I was thrilled to read two substantive articles on this week’s Passover and Palm Sunday/Holy Week celebrations this morning. Finding one in The New York Times and another in The Contrarian written by Jennifer Rubin who, out of conscience, quit the Washington Post recently, was a pleasant surprise.
Both essays dare to question the values underlying faux religion and dangerous politics in our time and country today.
Let us begin with the latter essay entitled “Active Empathy is life-changing: A word about ‘the stranger.’” Rubin, celebrating Passover or Pesach with her family, reminds us that the “central message” of the 8-day celebration is empathy.
She cites the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of the UK who sees empathy at the heart of Passover: “You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger: You were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Ex. 23:9).
Why the “stranger”? It is easy to “love your neighbor as yourself” but much harder “to love or even feel empathy for a stranger.” Comments Rubin, “There could be no more relevant message today, as we see immigrants targeted, demonized, abused, deported, and abandoned.” The story of the “baseless, cruel, and blatantly illegal deportation of Venezuelans” to El Salvador with no opportunity to mount a defense reminds her of the story of Joseph thrown in a pit by his brothers and left for dead.
“Fear of the one-not-like-us is capable of disabling our capacity” for empathy, Rabbi Sacks warns. And this lies at the heart of the lesson of Passover. “You have been oppressed; therefore, come to the rescue of the oppressed.”* You have suffered, therefore respond to the suffering of others.
A second reflection for today is called “Palm Sunday Was a Protest, Not a Procession,” and it captures beautifully the full context of what the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey with poor people shouting “Hosanna!” was all about.
The author, Episcopal priest Andrew Thayer, reminds us that on that first Palm Sunday, there was another procession entering Jerusalem. From the west came Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, riding a warhorse and flanked by armed soldiers bedecked in the full pageantry of an oppressive empire. His was a “calculated show of force” lest the Jewish festival of Passover, a reminder of their liberation from Egyptian oppression, should give anyone ideas that they could rebel against Roman oppression.
Caesar was not just an emperor but was called “son of a God” on coins and inscriptions. “His rule was absolute and the peace it promised came through coercion, domination, and the threat of violence.”**
Jesus’ entrance on a donkey was quite the opposite. Poor and unconnected people cheered him on with palm branches which represented resistance to occupation since the Maccabean revolt. The cry “Hosanna!” meant “Save us!” Save us from a system of oppression disguised as order. Save us from those who tacitly endorse greed with pious language and prayers.
The stakes were immense. Jesus’ organizing an action to throw over money lenders in the Temple a day later advanced the contrast and we know how that story ends. First, on Good Friday; and second, on Easter Sunday.
I recommend a prayerful reading of both articles as we celebrate Passover and Holy Week, 2025.
* Jennifer Rubin, “Active Empathy is life-changing: A word about ‘the stranger.’” The Contrarian, April 14, 2025
** Andrew Thayer, “Palm Sunday Was a Protest, Not a Procession.” The New York Times / Opinion, April 13 2025.
See Matthew Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion:Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
See Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society.
And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Banner Image: Never Again Action protest in Graham, North Carolina, U.S.A. against policies of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 2019. Six years later, a coalition of Jewish faculty and students in universities across the U.S. protest ongoing increasing illegal deportations of international pro-Palestinian dissidents. Photo by Anthony Crider on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you find strength and meaning in entering into the Passover and Holy Week Remembrances this week buttressed by the insights from these articles?
Recommended Reading
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
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.
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.
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
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
