In the prophetic tradition of Israel, justice and compassion go together. “Compassion means justice,” Eckhart reminds us.
Eckhart is not alone in connecting compassion and justice. Mechtild of Magdeburg, a Beguine of the 13th century in Germany, teaches this: If you love the justice of Jesus Christ more than you fear human judgment, then you will seek to do compassion. Compassion means that if I see my friend and my enemy in equal need, I shall help both equally. Justice demands that we seek and find the stranger, the broken, the prisoner and comfort them and offer them our help. Here lies the holy compassion of God.
Compassion is, of course, a kind of passion. A caring, a feeling of the suffering of others—and acting to relieve that suffering. It is the opposite of a cold heart.
Compassion is also the work of the Holy Spirit. Eckhart insists, “the first outburst of whatever God does is always compassion.” Compassion then is our origin and our destiny. It is the Holy Spirit at work, as Mechtild of Magdeburg puts it:
Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is a compassionate outpouring of the Creator and the Son. This is why when we on earth pour out compassion and mercy from the depths of our hearts and give to the poor and dedicate our bodies to the service of the broken, to that extent do we resemble the Holy Spirit.
Hildegard praises the Holy Spirt as “the hope of oneness for that which is separate,” and the power that empowers all life. “Holy Spirit, you make life alive, you move in all things, you are the root of all created being…You awaken and reawaken everything that is.”
The Holy Spirit is “the life of the life of all creatures.”
Eckhart connects the Holy Spirit to justice making calling it the spirit of transformation, the “Transformer.”
Adapted from Matthew Fox, “Creation-Centered Spirituality from Hildegard to Julian: Three Hundred Years of an Ecological Spirituality in the West,” in Fox, Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life, pp. 75-104.
See also: Fox, Passion For Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, pp, 417-439.
Banner Image: “Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Dove of the Holy Spirit (alabaster stained glass, Chair of Saint Peter, Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City), ca. 1660.” Wikimedia Commons
Queries for Contemplation
Is it your experience also that the Holy Spirit is the Great Transformer? When have you seen that at work in your life and your work?
Recommended Reading
Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart
Matthew Fox’s comprehensive translation of Meister Eckhart’s sermons is a meeting of true prophets across centuries, resulting in a spirituality for the new millennium. The holiness of creation, the divine life in each person and the divine power of our creativity, our call to do justice and practice compassion–these are among Eckhart’s themes, brilliantly interpreted and explained for today’s reader.
“The most important book on mysticism in 500 years.” — Madonna Kolbenschlag, author of Kissing Sleeping Beauty Goodbye.
3 thoughts on “The Mystics on Justice, the Holy Spirit, & Compassion”
Walking the talk of compassion and justice is not easy! However, based on my own personal experience, it has been the indwelling essence and presence of the Holy Spirit, that intuitively speaks to the heart of my conscience whom prompts, leads, guides and counsels me to do so. As well, the Holy Spirit also comforts and consoles me when I experience the pain and suffering inevitably involved when one chooses to respond in compassionate and just ways… somehow in some mysterious way transforming this into beauty. The image that arises, is that of Jeshua when he appears resurrected to the disciples in the upper room, revealing his wounds… that no longer bleed!
God’s Spirit of Love~Wisdom~Healing~Transformation~Compassion… has been growing in my faith life~spiritual journey to the grace of consciously realizing that this LIVING LOVING SPIRIT is ALWAYS SACRAMENTALLY PRESENT within OUR Unique Human Hearts~ETERNAL SOULS and among US in LOVING DIVERSE WHOLENESS~ONENESS… within OUR CO-CREATING~EVOLVING Sacred Mother Earth and COSMOS….
For those who yearn for something more, something deeper from their interaction with their faith and the Bible, there’s the clue hidden in plain sight, the mysticism boldly proclaimed in several key texts of both Old and New Testaments, a Truth that was originally celebrated in early Christianity, then later nearly forgotten in the West.
Spirit (God)-graced mystical revelation and mystical Path soul-work are a gift, a door that everyone has as a potential within them, which people can unlock to the extra layer or dimension of intuitions and universal mystical wisdom-teachings that were once so treasured.
Mysticism taps into the underground stream of subtle, complex, loving, wisdom-teaching Spirit guidance, culminating in its distinctive, treasured, sacred, supremely non-dualistic awareness. It’s a down-to-your core Truth, a gut-level, soul-immersing totality. It is ONE far beyond all One-ness, even radically beyond any “awareness-OF-ness” , a dissolving of both egoic and unitive perceptions, so different from all other types of consciousness that mystics just point TO it with inadequate words (and a lot of confusing poetry).
When you read the Gospel of John’s Prologue, or Eckhart, or Rumi, if their words speak to your heart, that is the call of the Spirit, offering its awakening to your yearning mystical soul. It’s up to YOU if you choose to listen.