Meditating upon prayer and the four paths, I realize that in our historical moment it is especially the via negativa that must be made present to everybody’s consciousness. It is terribly offensive to see people dancing and having fun in TV commercials while an entire people is scheduled to be deported — or exterminated if they don’t accept deportation.
It is tragically ironic that in the biblical book of Esther we read the same identical story: the powerful decided a date by which all Jews must be gone from the Persian empire, or else they would be slaughtered (Esther 3:7). Queen Esther then immediately started fasting and foregoing all pleasures. This must be seen as an expression of awareness, a refusal to pretend that nothing is happening — even though she would not be affected personally by the impending events (Esther 4:16-17).
Substitute the word “Jews” in the previous paragraph with the word “Palestinians” and you get both what we are living through right now and what prayer in the via negativa means at the present time.
The story continues with Esther taking the situation in her own hands and risking her life by interfering with the king’s decision of expulsion/extermination. By a mix of skillful diplomacy and sheer luck, she is pivotal in reversing the situation and saving all the Jews (Esther 5-8).
This is a clear expression of via creativa — her daring skillfulness — which results in a via transformativa action, i.e. a positive result of social change.
But Queen Esther can obtain what she does largely because she is an insider/outsider. She is part of the ruling class, and yet she also belongs to the oppressed people. She is in the position to forget the last part, yet she places herself in deep solidarity with those who suffer. I wonder if there is anybody today who can play such a part on the global stage. Is it, perhaps, the huge crowd of Israelis who have taken the streets in the last few days?
Empathy cannot just be words or mere feelings. The via negativa prayer practices are very important because they help us to get out of our stiffened mental schemes and experience what others are experiencing in naked, unfiltered reality. Fasting, imaginative meditations, deep listening to first-hand witnesses, wailing in community… at least some of these things seem to me unavoidable at this time as they help us involve all of our being.
But sorrow can swallow us up and thus become another trap at the service of the empire. Even more is required of us. Our via negativa practices must be followed by some via creativa efforts — just as Esther employed all her skills and powers, showing the heart of a lioness. Show up to a protest! Or do whatever you can do.
Our via negativa practices must also be preceded by some via positiva exercises. At the beginning of this meditation I expressed my disgust at watching commercials with people at ease which feel like scorn (see Psalm 123:4). But now I also say that unless our bodies are well-fed, they cannot afford a fasting; unless our minds are pleased by beauty, they cannot afford to hear stories of utter misery; unless our spirits are lifted up high, they cannot afford to descend to hell.
The lion’s courage which Matthew has been invoking in his DMs must both precede and follow our prayer exercises in the via negativa.
Personally — as the decree of utter misery on Palestinians has been signed by those evil people in Tel Aviv — I need the courage of a lion to wake up, do my physical exercises, remember to eat good food, and enjoy my walks.
As Matthew reminded us recently (see DM August 12) all prophets, all spiritual warriors, need to take care of themselves. This is the via positiva root of our spirituality that we should never forget, and yet is only the beginning of the whole path.
See Matthew Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
And Fox, Tao of Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
And Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
See also Fox and Adam Bucko, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Banner Image: “The wrath of Ahasuerus”: painting by Jan Steen, circa 1668 – 1670. Picryl.
Queries for Contemplation
Do I apply the four paths to my everyday spiritual adventure? How?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.
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
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
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin
Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Authors Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox encourage us to use our talents in service of compassion and justice and to move beyond our broken systems–economic, political, educational, and religious–discovering a spirituality that not only helps us to get along, but also encourages us to reevaluate our traditions, transforming them and in the process building a more sacred and just world. Incorporating the words of young activist leaders culled from interviews and surveys, the book provides a framework that is deliberately interfaith and speaks to our profound yearning for a life with spiritual purpose and for a better world.
“Occupy Spirituality is a powerful, inspiring, and vital call to embodied awareness and enlightened actions.”
~~ Julia Butterfly Hill, environmental activist and author of The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods
7 thoughts on “Praying with Queen Esther”
Well yes and… Thank you for this and I’m so happy you talked of the story of Esther. I’ve studied it (and written about this Book) for decades now.
What’s also important, I think, is to point out that Esther DOESN’T immediately fast and pray! She tells Mordecai that she can’t help with the planned holocaust. She says she has no power; that the king has not called her to him in 30 days. This is incredibly significant as they have been married five years with no children.
Mordecai replies that if she doesn’t act, deliverance will come from another direction – and that is HUGE faith – but that ‘maybe thou art come into the Kingdom for such a time as this.’ He’s telling her that this is her destiny. In Jewish mysticism, the word ‘Malkhut’ means ‘kingdom’ – the Kingdom of Heaven; a place in our psyches called ‘Tiferet’ which means both truth and beauty.
