Recently, it looks and feels as if some of the best honed skills and achievements of the human race are being trashed. We rightly sense that the word “evil” must be called back into our vocabulary to describe what we witness, even though we had good reasons to keep it at bay in the past (see DMs for October 12 and October 13).
These are indeed apocalyptic times, but I would argue that they are so in the most fundamental sense of the expression: a time in which horrible things that happen are carriers of unexpected revelations. If we don’t heed such revelations, the times are simply bad. If we pay attention and we connect the dots, we may learn something useful.
Last week, Judge Navi Pillay, a retired distinguished member of the International Criminal Court, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She is a South-African of Tamil descent who started her career defending Nelson Mandela. At 85 years of age, Pillay keeps her kindness and a shining humor. When the award was announced, she quipped that she might share the prize with Donald Trump if people did not stop clapping.
The POTUS yelled, screamed, and complained that the prize was stolen from him. He then instructed his henchmen to get back at the ICC with dramatic sanctions which could impede the continuation of the court’s work. In the meantime, Russia has asked that some members of ICC be extradited to Russia to serve a prison sentence which they received because they dared to accuse Putin of war crimes. Putin and Trump have also reached an agreement which effectively releases Russia from sanctions and gets cheaper oil to the USA and fresh cash to Russia, thus enabling Putin to spend more money for the military.
But, are we able to see that Trump brings to its extreme consequences a decision that all U.S. administrations have taken unwaveringly, that is, that the USA would never recognize the authority of the International Criminal Court? And that Trump’s blatant alliances for sheer convenience, disregarding previous agreements, is again perfectly in line with the behavior of previous U.S. administrations? The difference is that those in power in the past used to feel the need to mask, justify, and sugar-coat their behaviors. Thus, Trump to me is both clownesque and apocalyptic, not just evil.
Last week, after the botched execution of Christa Pike, it was announced that the execution of Nidal Hasan by means of a firing squad will be televised. The announcement raised fiery protests. Senator Chris Murphy called the plan disgusting and questioned whether Hegseth intends to mimic ISIS’ executions. Archbishop Coakley, who heads the Conference of Catholic Bishops in the USA, has called the decision barbaric. Walter Kim, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, specifically criticized the choice made — though not death penalty in itself.
But, are we able to see that Hegseth brings to its extreme consequences the conviction that the so-called death penalty is acceptable and even honorable for a society? Isn’t it hypocritical the shock of those who talk about how bad it is to televise a state-sponsored killing, but would allow it behind closed doors? To me, Hegseth is not just evil and clownesque. He is also apocalyptic like Trump.
To be clear, I do see that the Trump-turn is radical, yet I also see deep continuities. The promise of modern democracy, which first was expressed in the American Constitution, was a great step forward for humanity as a whole. Trump is not in any sense fulfilling that promise. But the American empire was never benign. No empire is. Trump is continuing its trajectory, leading it in the natural phase of its demise, which is extremely cruel as usually the last phase of any empire is.
Banner Image: Witnesses with eyes wide open. Collage by Elina Araja on Pexels.
Queries for Contemplation
What have these apocalyptic times taught you?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Trump and the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Time.
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society.
The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’ s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved.
Passion For Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart.
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet.
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality.
Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation.
14 thoughts on “Apocalyptic Times”
These apocalyptic times seem to be awakening a lot of people to the realization that personal transformation, including integration of personal shadow, is intimately related to social transformation with deeper awareness of ongoing societal/institutional shadows of historically destructive patriarchy (see David Nicol’s “Subtle Activism: The Inner Dimension of Social and Planetary Transformation) in Our human spiritual evolution with the Cosmos.
These times are revelatory, indeed, but when I tried to answer, “revelatory of what?” the only answer that came to my mind was the image of Pandora’s box empty of every hardship and illusion but one: Hope.
Thus I pondered the question: is Hope also a hardship and an illusion?
The answer came quickly in an unequivocal “yes” for at least two reasons, the first of which is the warning on the gates of Hell in Dante’s Commedia: “Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’intrate,” “Abandon any hope, you who enter here.” If we enter Hell, hope is useless.
The second reason is that a very similar warning could also mark the gates of Paradise: “Abandon any hope if you who wish to enter here.”
