amounts of money and power can cease. People can live instead. And love. And heal. And celebrate living. That would be a revolution, wouldn’t it? It was certainly a revolution for St. Paul who was the first Christian to write about his encounter with the risen Christ and how 500 others had had their own encounters. (See 1 Cor.
15.) | “The Conversion of Saul, fresco by Michelangelo, 1542–1545.” Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain |
For him, the experience was enough to knock him off his horse, render him blind for a while, and totally turn his life around from being a zealous killer of Christians to preaching about love between Jews and gentiles, men and women, and among all peoples. |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, pp. 35ff.
Banner image: Hope and liberation: traditional Ukrainian pysanky, with their motifs of
nature and renewal, have become a symbol of the cultural resistance against the Russian invasion. Photo by Keith Ewing on
Flickr. |
Queries for Contemplation
What do Easter and resurrection mean to you?
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The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of
the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the
world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe. | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
Join Matthew Fox online as he offers a Worship Service Inspirational Message - “Otto Rank, and Pere Chenu: Two 'Real, Raw and Radiant' Guides Calling Us to Deep Freedom” for Brentwood Inspired Living Center, Sunday, April 16, 10:00 am PT.
Learn more HERE. Join Matthew Fox as he discusses “Creativity – Where the Divine and the Human Meet” in an Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat. Thursday, April 20, 4:00-6:00 pm PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox and Charles Burack in an online conversation on “The Essential Writings On Creation Spirituality” hosted by The Aquarian Minyan. Thursday, April 27, 6:00 pm PT. Register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Karen Tate interviews Matthew on his latest book Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality to discuss religious vs. spiritual, the nature of evil and angels, compassion vs pity, and wisdom vs knowledge. On Voices of the Sacred Feminine with Karen Tate. Listen HERE. | |
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