Only then does Esther tell Mordecai to ask the Hebrews to pray and to fast for her as she takes three days (the time of resurrection) to come into the Kingdom. Then, and only then, does she walk to the hall where the King will choose either to see her or have her killed.
You are – of course! – absolutely right with the four paths interpretation and, again, it’s lovely to have the story brought into public domain again. Thank you.
Maintaining the via negativa and the via positiva at the same time to me is holding a container of witnessing the reality of suffering, injustices, war, death, ecocide, sadness, grieving… , and maintaining Faith/Hope/Love/Compassion in my heart and prayers/voices for suffering Humanity as We love and support one another and Our community/world leaders with God’s and the subtle spiritual realms/beings’ Spirit of Divine Love, Truth, Peace, Justice, Healing, Forgiveness, Strength, Transformation, Creativity, Beauty, Joy, Compassion, LOVING DIVERSE ONENESS… each of Us in our unique way and together…. God’s Co-Loving and Co-Creative Divine Spirit within, through, and among Us Is the via creativa and via transformativa in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT… COMPASSIONATE COSMIC CHRIST/BUDDHA CONSCIOUSNESS….
Thank you for today’s DM, but. . . I personally find it very difficult to draw moral guidance from a biblical story featuring a tyrannical monarch, personal misrepresentation, sleeping one’s way to the top, impalement, and other such “unsavory” features that hardly lend themselves to uplifting metaphorical interpretations. I might not even reconsider if some cunning Ukrainian or Palestinian Mordecai, while eavesdropping on Putin or Netanyahu’s entourage (or Trump’s, for that matter!), succeeded in giving away a modern Hadassah to sweet talk them away from their nefarious plans. When the end justifies the means, Machiavelli is king and humanity is lost. Grief, outrage, the Story of the Hummingbird and “Thy will be done” have, so far, been my only coping mechanism in the face of the raging pandemic of Evil. Reading Viktor Frankl is also very helpful… and, of course, attending nature’s nursery school.
Yes, but don’t we still live in a world full with “tyrannical monarch(s), personal misrepresentation, sleeping one’s way to the top, impalement(s)” etc. etc.? I also don’t find these stories “inspiring” in the sense of uplifting. Not at all. Actually, it’s quite depressing to acknowledge that human societies have NOT progressed in the last several thousand years in almost any sense except in technology. And I agree that biblical stories, for the most part, display coping mechanisms rather than real solutions. But (to me) that helps in several ways: (1) getting down to earth, away from any idealistic dream; (2) accept that in the great majority of cases I cannot be “moral” in the absolute sense of the world, but I need to be smart and creative within the given context.
Gianluigi, I have similar feelings. I offer this poem, which I wrote about five years ago. May we all keep one another in our prayers. And may the vias positiva, creativa, and transformativa be our refuge.
The pain of this world has worn me out this morning
I need a nap
I need to forget that babies are being torn from mother’s arms at the border
I need to forget that an anarchist
presuming himself to be king sits in the Oval Office
And the lies keep coming
I need to forget about the melting ice sheets
And the Rohinga huddled together in great masses
with scarce food and water and reason to live
And of 22% of my own country’s children
who go to sleep food insecure every night
I need to forget that our children are afraid to go to school
for fear of being massacred (thank God it’s summer)
And I don’t want to remember all the other things I also want to forget
I need a nap, and it isn’t yet noon
Ah, but a hawk just landed on my garden fence
In its world too the strong eat the weak
Even so, in its world
Unlike in my country
There’s something natural about that
Art of all sorts is a wonderful resource for lifting my spirits and giving perspective. Thank you, MIchele, for the beautiful and moving poem. In a similar vein, Jack Gilbert warns in “A Brief for the Defense”—-“To make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.” https://poetrysociety.org/poems/a-brief-for-the-defense
I intentionally seek inspiration from nature, art, contemplative practices, spiritual leaders, and all the resources like this DM and CAC DM’s and podcasts. It is also good to remember that as horrid and satanic the situation in Gaza is, there are plenty of other examples like the Sudan and anywhere that war is going on. War always and everywhere is hell.
I don’t usually leave comments on websites, but I really value and look forward to Gianluigi’s always poignant and thoughtful writings. Somehow your vulnerable open-ended language and sincerity without being preachy speaks to my soul. I believe, as a trauma-survivor, a fortunate and many times blessed individual, and a deep-diving artist and art therapist, I go through at least the first three Vias every day, whether I am aware of it or not. The Via Transformativa… well, that is in the hands of the Beloved, who keeps calling me, calling me… to stretch beyond my self-imposed limits. I’m very grateful for all the work done to keep Matthew Fox’s vision and work alive.