Holiness and Answering to Evil

For some time now we have been meditating on Evil.  This is so important to do.  Spirituality is not ultimately about comfort.  It is about living a life of depth and creating solidarity with others who do so. 

To be spiritual means responding to life in all its depth (I defined prayer as “a radical response to life” in my first book 52 years ago and have not wandered from that understanding): The depths of awe and beauty, joy and delight (Via Positiva); the depths of silence; and suffering and darkness (Via Negativa); the depths of giving birth to alternative visions (Via Creativa); the depths of putting these alternative visions into form, in our work worlds and citizenship (Via Transformativa).

Necessarily, this journey includes encountering Evil along the way, both internal and external.  Three current young political leaders—Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and now transgender leader Zooey Zephyr—are examples of the Via Transformativa in their work.  They are elected representatives of democracy standing up on issues of justice regarding protecting our children from gun violence and from homophobic and transgender violence as well.

One of the signs of our times is fascism which is alive and well in today’s politics.  Susan Sontag’s definition of fascism as institutionalized violence is currently playing out in both the Tennessee and Montana statehouses which are busy expelling and silencing “the other,” whether black or trans representatives.

This institutionalized violence uses a political structure to muzzle and expel, robbing thousands of citizens of their right to be represented in a legislative body.

Seeing these three representatives stand up is a blessing.  They are doing holy work, the work of justice.  

Such work is so demanding that it will hollow them out and render them strong and courageous and pure in their intentions.  It will render them holy.  It did this to MLK, Jr. and to John Lewis and many others before them.

What shall we say about holiness and evil?  Rabbi Heschel said it best: 

The Biblical answer to evil is not the good but the holy.  It is an attempt to raise humanity to a higher level of existence, where humans are not alone when confronted with evil.  Living in ‘the light of the face of God’ bestows upon humans a power of love that enables one to overcome the powers of evil.  

To be continued

See Matthew Fox, Prayer: A Radical Response to Life 

See also Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion;

See also Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society.

To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.

Banner Image: Putting her life on the line: a protestor locks herself down to heavy machinery in an effort to stop Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline construction at the sacred headwaters of the Mississippi River. Photo by Felton Davis on Flickr.

Queries for Contemplation

Meditations: Do you agree with Heschel that the holy is an answer to evil and that powers of love enable one to overcome the powers of evil?

Recommended Reading

Prayer: A Radical Response to Life
How do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? Fox defines prayer as a radical response to life that includes our “Yes” to life (mysticism) and our “No” to forces that combat life (prophecy). How do we define adult prayer? And how—if at all—do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? One of Matthew Fox’s earliest books, originally published under the title On Becoming a Musical, Mystical Bear: Spirituality American Style, Prayer introduces a mystical/prophetic spirituality and a mature conception of how to pray. Called a “classic” when it first appeared, it lays out the difference between the creation spirituality tradition and the fall/redemption tradition that has so dominated Western theology since Augustine. A practical and theoretical book, it lays the groundwork for Fox’s later works.
“One of the finest books I have read on contemporary spirituality.” – Rabbi Sholom A. Singer

A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice

In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register

Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society

Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them. 
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science.  A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics