Week of 3/30-4/4/2026: No Kings, Mary the Mother, the Cross

& the Resurrection

4/05/2026

This is a summary of the previous week’s daily meditations. Some are written by Matthew Fox (MF) and some are written by his colleague, Gianluigi Gugliermetto. (GG)

March 30, 2026: Palm Sunday: Another March Mocking Emperors as Prophets Urge (MF)

On Saturday, we gathered by the millions for the third No Kings march. And on Sunday, we celebrated Palm Sunday, when Jesus and a celebratory crowd walk through the streets of Jerusalem.

Authors Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan interpret that procession this way: What we often call Jesus’s triumphal entry was actually an anti-imperial, anti-triumphal one, a deliberate lampoon of the conquering emperor entering a city on horseback through gates opened in abject submission.*

Seems similar to what’s happening today, doesn’t it? Many were the lampoons depicted in speeches and signs at yesterday’s marches aimed at a particular American emperor with no clothes.

A hand-painted protest sign by Matthew’s niece-in-law,

Lindsay Gordon, carried at the Chicago “No Kings” march.

Used with permission.

March 31, 2026: “Mothering Air”: A Poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins (MF)

David Abram wrote The Spell of the Sensuous.** a groundbreaker for Matthew more than 30 years ago. Matthew and he teamed up for a session last Tuesday called “The More-Than-Human World and the Recovery of Belonging.” It was part of Matthew’s course called “Visions for the Common Good.”

David shared a marvelous poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, which is deeply cosmic and which celebrates Mary. The poem begins this way: Wild air, world-mothering air,/Nestling me everywhere,/That each eyelash or hair/Girdles; goes home betwixt/The fleeciest, frailest-flixed/Snowflake….

April 1, 2026: Hopkins: “The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe,” Part II (MF)

Today we reflect on the second half of the poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins. The poem ends with “World—mothering air, air wild/wound with thee, in thee is led, Fold home, fast fold thy child.” Mary’s child is both Jesus and the rest of us, other Christs clearly. Mary is both mother and “my atmosphere.”

It is through her that we see Christ and his light better and clearer and less dim. Hopkins bathes the poem in a cosmic sense—his is a “Cosmic Mary,” who is part of the atmosphere and a “bath of blue and slake” and “blackness bound,” and “all the thick stars round him roll/Flashing like flecks of coal.” The air is “Wild air, world—mothering air, nestling me everywhere” carrying with it the mothering qualities of nearness and hominess and nestling.

Madonna della Lettera, situated on the high altar of the Mother Church of Palmi. Wikimedia Commons.

April 2, 2026: Why I Cannot Let Go of the Cross of Jesus (GG)

Matthew Fox has often warned about excessive focus on the suffering and death of Jesus while failing to honor his beautiful teachings. We indeed see many people in power who claim to be “Christian” and care absolutely nothing about what Jesus taught and yet claim that He is their savior.

Some have proposed letting go of the cross of Jesus and keeping his ethical teachings. But GG sees the writings of the New Testament as a profound elaboration of a tragic collective trauma. The early Christian community was not destroyed by the death of Jesus, but was almost born in it, by musing about it, as he was very much loved.

April 3, 2026: Humanity, Naked (GG)

Gianluigi offers us a meditation based on the profound video, “Have Mercy, My God.” It masterfully joins the music of Bach — a famous aria from the St. Matthew’s Passion sung by the unrivaled Magdalena Kozená — and images of humanity from the equally unrivaled filmmaker Andrei Tarkovski. Created by Simone Gomes, it is a moving experience for the eyes and ears, as well as the heart and soul.

BACH – “ERBARME DICH, MEIN GOTT” – MAGDALENA KOZENÁ – SAINT MATTHEW PASSION

BACH – “ERBARME DICH, MEIN GOTT” (Have Mercy, My God) – MAGDALENA KOZENÁ –

SAINT MATTHEW PASSION” by Simone Gomes Arte e Música.

April 4, 2026: Easter, 2026

Easter is many things to many people, as are Passover and the crucifixion (Good Friday). That is the power of religious belief when it is not hardened into iron-clad dogma, but is allowed to breathe. It speaks to us of universal longings, passions, and fears.

Archetypes are a universal language. The suffering signified by the cross is a profound archetype, for we all taste of suffering, evil, and injustice in our lives and in society.

The resurrection is also profound. It can be seen as an invitation to rise daily from sadness, weariness, despair, depression, or nihilism in this lifetime. The trinity of Existence/Destruction/Rebirth, or Life/Death/Resurrection, is a habit of our universe—all beings participate in it. That is the Easter Story of Resurrection and Rebirth.

* Borg, Marcus J. and Crossan, John Dominic: The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem (HarperOne, 2006)

** David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World (Vintage, 1997)

Banner image: “St. Mary Magdalene & the Risen Christ.” The icon is in St. Paul Church, Dayton, OH. The iconographer is Dmitry Shkolnik who now lives in San Francisco. Posted by Ted on Flickr.

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