The industrial age was so focused on hope (hope for a golden age and a wonderland, hope to get rich, powerful, immortal, etc.) that it almost destroyed our capacity to live fully “here and now” in an eternal present. Yet, the Kingdom is here and now or the Kingdom is nowhere at all.
In six verses T. S. Eliot built a bridge between the two gates:
“I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.”
Erratum: I meant “Abandon any hope if you wish to enter here.”
Daniel, I live in hope of occasionally being allowed a second comment in these Daily Meditations. You, clearly, have opened this Pandora’s Box and found the forbidden key!
Hope not withstanding. In spite of living in apocalyptic times we are called, as the sacred cosmos incarnate, to do what we can; to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly wherever we are and with whomever and whatever we encounter.
My mantra since this evil administration took office comes from the Christmas Carol “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day.” A verse says “God is not dead nor does he sleep.”
This administration WILL answer for its evil. I pray that Trump recognizes all the harm he is doing. If he doesn’t, he will answer.
I will respond with William Butler Yeats’ prophetic poem, The Second Coming:
The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
On the other hand, the human race may have miles to go before we reach the doors of eternal life. If Teilhard de Chardin’s belief of evolution toward a state of divine fulfillment is true (matching John the Evangelist’s expectation that we shall be changed radically by knowing Christ because we shall be like him), then it follows that our present condition is not apocalyptic. (Unless we conceive of the “end times” as not in the future; then the meaning of the words “now” and “”final” are a matter of imagination or opinion). The current world scene is indeed terrifying, horrific and revelatory–to many. But to me, the human race is being offered the choice we were given millennia ago, life or death, good or evil, God’s way (in Christ) in humility and trust–or a meaningless existence. “Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” Dorothy Day said that the way to heaven is already heaven. Jesus said that he is the true Vine of divine life and we are the branches. Like Therese of Lisieux, it is for us to do our little work with great love (Christ), without whom we can do nothing.
I’m honestly not sure if the current state of affairs is “apocalyptic” when compared to the past several thousand years of human activity. I do think we are in a period of big changes. Old ways are being destroyed to be replaced by something new. We don’t yet have a clear vision of what the new paradigm will be, but we can clearly see the old stuff coming apart at the seams.
There certainly are people involved in the destruction of things who seem to embody evil. It would be nice if we could collectively manifest change without all the drama. But I just don’t think that’s how it works. We are complacent and comfortable and it takes a lot of energy to move us along.
We created this situation with our choices. All of us are complicit – and we need to make different choices to create a different reality.
I maintain that we will need to descend further into the darkness before we see the glimmers of light. I imagine that we are in a forest fire which will destroy most things in its path, but will eventually run out of fuel and subside. Fire is transformational. At that time, new green sprouts will emerge that couldn’t before. Seeds will germinate from the ashes and a new forest will emerge. We just need to hang on.
These times have shown me the huge number of people who are limitlessly selfish, hateful, cruel, and willfully ignorant towards people, animals, and the earth.
You make some excellent points and thank you. No, this is not new, but it is the extension of policies that have been part of our history. Yes there is outrage about a televised execution but you are right that this happened out of sight for years. And it calls into question our ignoring or not seeing the truth because it was hidden from us. Likewise police brutality is now out in the open. ICE, concentration camps too. I’d also bring in Animal abuse and the way animals are tortured for “scientific” purposes. There’s a growing movement to cut off the funding for these places. And the slaughterhouses where animals are killed for “food” isn’t present in the minds of those who consume animals . This is because they don’t SEE it up close. But once you have seen it with your own eyes in activists’ undercover work, then you have a choice to make: support this industry or not. I know why these places are far from most people. I often think if a truck carrying a hundred stressed out pigs rolled through our town people would be horrified. I’ve seen them and on highways seen trucks jammed with sick looking chickens going to slaughter
Many many groups advocate for animal liberation which I believe is intimately tied with human liberation.
Well said and so sad for the millions of naive citizens of USA who believed theirs to be a democracy, who believed themselves to be advanced and to be emulated, who believed they freely voted for betrayers of humankind.
What runs through my head is, who do I want to be? And, looking out at all – this is my body. It’s a lot to take in.
Since the beginning of this country there has always been a worm in the apple of democracy and now it has nearly finished its’ work.
We’ll see.