Caring for Mother Earth in a perilous time of climate change is surely caring for the young. Not to care for Mother Earth—and to ignore or vote against aggressive climate change action–is adultism in action.
It is a vote against the young because it is a vote against the future health of the planet which the young and their children-to-be will inherit.
It is a vote on behalf of matricide also, a continuing hatred and ultimate control of the feminine.
The recent COP22 was a decidedly mixed and not altogether positive happening. While voting that richer countries support the poorer ones—the former far more responsible for climate change than the latter—is a plus, the follow-through remains to be seen. It will require some belt-tightening on the part of the richer countries, simpler living therefore. It will also require cutting back on fossil fuels including coal, oil and gas.
The Order of the Sacred Earth is a vision on behalf of future generations and therefore a preferential option for the young. For it, too, encourages a move beyond slow-moving institutional religion in favor of action and spiritual practice and commitment that is explicit and not hesitant about building up the health of Mother Earth and therefore future generations of humans and of other species as well.
The Cosmic Mass is also an affirmation of the young for it is a commitment to inviting the post-modern art forms of dj, vj and rap, along with dance (an ancient and pre-modern form of prayer using all our chakras) into liturgy and ritual again.
It also an option for the young to play leadership roles in ritual and ceremony because their leadership is honored as dj’s, vj’s and rap artists. Yet all generations gather and celebrate together in Cosmic Masses.
When I look back on my work I recognize many efforts to inculcate a preferential option for the young–including, of course, redesigning education so that it makes room for values, including wisdom. In contrast to mere knowledge, wisdom is part of what the feminine brings to education.
Creativity and art are central therefore to honoring the young. Art as meditation is central to pedagogy that enhances values. Just what Einstein calls for: teaching both the rational and intuitive brains, operating in tandem in order to bring values alive. (And values, he instructs us, derive from the intuitive, not the rational, brain).
Just as Hildegard of Bingen taught us, “there is wisdom in all creative works.”
See Matthew Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ,
pp. 22f., 180-186. Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest, pp. 13, 169, 320f., 327-383.
Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society, pp. 202, 279ff., 325f.
Matthew Fox, Skylar Wilson and Jen Listug, Order of the Sacred Earth: An Intergenerational Vision of Love and Action.
Fox, The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human.
To read a transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner image: Nurturing our Earth. Photo by Nikola Jovanovic on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
How are you practicing a “preferential option for the young?”
6 thoughts on “<strong>Caring for the Earth & Other Preferential Options for the Young</strong>”
Matthew, You tell us that caring for Mother Earth in a perilous time of climate change is surely caring for the young. It is a vote against the young because it is a vote against the future health of the planet which the young and their children-to-be will inherit. The Order of the Sacred Earth is a vision on behalf of future generations, for it, too, encourages a move beyond institutional religion in favor of action and spiritual practice that is explicit and not hesitant about building up the health of Mother Earth. The Cosmic Mass is also an affirmation of the young for it is a commitment to inviting the post-modern art forms of dj, vj and rap, along with dance. Yet all generations gather and celebrate together in Cosmic Masses. Creativity and art are central to honoring the young. Art as meditation is central to pedagogy that enhances values. In fact I have experienced first hand your pedagogy and it does just the things that you say, I have loved Mother Earth, I have danced in Cosmic Masses, and I have done art-as-meditation. I have learned the lessons of the Creation mystics and I have learned to be a mystic-prophet myself. Thank you Matthew, for all you are, and all that you do.
In practicing the preferential, Mathew mentioned the necessity of creating new communities, orders, or institutions. I agree. Often I have tried to introduce the preferential within the already established, only to have these options rejected, denied, oppressed, suppressed and silenced. “You can’t pour new wine into old wine skins.” The new wine needs to be held, nurtured, cultivated and airated in the vessels of new communities, orders, and institutions in order for the preferential options to be poured out, so that the next generation… may taste and see that the practice of these new possibilities are good! Mathew has shown us many ways to accomplish this, just as the mystics, prophets, artists and activists before him have done. This is our lineage and heritage of wisdom to draw upon, to practice, as we consciously awaken to becoming and being the sacred carriers of this new wine; as it is slowly being poured out on the altar of our own lives. Often, due to the failures that we encounter, it seems to taste bitter to the human aspect of ourselves. However, not a drop is wasted to the true soul/sense of self. All that we experience, to this aspect of our beingness, tastes divinely good and sweet, filled with blessings often beyond our human perceptions or understandings of the mysterious movement of the Spirit and the essence and presence of this unfolding, evolving and emerging from within ourselves and our life, as the emissaries of new wine.
Good DM Matthew reviewing how we all, like the mystics of all spiritual wisdom traditions, including Indigenous spirituality, should honor the Presence of the Sacred within us and among us, especially Sacred Mother Earth and All Living Creation… Our Creator is truly ALL in ALL with DIVINE LOVE~WISDOM~co-CREATIVITY Present within our daily human lives with one another and Sacred Mother Nature….
🔥💜🌎🙏
“We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors—we borrow it from our children.” indigenous truth
That is a great perspective and easy to remember as we go about our business…
AMEN !!!