I used to be thrilled to learn two substantive articles on this week’s Passover and Palm Sunday/Holy Week celebrations this morning. Discovering one in The New York Instances and one other in The Contrarian written by Jennifer Rubin who, out of conscience, give up the Washington Publish just lately, was a pleasing shock.
Each essays dare to query the values underlying fake faith and harmful politics in our time and nation right this moment.
Allow us to start with the latter essay entitled “Lively Empathy is life-changing: A phrase about ‘the stranger.’” Rubin, celebrating Passover or Pesach together with her household, 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 on the coronary heart of Passover: “You shall not oppress a stranger, for you recognize the guts of a stranger: You had been strangers within the land of Egypt.” (Ex. 23:9).
Why the “stranger”? It’s straightforward to “love your neighbor as your self” however a lot tougher “to like and even really feel empathy for a stranger.” Feedback Rubin, “There could possibly be no extra related message right this moment, as we see immigrants focused, demonized, abused, deported, and deserted.” The story of the “baseless, merciless, and blatantly unlawful deportation of Venezuelans” to El Salvador with no alternative to mount a protection reminds her of the story of Joseph thrown in a pit by his brothers and left for lifeless.
“Concern of the one-not-like-us is able to disabling our capability” for empathy, Rabbi Sacks warns. And this lies on the coronary heart of the lesson of Passover. “You could have been oppressed; subsequently, come to the rescue of the oppressed.”* You could have suffered, subsequently reply to the struggling of others.
A second reflection for right this moment known as “Palm Sunday Was a Protest, Not a Procession,” and it captures fantastically the total context of what the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey with poor individuals shouting “Hosanna!” was all about.
The creator, Episcopal priest Andrew Thayer, reminds us that on that first Palm Sunday, there was one other procession getting into Jerusalem. From the west got here Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, using a warhorse and flanked by armed troopers bedecked within the full pageantry of an oppressive empire. His was a “calculated present of drive” lest the Jewish pageant of Passover, a reminder of their liberation from Egyptian oppression, ought to give anybody concepts that they might insurgent towards Roman oppression.
Caesar was not simply an emperor however was referred to as “son of a God” on cash and inscriptions. “His rule was absolute and the peace it promised got here by way of coercion, domination, and the specter of violence.”**
Jesus’ entrance on a donkey was fairly the alternative. Poor and unconnected individuals cheered him on with palm branches which represented resistance to occupation because the Maccabean revolt. The cry “Hosanna!” meant “Save us!” Save us from a system of oppression disguised as order. Save us from those that tacitly endorse greed with pious language and prayers.
The stakes had been immense. Jesus’ organizing an motion to throw over cash lenders within the Temple a day later superior the distinction and we all know how that story ends. First, on Good Friday; and second, on Easter Sunday.
I like to recommend a prayerful studying of each articles as we rejoice Passover and Holy Week, 2025.
* Jennifer Rubin, “Lively Empathy is life-changing: A phrase about ‘the stranger.’” The Contrarian, April 14, 2025
** Andrew Thayer, “Palm Sunday Was a Protest, Not a Procession.” The New York Instances / Opinion, April 13 2025.
See Matthew Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion:Uniting Mystical Consciousness with Social Justice.
And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Items for the Peoples of the Earth.
See 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, Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Banner Picture: By no means Once more Motion protest in Graham, North Carolina, U.S.A. towards insurance policies of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 2019. Six years later, a coalition of Jewish school and college students in universities throughout the U.S. protest ongoing rising unlawful deportations of worldwide pro-Palestinian dissidents. Photograph by Anthony Crider on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you discover energy and which means in getting into into the Passover and Holy Week Remembrances this week buttressed by the insights from these articles?
Really useful Studying
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 apply of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the long run that guarantees private, social, and world 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.
“Properly 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 study to honor the earth and the individuals who inhabit it because the reward of a very good and simply Creator.
“A watershed theological work that gives a standard floor for non secular seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Follow.
“I’m studying Liberating Items for the Folks 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.
Trump & The MAGA Motion as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had all the time shied away from utilizing the time period “Anti-Christ” as a result of it was so usually used to unfold management and worry. Nevertheless, given right this moment’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables on this e book 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 e book with an open thoughts. Good and evil are actual forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, creator of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For instant 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 pictures, 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 instant obtain.
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Reworking Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling creator Matthew Fox presents a brand new theology of evil that basically adjustments the normal notion of excellent 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 suppose creatively about our capability for private and institutional evil and what we are able to 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, creator of Quantum Theology: Religious Implications of the New Physics
Unique Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a complete new course for Christianity—a course that’s in reality very historic and really grounded in Jewish pondering (the truth that Jesus was a Jew is commonly uncared for by Christian theology): the 4 Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an prolonged and deeply developed approach.
“Unique Blessing makes obtainable to the Christian world and to the human group a radical treatment for all darkish and derogatory views of the pure world wherever these might have originated.” –Thomas Berry, creator, The Dream of the Earth; The Nice Work; co-author, The Universe Story
