As I write this meditation I am aware that Passover began last night for the Jewish people and today is what Christians call “Holy Thursday” or “Maundy Thursday,” meaning the remembrance and mandate to wash the feet of the poor. (Jn 13:34) The night that Jesus ate his Last Supper with his disciples before being captured and put to death. That commemoration being Friday when you read this meditation, the day of Jesus’ death.
Clearly there are profound links between all these rich feast days of remembrance. Rabbi Greene reminds us* that a true celebration of Passover forces us to confront the question: “What is it that enslaves us, and why do we fear to break the chains?” Are we ready to leave our particular forms of ‘Egypt,’ our own conditions of slavery?
Telling the story of exodus and freedom to the children is an essential element to the holiday. “You shall tell it to your child” (Ex. 13:8). So children have a special place at Passover. The story of freedom and deliverance and promise is for them.
On Wednesday this week, children around America skipped school and filled state legislatures to protest the killings of their own in schools around the nation. In Nashville, capitol of Tennessee and the most recent school killing ground, they got the attention of the head of the legislature who gave them a talk in which—surprise?—he lied to them all. He said banning assault weapons for everyday citizens would make no difference in school killings.
He was wrong. And he was lying. When for ten years America banned assault weapons the number of killings went down. And since that law was not reinstated, killings have gone up and up. Why would an adult lawmaker tell children a public lie? Because he is enslaved to guns. Guns are his Egypt and he likes it.
This is adultism: Hatred of children. Adults are pharaohs enslaving children and lying to them about it. The same is true of refusal to face climate change and do something meaningful about it—that too is adultism. A refusal to act on behalf of the future children of the world.
This is why feast days of Passover, Holy Thursday and Good Friday matter: Because we are all capable of participating in evil and need reminding or redemption, often from ourselves.
Thank God children are calling adults to account.
P.S. Since I wrote this 12 hours ago, two young black state legislators have been expelled by the very white majority of Tennesse’s legislature. Their crime? Supporting the children. And, of course, being black. It seems the dominant empire of white supremacy and gun supremacists are doing to leaders today what the Roman empire did to Jesus 2000 yeas ago. They will not have the last word.
*Arthur Green, Judaism for the World: Reflections on God, Life, and Love, pp. 164f.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, “Adultism—A Society that Devours its Youth,” in Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, pp. 180-198.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: One year later, situation unchanged: “Uvalde, Texas – Strange Days of Sorrow in America.” Image by Daniel Arrhakis (2022) on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
What other examples of adultism and freedom from it do you see around the world today?
Recommended Reading
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.
14 thoughts on “Passover, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, 2023”
As long as 8 billion+ people are on ‘the path’, the journey to God realization, to soul consciousness, we all live on earth in a state of unblissful ignorance along with the pain, hatred and malfeasance that accompanies it. That is not to say that the love and truth that binds do not exist but ‘its currency’ is subject to great devaluation by many.
Jesus ‘Way’, is the only way out of worldliness through the sanctification of ‘the Way of the Cross’. Did we come to Good Friday only to be observers again at the foot of the Cross? Or are we picking up ‘our own sanctified Cross’ and carrying throughout the day, every day, in whatever circumstances that we find ourselves in? Are we prepared to continue to love and carry the truth within a world that ‘devalues’ our currency, our worth, our love?
Those in ignorance, fear, and may have ‘their own better way’, prefer to live under the radar and in the shadows. ‘Do not disturb’ is the motto of many and ‘the Cross’ casts a light onto everything in its path. And as in Jesus’s Life, there are those who look to extinguish ‘the Light’, a light though that cannot be extinguished.
The ‘God of All’ then that we follow ‘in ways’, continues to love all, forgive all, embrace all, in spite of imperfections, ignorance, malfeasance and discord. The God we are born of, always sees our and everyone’s true worth without devaluation, and so should we. — BB.
We are all a Ways away. Ways are continuously washing up all over the place if only we have the presence of the Christ child “now” to receive the renewing and nurturing gift from within–and with truth and justice and compassion, act upon it.
That’s it, Lee. Act upon it!
Thank you.
Hi Bill, thanks for your thoughtful comments. I am getting to know each of you, so forgive me if I share what you “already” know. Seems to me you are sharing the Via Negative, one of the essential Four Paths of Creation Spirituality. When one choses to live only the Way of Blessing, the Way of Creativity and the Way of Transformation – the Via Negative: The Way of letting go, suffering, emptiness is missing, causing an imbalance and a lack of grounding. Good to ponder, yes?
