We have been meditating on Leonard Cohen’s and then Ernest Becker’s understandings of holiness or saintliness. Why? Because evil is so present in our news every day that we have to entertain its opposite, that is, news of the holy.
We hear daily of the “Epstein files” and how he and other uber-rich and uber-powerful people constituted a ring of pedophiles abusing girls as young as nine years old and getting away with it for decades. They are still being protected by the current DOJ and White House, and many in Congress who refuse to speak up.
We see with our own eyes live on television the invasion of American cities by ICE, which is paid for by our government and is now richer than the FBI, thanks to a Republican Congress serving as lap dogs to a vengeful president.
We hear a president of the United States showing a black president and first lady pictured as apes and refusing to apologize for it. Racism on the march.
We witness the obliteration of the EPA and efforts to obliterate safeguards for defending our endangered and sacred Mother Earth.
And so much more.
Saints—and this is meant to be all of us—are those who have a conscience and are not afraid to speak up and walk their talk about values that matter. Even if this means paying a price such as losing one’s job. People for whom justice and compassion and caring for others actually matter.
We see such courage and holiness playing out in the streets of Minneapolis these days by ordinary citizens, at least two of whom have been murdered and martyred by ICE, which is our government at work.
Saints act on their moral outrage. They find solidarity and community with others who have not totally abandoned their consciences.
On living 85 years, I am convinced that today the number one sign of holiness is courage. One cannot be the mystic—that is, the lover—that we are all called to be without courage.
And we cannot be the prophet—that is, the one who interferes with injustice (Heschel’s definition)—without courage.
Courage means “big heart” in French. Our hearts are rendered large by the Via Positiva, the love of life and existence that we imbibe. “Joy expands the heart,” says Thomas Aquinas.
Suffering also expands the heart. As Buddhist scholar and activist Joanna Macy used to say, “when your heart breaks, the whole universe can pour through.” So too do contemplation and meditation expand the heart.
The Via Positiva and Negativa together render us big-hearted and generous and courageous and holy. Each of us is invited to the table of the Via Positiva and Via Negativa every day of our lives.
Our meditation in yesterday’s DM with Ernest Becker about sainthood ended with his warning about “large-scale social lies” in our culture. What to do about such large-scale social lies?
One way to confront the lies is to name them, and that is the journalist’s task. And to recognize how damaging it is to a democracy if lies go on unchallenged. After all, Satan is called “the father of lies” for a reason.
There are other ways to go about challenging lies, also. That is through laughing at the people and agendas peddling them. In Europe, it turns out, people are using satire to laugh at the false gods and carriers of lies dominating America and its MAGA presidential cult these days.
We will consider this in tomorrow’s DM.
Banner Image: An anti-ICE rally organized by Seattle-area educational unions, joined by health care and tech worker unions, February 2026. Photo by Michael Hanscom on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
How do you expand your heart and thus develop your courage? How do you stand up to evil with truth-telling and truth-acting? How do you practice the Via Positiva and Via Negativa?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society (2016), pp. xxxviii-xli
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
Hildegard of Bingen, A Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
he Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
Julian of Norwich: Wisdom in a Time of Pandemic—and Beyond
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
5 thoughts on “Why Meditate on Sainthood in a Time of ICE, Epstein Files, & the Rest?”
On my spiritual journey, I rely on my Faith in God’s Spirit of Love-Wisdom-Truth-Peace-Justice-
Healing-Transformation-Creativity-Beauty-Joy-Compassion-Loving Diverse Oneness… Present with-in and among Us in the Sacred Process/Flow of the Eternal Present Moment…
Thank you Matthew and DM team for today’s great DM in the Spirit of God’s Love-Truth-Peace-Justice… related to our current challenging times!
Thank you, Matthew, for encouraging us to remain courageous in the face of the evil we see. Several of us have served as peacekeepers at pro-democracy rallies for several years, but the last rally was the first time I had a six-foot man yelling at me a foot from my face. I stayed quiet, held my ground, and encouraged those behind me to do the same. Eventually, he left. The alternative to this kind of action is a world I don’t want my granddaughters to live in. Our courage and that of others has encouraged my brother Mike McFadden to engage too. Back in October, he was inspired to write a song called “Here Come the Brownshirts.” It took him several months, but a week ago he gathered the courage to record it and put into cyberspace. Spirit spoke to him, and he has done exactly what a prophet does: see the evil, truth-tell, and put what he sees out into the public square. In the spirit of the Via Negativa and Via Transformativa, I offer his song here; the words are in the comments. Feel free to share it. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JDbiRUXjrcw
Thank you and thank Mike for the song. We must each act in some way in courage and hope to tell the truth.
Kudos and thanks to your brother, Michele. And to you too. Let us lead with creativity and courage and, as he says, not do nothing.
How do you know when he is lying? His lips move.