If I were asked to say in one word what spirituality is all about for me, I would say “balance.” I could also say “justice” or “compassion.”
In my spiritual vocabulary these words are synonyms, albeit with different nuances. “Justice” is a bit more abstract, but is basically a matter of equilibrium. “Compassion” is about making justice in the world, starting from empathy and ensuing in right actions. “Balance” is like these two, although it has more of a personal ring. In these chaotic times, we all need balance in order to keep upright, healthy in body and mind, and ready to act wisely.
In some sense, the present disruption of the political and international order is forcing us to go back to the basics. We spoke this week about the courage and the clarity of mind needed to denounce evil, and then about recognizing evil and its attempts to gain power over society as well as ourselves.
But all of this must be rooted in a body-mind synergy that works well. As a modern Westerner, I grew up knowing very little about the influence on my inner balance of the external environment — starting with food, location, conversations — but I always sensed certain of my fundamental needs, such as immersing in nature.
Right now, because of the amount of chaos surrounding us, I suggest that our first duty is to take care of our basic spiritual needs, whatever they may be, in order to keep our balance.
One aspect of balance is personal versus communal. Another is grief versus feast. To me, these apparent dualisms, and the overcoming of them, is especially significant at this time. The risk of falling into the pit of desolation and grief, and being there all alone, is a serious matter, given the terrible news reaching us every day.
In contrast, nature is blooming all around — at least in this Northern Hemisphere — seemingly uncaring about human evil.
Yesterday, May 1, was celebrated in traditional rural Europe with dances around the May Pole, and all around the world as Workers Day. Last week, on April 25, my country Italy celebrated the 80th anniversary of its liberation from fascist rule, singing “Bella Ciao” — the anti-fascist partisan song — even though some local neo-fascist town councils prohibited it under the pretext of the mourning period for Pope Francis.
Joining such celebrations in person — especially because they are not religious — may prove a saving spiritual practice for many of us. We need community, we need the feeling of belonging to a humanity that is not yet completely lost, that celebrates life together. We need to dance for ourselves, but also for those who .cannot dance at this time. We need to dance for those who lost their limbs or their lives, today as well as yesterday. We need to recover not just the notion, but the feeling of belonging to a species that cares.
See Matthew Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Also see Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths
Also see Fox, Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
Also see Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Also see Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Banner Image: Maypole dancing at Rochester Sweeps festival. Dancers from all over the UK come to this city in Kent to celebrate May Day. Photo by JuliaC2006 on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
Where can I find, in the next few months, some communal celebrations of life that I can join?
Can I create in my community a celebration of life/spring that includes perhaps a moment of mourning for the victims of violence or those guides of humanity who died in peace?
Recommended Reading
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox. He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths
Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action
By Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jen Listug
In the midst of global fire, earthquake and flood – as species are going extinct every day and national and global economies totter – the planet doesn’t need another church or religion. What it needs is a new Order, grounded in the Wisdom traditions of both East and West, including science and indigenous. An Order of the Sacred Earth united in one sacred vow: “I promise to be the best lover and defender of the Earth that I can be.”
Co-authored by Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson, and Jennifer Berit Listug, with a forward by David Korten, this collection of essays by 21 spiritual visionaries including Brian Swimme, Mirabai Starr, Theodore Richards, and Kristal Parks marks the founding of the diverse and inclusive Order of the Sacred Earth, a community now evolving around the world.
“The Order of the Sacred Earth not only calls us home to our true nature as Earth, but also offers us invaluable guidance and company on the way.” ~~ Joanna Macy, environmental activist and author of Active Hope.
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
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
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.
