Within the midst of loopy goings-on in our politics and authorities, led by a mad wannabe king and his sidekick Mad Hatter (MAGA hat in fact), it’s good to return to fundamentals.
Allow us to discuss and pray in regards to the widespread good. The fundamentals of society usually are not greed–although greed performs huge within the mindset of sure “leaders” in our nation immediately.
The Tesla fellow who paid $188 billion to purchase a spot within the White Home and $19 billion to purchase Congress and is now shelling out over $10 million for a Supreme Courtroom decide in Wisconsin and has change into a poster boy for unfettered capitalism is lacking one thing. And the person who employed him to take a chainsaw to the American authorities and is world well-known for being “transactional,” i.e. lowering each relationship to an “I-am-making-a-profit” relationship can also be lacking one thing.
That one thing is the underside line in a wholesome politics: The widespread good. St. Thomas Aquinas has been given credit score for this fact, and he acknowledges that he received the idea from Aristotle. Allow us to contemplate a few of Aquinas’s teachings on the widespread good.
Right here is one purple flag Aquinas raises regarding these in management: In his commentary on Aristotle’s Ethics, he says: The widespread good of the state can’t flourish until residents are virtuous–at the very least these whose enterprise it’s to manipulate. I’ve written beforehand within the DM that character issues in our leaders. What we’re experiencing as a nation immediately is the dearth of character of many leaders who’re extra concerned with their personal good than within the widespread good or the great of the neighborhood.
Aquinas: The widespread good of many is extra godlike than the great of a person. Any particular person? Even a billionaire? Or a billionaire many occasions over?
The phrases of Ambrose apply, ‘feed him that’s dying of starvation; you probably have not fed him, you might have slain him.’ Does this apply to the ravenous folks of Sudan for whom Musk/Trump shut down USAID shipments destined for Africa? Help that we taxpayers and Congress had already paid for? Does it apply to the AIDS medicines that have been additionally destined for Africa and paid for by Congress after which denied?
What in regards to the Speaker of the Home, Mr. Johnson, who may be very showy about what an exquisite Christian he’s? He smilingly permitted of the DOGE shutting down of USAID and is cheering on the efforts to slash Medicaid and Social Safety, assist for the youngest and oldest and most weak amongst us.
Maybe he ought to meditate on what Aquinas teaches, particularly that compassion hyperlinks us to God as regards similarity of works….The sum whole of the Christian faith consists of compassion as regards exterior works. Is the so-called Christian Speaker lacking out on “the sum whole of the Christian faith?” What about his fellow MAGA devotees?
In regard to the misfortune of our neighbors, we must have a coronary heart that’s struggling. The love of neighbor requires that not solely ought to we be our neighbor’s well-wishers, but in addition their well-doers, based on 1 John 3:18: ‘Allow us to not love in phrase, nor in speech, however in deed and in fact.’ And as a way to be an individual’s well-wisher and well-doer, we must succor their wants.
To be continued.
Tailored from Matthew Fox, Sheer Pleasure: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, pp. 417, 396f.
See Matthew Fox, Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Reworking Evil in Soul and Society.
And, Fox, “Warriors for Ecological and Financial Justice: Meister Eckhart Meets Dorothy Stang, Karl Marx, David Korten, Serge Latouche, Anita Roddick, and Howard Thurman,” in Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Occasions, pp. 221-230.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Presents for the Peoples of the Earth.
Banner Picture: Neighborhood members put together sandbags in opposition to an impending flood in Quincy, IL, 2008. Picture by WBEZ-91.5 on Flickr
Queries for Contemplation
Do you agree with Aquinas that advantage amongst leaders is important for a society to flourish? And when it’s missing there, residents in a democracy should step up and apply compassion and fact and justice to the political discourse and motion?
Really useful Studying
Sheer Pleasure: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox renders Thomas Aquinas accessible by interviewing him and thus descholasticizing him. He additionally translated lots of his works comparable to Biblical commentaries by no means earlier than in English (or Italian or German of French). He provides Aquinas a discussion board in order that he will be heard in our personal time. He presents Thomas Aquinas fully in his personal phrases, however in a type designed to permit late Twentieth-century minds and hearts to listen to him in a recent means.
“The instructing of Aquinas comes by way of will a fullness and an perception that has by no means been current in English earlier than and [with] an important message for the world immediately.” ~ Fr. Bede Griffiths (Afterword).
Foreword by Rupert Sheldrake
Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had at all times shied away from utilizing the time period “Anti-Christ” as a result of it was so usually used to unfold management and concern. Nonetheless, given immediately’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables on this guide using the archetype for the reason for justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a second, for analyzing the archetype of the Antichrist, it’s now…Learn this guide with an open thoughts. Good and evil are actual forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, writer of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For fast entry to Trump & The MAGA Motion 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 photographs, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To obtain a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for fast obtain.
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Reworking Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling writer Matthew Fox presents a brand new theology of evil that basically adjustments the normal notion of excellent and evil and factors the best way to a extra enlightened therapy of ourselves, each other, and all of nature. In evaluating the Jap custom of the 7 chakras to the Western custom of the 7 capital sins, Fox permits us to assume creatively about our capability for private and institutional evil and what we will do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a greater imaginative and prescient and depth of notion far past the grasp of anybody single science. A breath-taking evaluation.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, writer of Quantum Theology: Non secular Implications of the New Physics
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
Whereas Matthew Fox acknowledges that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers all through historical past, he additionally desires to introduce Eckhart to immediately’s activists addressing up to date crises. Towards that finish, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Wealthy, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and plenty of others.
“Matthew Fox is probably the best author on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has efficiently bridged a niche between Eckhart as a shamanistic persona and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith motion, to disclose simply how cosmic Eckhart actually is, and the way remarkably related to immediately’s non secular disaster! ” — Steven Herrmann, Writer of Non secular Democracy: The Knowledge of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Ahead
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the that means and follow of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the long run that guarantees private, social, and world therapeutic, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, main the best way towards a gentler and extra ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate exercise.
“Properly price our deepest consideration…Places compassion into its correct focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Presents for the Peoples of the Earth
Fox’s spirituality weds the therapeutic and liberation present in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of each non secular and political persuasion to unite in a brand new imaginative and prescient by way of which we study to honor the earth and the individuals who inhabit it because the present of a superb and simply Creator.
“A watershed theological work that provides a standard floor for non secular seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Apply.
“I’m studying Liberating Presents for the Folks of the Earth by Matt Fox. He’s one which fills my coronary heart and thoughts for brand spanking new life regardless of a lot that’s violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.
