We are all feeling the direness of our times, times of crazy and cruel and immoral wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan. Times of a crazy and vile war against our common Mother Earth who is reeling under the weight of climate change, while politicians sell their souls to fossil fuel companies and deny matricide is happening.
The war against democracy rages in many places around the world including the oldest democracy, America, where dark forces of lies, greed, hatred, resentment and vengeance are hell-bent on demolishing Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and civil rights laws fought and died for sixty years ago. Why? In order to make way for $4.5 trillion tax cuts for the richest 1% and their favored corporations.
The mystics call this a time of the “Dark Night of the Soul” which Rabbi Heschel changed to the “Dark Night of Society,” and I have further updated to the “Dark Night of our Species.”
It has been my privilege the last four weeks to share ways to navigate these times, in a program envisioned by Rev. Cameron Trimble called “From Darkness to Dawn: Spiritual Courage and Political Action in the Age of MAGA,” joined by Mirabai Star, Andrew Harvey, Bishop Yvette Flunder, and, come tomorrow, Father Adam Bucko.
Tomorrow Christians celebrate the Feast Day of the Annunciation. Artists through the centuries have thrown themselves into celebrating and remembering this Good News in their special paintings.
Whether you are a Christian, Buddhist, Jew, Muslim, humanist, or atheist, let us suspend belief about the literal message of the Annunciation and just hear the story: Around the year 5 CE, an angel came to a simple young Jewish woman whose people were under the strangling might of the Roman Empire, and told her that she was to bear a special child who would be blessed and bless others.
Let us not argue about whether this news is literally true or not. Let us just acknowledge that billions of human beings over 2000 years (around 1.5 billion alive today), some good and some very bad, have been enticed by this story. The story amazes and has appeal to anyone who would like to see evil be overcome, empires melt away, love displace hate, truth displace falsehood, hope overcome fear, and meaning banish despair and boredom.
In this time of moral and political and earth upheaval, let us stand up for what this story promises. That youth and womanhood and motherhood and generativity can participate in the miracle (what Einstein called “wonders”) of turning around darkness and despair.
“Existence is a miracle” said the poet Rilke. Of course it is. 13.8 billion years of the universe is a miracle, a wonder enticing to pursue more than ever today, with the help of science and the Webb Telescope announcing daily the good news of the beautiful cosmos, in which we have all been invited to participate.
Given today’s science, the Annunciation story tells us that about 250,000 years ago, the Maker of the universe birthed our species on Earth—and then had a crazy idea. To join us around 2000 years ago and to undergo what we undergo, all the love and beauty of this world, but also all the vicissitudes that lead to suffering and broken hearts. And all the challenges in standing up to powers of evil and choosing compassion and justice over injustice.
Why birth us and then join us? To share the divine joy.
A son of God inviting all humans to be sons and daughters of God. A wild story and still news, good news.
See Matthew Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality.
And Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer on Creation Spirituality.
See Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ.
And Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society.
And Fox, “Spiritual Warriorhood,” in Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths, pp. 404-422.
See also: Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ.
And Matthew Fox and Bishop Marc Andrus, Stations of the Cosmic Christ.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.
Banner Image: The Annunciation by Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-69) in the National Gallery of Art, London UK. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
How does meditating on the rich story of the Annunciation spark some hope in your own soul?
Recommended Reading
Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox renders Thomas Aquinas accessible by interviewing him and thus descholasticizing him. He also translated many of his works such as Biblical commentaries never before in English (or Italian or German of French). He gives Aquinas a forum so that he can be heard in our own time. He presents Thomas Aquinas entirely in his own words, but in a form designed to allow late 20th-century minds and hearts to hear him in a fresh way.
“The teaching of Aquinas comes through will a fullness and an insight that has never been present in English before and [with] a vital message for the world today.” ~ Fr. Bede Griffiths (Afterword).
Foreword by Rupert Sheldrake
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
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.
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics
One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths
Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
“This book is a classic.” Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth.
Stations of the Cosmic Christ
By Matthew Fox and Bishop Marc Andrus.
This is a book of meditations on the Cosmic Christ, accompanying the images of 16 wonderful clay tablets by Javier Ullrrich Lemus and M.C. Richards. Together, these images and meditations go far beyond the traditional Stations of the Cross to inspire a spirit awakening and understanding of the cosmic Christ Consciousness, Buddha consciousness, and consciousness of the image of God in all beings, so needed in our times.
“A divinely inspired book that must be read by every human being devoted to spiritual and global survival. It is cosmically brilliant.” — Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
7 thoughts on “Good News in the Midst of Evil News: The Feast of the Annunciation”
Excerpt from Today’s DM – “let us suspend belief about the literal message of the Annunciation.” “Let us not argue about whether this news is literally true or not. Let us just acknowledge … some good and some very bad, have been enticed by this story.”
Comment – “… literally true or not”. What is there not to believe? Are we Christians or not? We don’t and the world does not need more ‘stories’ that might give us only fleeting hope. In asking us to be ‘light of the world’, we are to be tolerant of other’s faith choices, but we don’t need to be ‘wishy-washy’ of our own faith. If we truly consider ‘the rock of our faith’ to be a firm foundation, we do not need to ‘soften it’ to pander to others that might be offended. They can still have their own faith or none at all. Do we believe in Christ and the Christmas story or in Happy Holidays. I usually book my ‘happy holidays’ in the good weather months and keep the Christ in Christmas. — BB.
Wonderful, Matthew. It leaves us speechless.
FAITH~HOPE~LOVE…
American biblical scholar Jane Schaberg published a book titled ‘The Illegitimacy of Jesus’ (Harper and Row, 1987), Her full exegesis of the Gospels of Luke and Matthew’s accounts of the Annunciation. Her shocking conclusion was ahead of its time. Schaberg gives more credence to the challenge faced by Joseph who became Jesus’ foster father. This month Canada honors Joseph of Nazareth. He is also the patron saint of Canada. It’s time for people to wake up to the challenges faced by Judea’s betrothed virgin daughters and their families under the Roman occupation.
Jane Dewar Schaberg was an American biblical scholar who served as Professor of Religious Studies and of Women’s Studies at the University of Detroit Mercy from 1977 through 2009.
Every announcement of new life should be celebrated, but first of all, every woman carrying such new life should be supported by the man who contributed his sperms, by society in general, especially a society who claims to be pro-life and calls itself Christian. There should be no judgment. Everyone should have health insurance and the basic necessities for life to provide the fetus the best foundation for physical and mental health. As far as the “angel” or “angels”, let’s be clear: this is a nice story but if any angels appear, it is going to be your mother, sister, friends, neighbors (if you are lucky) and hopefully the father of the child or other male “angels”. It is nice to tell stories and dream of angels, but we must realize that we have to do the work ourselves; relying on our faith in “angels” is not going to get it done, as has become so very obvious. Life is not a fairy tale. So let’s celebrate the real mothers and the human angels who are supporting them.
Not having been raised RC, there is not the same intense meaning in the story for me. I appreciate the art and look forward to seeing the new painting that Matthew will share tomorrow. I believe that joy and hope are part of every wanted birth. A dear retired pastor friend shared a little video of his son with his newborn daughter–she was maybe a day old at the most–and I look at it frequently to see the bonding of father and daughter in love, while mama shoots the scene. Contrary to popular belief, the baby was looking at and reacting to both parents as they spoke softly to her. There is the manifestation of love and hope in that little scene.
/Users/Alexbell/Desktop/henry ossawa tanner.jpg
The feast of the Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner. I first saw this painting at Bethany Retreat Center in Frenchville, PA and loved it!