Unless our spirituality becomes one with the way of the prophets we fail to have a real spirituality. Matthew Fox has taught incessantly that Creation Spirituality is not just about communing with nature. The creation tradition cannot imagine a spirituality without justice which, in turn, lies as the fulfillment of the need to birth oneself, because all are to be birthed into justice-making instruments for the work of the spirit.
In February 2025, Pope Francis issued this written rebuke: “I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations.” He called all people to disagree “with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.” He insisted that the human being is constituted internally by relationship with all others, but “especially with the poorest.” He said this specifically to make clear that J.D.Vance’s
understanding of Catholic teachings — basically that loving one’s neighbor means loving people who look like you — is a misappropriation of them.
It is disgusting to see how people such as Trump and Vance now pretend to honor the memory of Francis. “Woe to you (…) who build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous!” (Matthew 23,19). The only difference between the times of Jesus and our times is that Jesus denounces how the heirs of the ones who killed the prophets in the previous generation are building the tombs of the same prophets, while now it is barely weeks before politicians who insulted a dead prophet can praise him with impunity.
Even those who disagree with some of Francis’ positions (for example, on issues of gender and sexuality) cannot fail to acknowledge that he was a true prophet who opposed evil when he encountered it. He did not mince words, and for this reason he was ridiculed and maligned.
But, as Matthew Fox teaches, it is no surprise that prophets find themselves reduced to the powerlessness of the oppressed. In fact, which ones of his great prophetic battles did Pope Francis win? The one on peace? The one on the environment? The one on migrants? None of them. At least not yet. But it is exactly from the position of nonpower that we can derive our greatest wisdom. Not because we don’t want to win any battle, or we like to stay in a state of oppression, but because now — as always — true prophetic actions need to incubate. It is by experiencing in our depths the via negativa of these dark times that true rebirth may
ensue.
*Letter of the Holy Father Francis to the Bishops of the United States of America.
Matthew Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality, p. 248.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.
Banner image: Pope Francis lying in state at the Basilica of St. Peter at the Vatican. The Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pays his respects.
Photo by Ricardo Stuckert / PR. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
How do I denounce in practice the evil/injustice that is being perpetrated today by those in power? Am I ready to accept and experience in my depths a position of “nonpower” in order to come out with a new prophetic/spiritual voice?
Recommended Reading
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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