Stories about people who acted for the good of the whole in peculiarly difficult circumstances, even to the extreme sacrifice, are important for us. They confirm and nurture our path. We can call them heroes, or saints, or ancestors, or whatever we like. I want to underline in this meditation particularly their role as trailblazers, i.e. as people who opened a road where there seemed to be no road. Making a way out of no way.
Jesus of Nazareth is the first person that comes to my mind. The apostle Paul called him “the first of many brothers” to indicate that he opened the path of resurrection for all. An ancient Christian homily states that he came to liberate all who were living with the fear of dying. Early Christians called their own path “the Way” but also named Jesus as such.
In his recent book Trump and the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ, Matthew Fox offers a succinct and powerful description of both Christ and Antichrist as archetypes. I was enlightened in particular by his conviction that Jesus Christ was a precursor to democracy and that some important Christian mystics, especially Aquinas and Meister Eckhart, offer a better definition of democracy than anyone else.
Eckhart, writing 450 years before Thomas Jefferson, has a far broader understanding of democracy than he did. For Eckhart did not limit the dignity of personhood to white people or to men or to men with property as did Jefferson in practice if not on paper. For Eckhart, we are born noble — all of us — and it is from the royalty that our rights derive and we in turn are urged to treat others as ourselves and live “equally”.
Each of you, in your own faith traditions, have figures whom you revere and find inspiration from. Perhaps especially important are those people whom you met in “flesh and blood”: inspired teachers, mentors who listened to you deeply, the aunt that did not fit with the family but for good reasons, the grandmother who overcame enormous hardships to raise her family, and so on and so forth.
Remembering these people and thanking God — or the Universe — for their life and their witness to the power of life is a holy exercise to me, one that never fails to replenish my energy when I feel low. It is not an exercise in nostalgia, as what energizes me — after many years since those sacred moments of encounter with them — is not anymore what they suggested, and even less remembering my circumstances at that time.
The energy lies in looking beyond all of that with the understanding that I gained in the meantime. By looking at their lives as a whole and seeing clearly what great difficulties they overcame, even what huge scandals they provoked, to become the wise counselors and models they were for me. They were ready precisely at the right time and the right place for me, as if the Universe has planned it all along. Some call it Providence, an idea not to be tossed away lightly.
In many cases, a holy way is open within a stream of a religious tradition which has lost clarity of purpose. Then that holy way fades away until somebody else picks up its banner.
Jesus in the 1st century preached the universal dignity of all. Meister Eckhart picked up that banner again in the 14th century. Sojourner Truth — what a name! — did the same in the 19th century. One was tortured and killed, the second was spared perhaps only because he died before the Inquisition caught him, the third miraculously survived.
Maximilian of Tebessa in the year 395 refused to serve in the imperial Roman army “because I am a Christian.” Franz Jägerstatter used exactly the same simple motivation when he refused to wear a military uniform under Nazism in 1943. They were both beheaded. Thomas Merton, a pioneer of interreligious dialogue, was set to convert the Catholic church to nonviolence, to the refusal of the cold-war mentality, and to abandoning all support for the Vietnam war. He died in 1968, at 53 years of age, under suspicious circumstances.
People such as these may live short lives, though not always, but they shatter entire religious and ideological systems to the benefit of so many future generations.
In dark times, our holy trailblazers shine as stars. Matthew shared with me that in the Aboriginal tradition of Australia the stars are the bonfires of the ancestors sitting in circles and sharing wisdom with each other and with us living on earth. Let us warm up at their light!
Quotes from Matthew Fox, Trump and the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ, pp. 21, 32-33
See also Fox, Confessions: : The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest
See also Fox, The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved
See also Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
See also Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time.
Banner Image: “Christ walking on the waters” by Virgilio Mattoni de la Fuente. Wikimedia Commons
Queries for Contemplation
Who have you chosen as your ancestors and how are you recalling and honoring them?
Recommended Reading
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.
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
The Pope’s War offers a provocative look at three decades of corruption in the Catholic Church, focusing on Josef Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI. The final section in the book focuses on birthing a truly catholic Christianity.
“This book should be read by everybody, not only for its ferocious courage, but also for its vision for what needs to be saved from the destructive forces that threaten authentic Christianity.” ~ Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope.
“In the gripping The Pope’s War, Matthew Fox takes an unwavering look at the layers of corruption in the Catholic Church, holding moral truth against power.” — Jason Berry, author of Vows of Silence: The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II
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
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
While Matthew Fox recognizes that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers throughout history, he also wants to introduce Eckhart to today’s activists addressing contemporary crises. Toward that end, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and many others.
“Matthew Fox is perhaps the greatest writer on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has successfully bridged a gap between Eckhart as a shamanistic personality and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith movement, to reveal just how cosmic Eckhart really is, and how remarkably relevant to today’s religious crisis! ” — Steven Herrmann, Author of Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward
