A Meditation on Greed: Hildegard & Aquinas vs. Trump, Musk & Co.

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Final night time the Republican-led Congress voted to successfully kill Medicaid and meals and well being look after the poor to be able to please billionaires with new tax cuts. 

Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti focus on the crowds flocking to Bernie Sanders in his red-state “Combat Oligarchy” rallies whereas Democratic leaders flop. Breaking Factors.

In an article entitled “Bernie Sanders Is Sending a Piercing Message About Musk and the Oligarchy,” John Nichols experiences from the street on Sanders’ “Combat Oligarchy” tour, a crash course on how billionaire oligarchs are threatening American democracy.* 

Sanders, visiting purple states, has drawn 2,000 folks in Iowa Metropolis and three,400 in Omaha, to remind People that Abraham Lincoln known as for a “authorities of the folks, by the folks for the folks” and “not a authorities of the billionaire class, by the billionaire class and for the billionaire class.” 

He declared that it’s “morally outrageous” when “the richest particular person on earth—who’s a billionaire 384 occasions over—is ending well being care to the poorest amongst us.  Whether or not dismantling USAID in Africa or in final night time’s vote in Congress, the wrestle is evident for all to see. 

In an interview with Brian Tyler Cohen, Bernie Sanders sounds the alarm on rising oligarchy and authoritarianism within the U.S. and presents Democrats a means ahead.

Why has the Republican Celebration, as soon as Lincoln’s Celebration, declared its stand in opposition to Medicaid (Trump stated he wouldn’t contact Medicaid)?  As a result of the billionaire class needs nonetheless extra tax cuts—as much as 4.5 trillion {dollars} value—and Republicans think about dismembering Medicaid can pay for that present.

Sanders alluded to the now $2.6 million Musk has put into an excessive proper wing choose’s marketing campaign in Wisconsin—with extra to come back.  Now, in case you become involved in a Supreme Court docket race within the state of Wisconsin, the place are you able to not become involved?  You will get concerned in each governor’s race, each Senate race.  That’s their intention.

And he asks: Why?  These oligarchs should not solely comfortable to have big quantities of cash.  They need extra….I’ll inform you about probably the most severe habit drawback we have now on this nation: That’s the uncontrollable greed of this billionaire class….They need extra wealth.  They need extra energy.  They usually simply can’t cease themselves.  

A lifetime of prophetic motion: Bernie Sanders (proper), steering committee member within the Committee on Racial Equality, stands by as U. of Chicago president George W. Beadle addresses a CORE assembly on scholar sit-ins for built-in housing, 1962. Wikimedia Commons

Thus we’re requested to select between the widespread good and the “handful of multi-billionaires [who] not solely have extraordinary wealth however unprecedented financial, media and political energy” purchased by way of exploiting “a corrupt marketing campaign finance system.”   (Thanks, SCOTUS, for Residents United.)

The reply?  Tens of millions of American voters coming collectively “in a powerful grassroots motion” to say “’No’ to oligarchy and authoritarianism and kleptocracy!”  And “No!” to tax breaks for the wealthiest on the backs of the working class.

Mystics and saints of previous have spoken as Bernie Sanders does.  Thomas Aquinas taught that “the greed for achieve is aware of no restrict and tends to infinity.”  And he provided drugs for this habit we name avarice or greed which we are going to think about in tomorrow’s DM.

Hildegard of Bingen additionally spoke out on this habit to energy and “extra” {that a} wholesome society wants to carry in examine.  She wrote that avarice is “the servant of idols [and] terribly envious….It pillages with harshness and bitterness…it walks and plunders ferociously, sparing nothing when it pillages.”  

To be continued


* John Nichols, “Bernie Sanders Is Sending a Piercing Message About Musk and the Oligarchy,”The Nation, February 26, 2025.

Tailored from Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Reworking Evil in Soul and Society, p. 301.

See additionally: Matthew Fox, Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ.

And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice.

And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Items for the Peoples of the Earth.

Banner Picture: Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks at a protest for a $15/hr minimal wage, whereas co-sponsoring 2017 laws for the pay rise. Wikimedia Commons


Queries for Contemplation

Do you agree with Sanders and Aquinas and Hildegard that greed is behind a lot of the political dynamics of our time and that it must be stored in examine? And that we’re feeling the outcomes of Residents United when authorities strikes from the folks to oligarchs and billionaires dominating the media and politics and authorities?


Really useful Studying

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 modifications the standard notion of fine and evil and factors the way in which to a extra enlightened remedy of ourselves, each other, and all of nature. In evaluating the Japanese 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

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 typically used to unfold management and concern. Nevertheless, given at this time’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables on this ebook 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 inspecting the archetype of the Antichrist, it’s now…Learn this ebook 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 speedy 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 photos, 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 speedy obtain.

A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice

In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the which means and follow of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the longer term that guarantees private, social, and international therapeutic, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, main the way in which towards a gentler and extra ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate exercise.
“Effectively value our deepest consideration…Places compassion into its correct focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Items 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 be taught to honor the earth and the individuals who inhabit it because the present of a very good 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 Observe.
“I’m studying Liberating Items for the Individuals of the Earth by Matt Fox.  He’s one which fills my coronary heart and thoughts for brand spanking new life despite a lot that’s violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.


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