April 14, 2025: Rabbi Heschel & Hildegard of Bingen on Dark Nights & Holiness
Reflecting on the dark night of the soul that our country and world is enmeshed in, it can be helpful to read the wisdom of the mystics. Rabbi Heschel said: The Biblical answer to evil is not the good but the holy. It is an attempt to raise humans to a higher level of existence, where humanity is not alone when confronted with evil. Mitzvah is one way to experience the holy. Mitzvah is “a prayer in the form of a deed.” Meanwhile, Hildegard of Bingen inspires with words, paintings, and music. One former student wrote to Matthew after his recent DM about one of Hildegard’s painting: “Here is the one sentence that may indeed change my life again forever: ‘They become other Christs, other anointed mountains of God.’”
April 15, 2025: Two Brilliant Pieces on Passover & Palm Sunday in the “Secular” Press
Matthew exults in two substantive articles in the secular press on two of our most holy days. One was written by Jennifer Rubin who, out of conscience, quit the Washington Post recently. It was titled: “Active Empathy is life-changing: A word about ‘the stranger.’” * She says that the “central message” of Passover is empathy. She cites the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. “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) On the Christian side, Episcopal priest Andrew Thayer tells us that “Palm Sunday Was a Protest, Not a Procession.”** Whereas Caesar ruled with coercion, domination, and the threat of violence, Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey was quite the opposite. The cry “Hosanna!” meant “Save us!” (from imperial rule).
April 16, 2025: The War Against Empathy (in the Names of Trump & Christ)
Empathy is not only the central message of Passover, it’s integral to Christianity as well. Jesus taught: “Be compassionate as your Creator in heaven is compassionate.” In contrast, we have this recent article in the Guardian: “Loathe thy neighbor: Elon Musk and the Christian right are waging war on empathy.”*** Author Julia Carrie Wong underscores how “Trump’s actions are irreconcilable with Christian compassion. But an unholy alliance seeks to cast empathy as a parasitic plague.” The goal of the rightwing movement against empathy is to squash “our capacity to recognize and respond to suffering” and is “a flashing red light warning of fascist intent.” Among other things, it makes room for mass deportation without due process. According to Susan Lanzone, author of Empathy: A History, “The disparagement of empathy is…a deliberate effort to set up a permission structure to dehumanize others.”****
April 17, 2025: America Beware: Opus Dei Is Back in the News Again
Reflecting on empathy and the lack thereof in the current administration, we find that 43 Argentinian women are suing Opus Dei. They claim they “became like a slave.” One woman said that at the age of 12, her parents brought her to Opus Dei, hoping she could escape the cycle of poverty. Instead, Opus Dei gave her a schedule “that detailed every task for every minute of her day.” She said, “They treated me like a slave without any capacity to think or act or do.” Women were expected to cook and clean 12 hours a day without any pay. At 16, they were given a cilice to wear 2 hours a day as “penance for their sins” and a whip to flagellate themselves during prayer.***** What makes this story especially relevant is that Project 2025 was overseen by Kevin Roberts, a close ally of Opus Dei (along with Leonard Leo who almost single handedly created our current Supreme Court).
April 18, 2025: Good Friday, 2025
The crucifixion is an archetype about empires who torture and kill those who dare to challenge those in power with alternative views of society. People found in Jesus and his truth-telling a hope that energized them. His parables offered an invitation to form one’s own conscience. Those in positions of power found this a threat, and so they silenced him (or so they thought). Fortunately, his story and his teachings live on. The experiences of Awe (the sacred) and the Awful (evil) run parallel in our lives. Hildegard is one person who paints both the ecstasy of the Divine and the horrors of evil. Good Friday is an invitation to not shrink from evil but to acknowledge it and fight it.
April 29, 2025: Easter 2025: Resurrection of the Body, Body Politic, Mother Earth?
One of the more interesting reflections on resurrection comes from Otto Rank, a Jewish psychologist, who says that the resurrection was the “greatest revolutionary idea” in human history because it democratized immortality. Resurrection is for all of us. Rank believes the fear of death has impacted human history profoundly. Humankind’s search for immortality plays out
in the creation of pyramids, dynasties, empires, etc. We still have the potential of resurrecting both democracy and the human race, not to mention the Earth herself. May we rise to the occasion!
* 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.
***Julia Carrie Wong, “Loathe thy neighbor: Elon Musk and the Christian right are waging war on empathy,” The Guardian, April 8, 2025.
****Susan Lanzone, Empathy: A History. Yale University Press, 2018.
*****Harriet Barber, “‘I became like a slave’: why 43 women are suing the secretive Opus Dei Catholic group in Argentina.” The Guardian, April 14, 2025
Banner image: Sunrise on an Easter morning at a cemetery in Pt. Pleasant, PA. (The sun rose after the sunrise service was complete and everyone had wandered off.) Photo by Cynthia Greb. Used with permission.
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
Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen
An introduction to the life and work of Hildegard of Bingen, Illuminations reveals the life and teachings of one of the greatest female artists and intellectuals of the Western Mystical Tradition. At the age of 42, she began to have visions; these were captured as 36 illuminations–24 of which are recorded in this book along with her commentaries on them.
“If one person deserves credit for the great Hildegard renaissance in our time, it is Matthew Fox.” – Dr Mary Ford-Grabowsky, author of Sacred Voices.
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
“This book is a classic.” Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth.
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
As Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. The visionaries quoted range from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in crisis, and we need road maps that can ground us in wisdom, inspire us to action, and help us gather our talents in service of compassion and justice. This revolutionary book does just that. Matthew Fox takes some of the most profound spiritual teachings of the West and translates them into practical daily mediations. Study and practice these teachings. Take what’s in this book and teach it to the youth because the new generation cannot afford to suffer the spirit and ethical illiteracy of the past.” — Adam Bucko, spiritual activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation for Homeless Youth.
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.
