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Justice & Compassion as Visions of God that Melt Hearts 07/13/2023 |
When Aquinas says that “the vision of God is arrived at through justice” means that the Via Transformativa and the work of justice open up a vision of the Divine. After all, “God is justice”
and “God is compassion” for Aquinas.
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The struggle for Justice becomes an occasion wherein Divinity reveals itself to us. Each of the four paths bring us to the vision and experience of the Divine—the Via Positiva, Via Negativa and Via Creativa do this and the Via Transformativa too. The Via Positiva and Via Transformativa marry–the justice-maker is not only in love with the Earth but learns to love fighting on behalf of the Earth. “Take pleasure in doing just deeds,” Aquinas urges us. While Aquinas is happy to talk about contemplation and to | |
practice it, for him contemplation is not the culmination of the spiritual journey. Contemplation and action, compassion, are to go together. Indeed, this one topic was the single most important conflict between the monastic tradition that had dominated religious history for 800 years and the new upstart “mendicant orders” of Francis and Dominic. Aquinas talks about the conflict this way: |
| Share the light! It
is a greater thing to give light than simply to have light, and in the same way it is a greater thing to pass on to others what you have contemplated than just to contemplate. Aquinas celebrates our powers for
compassion: |
In itself compassion takes precedence over the other virtues, for it belongs to compassion to be bountiful to others, and, what is more, to succor others in their
wants. Compassion is our imitation of God: “Compassion is accounted as being proper to God” and renders divinity “manifest.” Compassion bears witness to the Divine: “Of all the virtues that relate to
our neighbor, compassion is the greatest” and it “likens us to God as regards similarity of works.” For “the sum total of the Christian religion consists of compassion as regards external works.” |
Aquinas calls compassion “the fire the Lord came to send on the earth” (Luke 12). Why is that? Because compassion proceeds from love of God
and neighbor which is a consuming fire. | | Mini-documentary honoring the Black Panther women who ran clinics, fed the hungry and stood alongside their male counterparts during the fight for civil
rights. ABC10 |
He invokes the
prophet Isaiah, “’his tongue is like fire.’ Charity is called a fire primarily because it illuminates…. secondly because it warms.” The Holy Spirit melts the heart through the fire of love
because “the first effect of love is
melting.” |
Adapted from Matthew Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times, pp. 109-116. And Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, pp. 287, 395f., 401, 419, 423. And Fox, A
Spirituality Named Compassion. Banner image: Last touch: hand held in hospice. Image by truthseeker08 from Pixabay |
Queries for Contemplation What does it mean to you to hear that “the first effect of love is melting?” Is that your experience too? Does working for justice open up visions of God for you? |
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The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action. Foreword by Ilia Delio. “What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit. | |
Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality Matthew Fox renders Thomas Aquinas accessible by interviewing him and thus descholasticizing him. He also translated many of his works such as Biblical commentaries never before in English (or Italian or German of
French). He gives Aquinas a forum so that he can be heard in our own time. He presents Thomas Aquinas entirely in his own words, but in a form designed to allow late 20th-century minds and hearts to hear him in a fresh way. “The teaching of Aquinas comes through will a fullness and an insight that has never been present in English before and [with] a vital message for the world today.” ~ Fr. Bede Griffiths
(Afterword).
Foreword by Rupert Sheldrake | |
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the
substratum of all compassionate activity. “Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register | |
See Matthew Fox's full calendar
HERE |
Join Matthew Fox and Brian Swimme in a free online event hosted by The Shift Network: “Hope for Humanity’s Future: Science, Spirituality & the Noosphere: Find Deeper Meaning in Our Spiritual Traditions With Illuminating Insights in Science & Technology.” Saturday, July 22, 10:00am PT. Register HERE. Join Matthew Fox for a Cosmic Mass and Panel Forum at the 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religions - A Call to Conscience: Defending Freedom & Human Rights, August 14-18 in Chicago, IL Wed., 8/16,
7:00pm CT - The Cosmic Mass - Honoring Gaia, Solidarity for Our Earth Thurs., 8/17, 1:00pm CT – Panel and Response to The Cosmic Mass Register HERE. |
Creation Spirituality Conversations |
Brentwood Inspired Living Center, APRIL 16, 2023. REV. MATTHEW FOX, PhD shares the message with "Otto Rank and Père Chenu: Two 'Real, Raw and Radiant' Guides calling us to Deep Freedom." See the full worship service HERE. Matthew's talk begins at timestamp 34:25. |
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