"Honoring the Courage of Those Who Sacrifice and Follow Conscience"

The Creation Spirituality Lineage Calling All Social and Environmental Activists, Mystic Explorers, Justice Makers, Cosmic Thinkers, Earth Keepers   Daily Meditations with Matthew Fox  Watch for Matthew Fox's video meditation -- now appearing every Monday!   Be sure to catch Matthew's newest social media channel on Bluesky! Honoring the Courage of Those Who Sacrifice & Follow Conscience 2/15/2025 As the results of the election ripple out, learn the deeper stakes involved. Get your copy of Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election today! Choose your format in the book block below.  Three days ago, we honored the 20th anniversary of Sister Dorothy Stang’s martyrdom among the peasant farmers living in the rainforest, and committed to defending it against forces of greed that are trying to kill it in order to get rich quick by establishing cattle farms.   The peasants, when they buried Sister Dot, said “we are not burying you, we are planting you.” In other words, her love for them, the forest and justice, is growing fruit elsewhere.   In doing what she did and staying to do her work on behalf of the peasants and the rainforest, Sister Dot was imitating the courageous way of Jesus, who was called a “stern warrior” in the Scriptures and in the Liturgy. At Christmas, this text is used to speak of Christ: When peaceful silence lay over all,  And night had run the half of her swift course,  Down from the heavens, from the royal throne,  leapt your all-powerful Word:  Into the heart of a doomed land  the stern warrior leapt.  Warrior on horseback. Bronze statue at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Photo by Brett Wharton on Unsplash.  Such love and heroic sacrifice as Sister Dot’s takes spiritual warrior energy. As Aquinas says, we are to “brave great dangers for great things, for instance the common welfare, justice, divine worship, and so forth.” He frequently cited the prophet Jeremiah who said, “The Lord is with me like a brave warrior.”   Rabbi Heschel talks about “the urgency of justice,” and how “to do justice is what God demands of every person: it is the supreme commandment, and one that cannot be fulfilled vicariously.” To do justice takes inner strength or warrior/prophetic energy.   Poster at a Black Lives Matter protest in Nebraska, 2020. Photo by Kalea Morgan on Unsplash.   Buddhist nun Pema Chodrin calls mindfulness practitioners “spiritual warriors.” Buddhist Joanna Macy tells us that “great courage—moral and physical—is required of the Shambhala warriors who carry the weapons of compassion and insight.”   Yesterday, a long-time Republican and conservative and top federal prosecutor resigned, rather than comply with an order to dismiss corruption charges against New York City’s mayor. US Attorney Danielle Sasson, who once interned with conservative judge Anthony Scalia, was recently chosen by the Trump administration to lead the prosecution of New York Mayor Eric Adams.    When she was ordered by deputy attorney general Emil Bove to dismiss the case on Monday, she refused to do so, and gave up her job rather than comply. It took “lion energy” and spiritual warrior conscience to leave her post rather than submit to a command to cease pursuing the corruption charges. Good for Ms. Sasson!  Five other prosecutors followed Ms. Sasson’s courageous act of conscience and defiance, and also walked away from their jobs. It is good to see some courageous and conscience-driven lawyers stand up.  Manhattan U.S. attorney resigns after DOJ says to drop Adams case. Video by CBS New York. Would some congress people and senators would show the same commitment to conscience and to the greater good of our country, stand up and speak out against dangerous nominees for cabinet positions, for example. And risk losing their jobs while standing up for the common good.