Courage and clarity are indispensible virtues for a time like ours in which everything is confused.
A word that pairs well with courage, almost a synonym of it, is magnanimity. Courage bespeaks of fighting. Magnanimity indicates space, largeness.
According to Thomas Aquinas, magnanimity is an aspect of courage. Those who are in the fight for the long run don’t get overly tired precisely because their hearts are large. There is space in them for falling and getting up again, for rejoicing over a victory as well as for mourning over a defeat.
What are the sources of their courage? I just noticed, in preparation of this meditation, that Matthew Fox in his autobiography cites in this regard Abraham Lincoln, as well as those who went through the Holocaust. Stephen Kapos and his friends, whom I spoke about in yesterday’s meditation, are a case in point. A man that I admire profoundly, and whose life parable is not known enough, despite a recent beautiful movie about him, is Franz Jägerstätter, a conscientious objector killed by the Nazis.
We all have our heroes, and it is in times such as these that we need to tap into their lives again, meditating upon them, reading and watching documentaries and movies about them. Courage, in fact, is not primarily a question of the intellect, but of the heart. Plato, as well as the Scholastics, spoke about “the irascible”: the burning energy without which no fight for justice can be accomplished.
But “the irascible” needs to be directed toward correct aims, otherwise it becomes mere anger. Here is where clarity of mind comes into the picture. Clarity of mind is just as necessary as courage in the present fight against evil policies and evil intents. Choosing carefully one’s sources of information, but especially refusing to let one’s mind be colonized by ideas that are in contrast to one’s deep beliefs is enormously important.
That means knowing one’s beliefs well, which in turns means contemplating them, spending time reflecting upon the fundamentals. Clarity of mind means also knowing evil better, as well as refusing to fall into the mistake of believing that all roots of evil lie on the other side of the fence, while we are totally free from it. Tomorrow’s daily meditation will present a ten-points grid to help us learning about evil.
As we spoke about heart and mind, courage and clarity, and we made reference to two “aspects” or “energies” of the soul according to Plato’s triadic anthropology — which by the way might be derived from older Vedic sources — we should spend a word also about the third, or “lower” aspect of the soul.
Our bodily needs and appetites also play an important role during intense times of the fight for justice. I would like to remind us that drinking enough water, eating good food, exercising regularly, getting together with our friends, etc. are not “extras.” Those of us who can do these things, because we don’t live under the bombs, ought to do it for ourselves, preserving and renewing our energy, in order to be enabled to fight on behalf of the others.
Matthew Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest
See also Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality
See also Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
See also Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
See also Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Banner Image: Freedom Riders stand next to their burning Greyhound bus after it was firebombed by a Ku Klux Klan mob outside of Anniston, Alabama. May 14, 1961. Photo by the National Park Service, Wikimedia Commons
Queries for Contemplation
In his autobiography, Matthew Fox states that the first sign of holiness is courage. Am I afraid of pursuing holiness in this sense? If so, why?
Have I noticed moments in which my clarity about values seems lost? What can I do about it?
Recommended Reading
Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest (Revised/Updated Edition)
Matthew Fox’s stirring autobiography, Confessions, reveals his personal, intellectual, and spiritual journey from altar boy, to Dominican priest, to his eventual break with the Vatican. Five new chapters in this revised and updated edition bring added perspective in light of the author’s continued journey, and his reflections on the current changes taking place in church, society and the environment.
“The unfolding story of this irrepressible spiritual revolutionary enlivens the mind and emboldens the heart — must reading for anyone interested in courage, creativity, and the future of religion.”
—Joanna Macy, author of World as Lover, World as Self
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
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.