This comment section really needs to open up to at least two posts per day to allow one to reply to a comment on their post, such as your comment on my post above.
Carol –
I am not a student of Creation Spirituality, rather contemplate through Jesus as the filter of all Truth. There are just too many conceptualizations and methodologies that can make following Jesus more complex than it is intended to be, for my simple mind. As you are aware, faith and faith practices are ‘braided’, interwoven, and rest upon the same foundation. Trying to fit and label all into 4 boxes or 8 ways are methodologies that work well with many but may be restrictive to some at the same time.
Nice to have you here.
Bill
Thanks for sharing, Bill.
The iconic image of the Black Madonna holding the Christ Child takes on a much deeper meaning in light of what’s happened in Tennessee. I see Justin Pearson as a black man with a Mother’s heart, whom is living out the true meaning and purpose of this image. The state legislators response is reflective of the spirit of Herod unfortunately remaining alive and well in this body politic.
Recently, another black women also brought the living Spirit of this iconic image of the Black Madonna to life… as the Indigenious Peoples within Canada, placed a mantle of the traditional medicine blanket upon her shoulders and honored her truth-telling actions with an Eagle Feather, a symbolic emblem of the spiritual vision and powerful medicine of the Spirit of the Black Madonna rising up in the embodiment of some people within humanity. They honored her bravery and her artistic creativity, in which she sang our Canadian national anthem at a public event, changing one word that spoke truth to power… that being “Oh Canada, our home ON native land…”.
There is audultism going on in this world… but there is also a great rising of the Heart, Mind and Spirit of the Mothering soul empowerment of the Black Madonna, and her mantle unfolding, evolving, emerging and converging within humanity as well.
Thank you, Thank you, Jeanette!
When stupid is evil, and the ultimate victory of Christ’s Pasha Raz…
I have said for decades that Baby Boomers, the very “children” who demonstrated for peace and justice in the 60s, 70s, and 80s don’t care about children at all. It’s my generation, and I’m angry at them/us. We rallied against our parents, yet we are so much worse than them. And the generation behind us who are, with us, in power now appear to be even worse. Beyond what you’ve said, Matthew (and you are so right!) Boomers refuse to fund the arts in elementary and secondary schools and now, by legislating “school choice,” are defunding schools that serve working class and poor children–widening the divide. Universities instead of offering wisdom education have been turned into job training sites, so that even those who can afford to go to college are turned into cogs in the wheel for the 1%. Instead of funding things that make childhood delightful, Boomers are settling in “over 55” communities and spending all their money on golf carts, pools, gyms and other toys for themselves. They/We were given everything and instead of giving back or paying it forward to future generations they/we are using up all the Earth’s resources and spending those resources on them/ourselves without a care. What spoiled brats. I’m furious at my generation.
Dear Michelle,
Not all of us sold our souls. Some of us are still fighting the same S–T we protested against all those years ago. And will continue to with our last breath!
Tennessee demographics:
White population: 80%
Black population: 17%
Evangelical Protestants: 52% of total population
Black Protestants: 6%
Tennessee evangelicals lead a political system that is inherently racist and dedicated to the rescission of civil rights for people of color (and, by the way, for women of all colors).
When students in Tennessee walked out of class and some showed up at the legislature, they met with a representative who blatantly lied to them saying that banning assault weapons would not stop school shootings—when he knows full well that during the 10 years when such weapons WERE banned that mass murders of all kinds reduced drastically and since evangelical/republican reversal of the ban, have increased exponentially.
Our long history of unbalanced (over feminine values), toxic, and destructive values and actions in human history, societies, and institutions to the present day, especially against women, children, Indigenous people, minorities, the poor, and Mother Earth,
are other ways of expressing the sin of ‘adultism.’ The lack of full spiritual development of our ‘inner child’ and ‘the feminine’ in our inner and interpersonal conscious human evolution of our earthly souls is still very much in evidence in our modern times. Our continued faith and development of our eternal sacred souls with the help of God’s Spirit of Love~Light~Life and the spiritual beings from the non-physical dimensions continue to be essential in the Eternal Sacred Process of the Loving Oneness Present Moment….
🔥💜🌎🙏
Thanks to all for your insights on the sin of adultism Matthew explores in today’s
meditation. As Michele points out, we are guilty of not valuing our children’s education
that would allow them access to a deeper dimension of reality.
Today, on Good Friday, I am living with the question Rabbi Greene poses for Passover.
“What is it that enslaves us, and why do we fear to break the chains?”