Christmas 2024: Jesus’ Prayer Sustaining Stern Warriors

The reading from the Book of Wisdom for Christmas Midnight Mass speaks of the arrival of Christ as the arrival of a “stern warrior” who leapt into a “doomed land.”

There are those today who look at the suffering of Mother Earth and the ongoing matricide and the denial of (some) politicians and are feeling genuine doom.  And the ongoing oligarchal onslaught against democracy and have similar feelings.  That doom is on the horizon and that extinction is a very real possibility in our time.

Theologian Brian D. McLaren has written a solid book about that feeling entitled Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart.  He begins the book informing the reader that the book is not for everybody and that if one’s sense of doom is too great, it would be best not to read his book.  That too much preoccupation with doom can be unhealthy.

Let us contextualize “doom” in the story the Wisdom scriptures and  Christian ritual are speaking of: “Into the heart of a doomed land the stern warrior leapt….He touched the sky, yet trod the earth.”

It speaks of a stern warrior who “touched the sky, yet trod the earth,” one who brings heaven and earth together, cosmos and psyche, Father Sky and Mother Earth, vastness and the local, cosmology and ecology.  As Thomas Berry puts it, “ecology is functional cosmology.”

We praise the cosmos and its 13.8-billion-year journey that has birthed our galaxy and the supernova that birthed our solar system and the sun and moon and waters and soil that make our life possible on this earth.  Jesus taught us to pray to “Our Father who art in heaven…thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Neil Douglas Klotz translates Jesus’ words above from his original Aramaic language in varied ways:

O Birther!  Father-Mother of the Cosmos,
you create all that moves
in light…

Create your reign of unity now—
through our fiery hearts
and willing hands.

Other translations follow:

Let your counsel rule our lives,
clearing our intention
for co-creation.

Unite our ‘I can’ to yours, so that
we walk as kings and queens
with every creature.

Desire with and through us
the rule of universal fruitfulness
onto the earth.

Your rule springs into existence
As our arms reach out to
embrace all creation.

Come into the bedroom of our hearts,
prepare us for the marriage of
power and beauty.

From this divine union, let us birth
new images for a new world
of peace.

Create your reign of unity now!
Your one desire then acts with ours,
as in all light, so in
all forms.

Let all wills move together
In your vortex, as stars and planets
swirl through the sky.

Help us love beyond our ideals
and sprout acts of compassion
for all creatures.

As we find your love in ours,
let heaven and nature form a new creation.

Unite the crowd within
in a vision of passionate purpose:
light mates with form.

Create in me a divine cooperation—
from many selves, one voice,
one action.

Let your heart’s fervent desire
unite heaven and earth
through our harmony.

Your one desire then acts with ours,
as in all light, so in
all forms.*

We have here, it seems to me, a warrior’s prayer, that can strengthen us all for the struggles ahead.  And it begins with uniting the powers of Father Sky to the grateful inhabitants and lovers and warriors of Mother Earth.

*See Neil Douglas Klotz, Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus, pp. 12, 19, 22.

See also: Matthew Fox, “Spiritual Warriorhood” in Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faith Traditions, pp. 404-423.

And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality, pp. 250-306.

And Fox, Passion For Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, pp. 417-440, 464-477..

Fox, “Spiritual Warriors,” in Fox, The Hidden Spirituality of Men, pp. 77-104.

Also see Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ.

Banner Image: “Governments and Corporations Declare War on the Planet and Humanity.” Climate activists set up a blockade in a Lisbon, Portugal square, 11/23/2024, before a 300-person march titled “Stopping While We Can.” Photo by Lua Eva Blue on Flickr.

Queries for Contemplation

Do you see the Christmas story as a reminder of your vocation as a “mystic in action” or warrior or prophet?  And does the fuller meaning of the “Our Father” prayer as translated from Jesus’ original language sustain you in that work?

Recommended Reading

One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths

Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit

Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality

Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story

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.  

The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to Awaken the Sacred Masculine

To awaken what Fox calls “the sacred masculine,” he unearths ten metaphors, or archetypes, ranging from the Green Man, an ancient pagan symbol of our fundamental relationship with nature,  to the Spiritual Warrior….These timeless archetypes can inspire men to pursue their higher calling to connect to their deepest selves and to reinvent the world.
“Every man on this planet should read this book — not to mention every woman who wants to understand the struggles, often unconscious, that shape the men they know.” — Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of The Left Hand of God

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.