Yesterday I invited you to meditate on this new painting of the annunciation by Javier Garcia Lemus, an artist from El Salvador who came to California since leaving home during the war that murdered Archbishop Romero in his homeland some 45 years ago.
Recently I interviewed him about his painting, which is 98% finished, and I share with you here some of his thoughts about it.
When I asked him what inspired or moved him to paint the annunciation, he said he wanted to paint it in homage to the Lady who saved his life when he was 16 years old. He was drowning in the sea after his father died in his arms of a heart attack while swimming. He sunk deeper and deeper into the water until it was all black. Knowing he was drowning, he prayed: “Mary help me!” and suddenly light appeared in the deep darkness in the shape of her silhouette and he rose—shot up in fact—out of the sea.
What are the three boxes? They represent the Trinity who were first and before her. “Flowers and water are in the boxes—creation–water and nature, earth, blessings are before us when we get up every day.”
The painting is a surrealistic statement on the Trinity and Mary. The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost and renewed the strength of the apostles and others who were at first confused and afraid after Jesus died.
The angel on the left bespeaks glory and is bending toward Mary. This signifies how, though the angels are superior to us, here we have an angel who is acknowledging her and smaller than her. Mary is coronated with a special crown of jewels. She is called after all, “the queen of angels.”
Fallen angels are afraid of Mary. The Rosary is depicted between the sky and heavens, a weapon for fighting off evil, a ladder to heaven. We call on Mary at the time of death.
The wings of the angel are similar to those of Fra Angelico’s annunciation.
On the left is the Holy Spirit and the grace of God pouring onto earth every day. The boxes are souls going to heaven. There is a hole in the sky depicting corruption and the sky has windows open for both the good and bad. Climate change is depicted with the lesson that rain can be both a blessing and a curse.
“Mary is young—all are young in heaven, the soul does not age.” She is neither young nor old, 28 or 30 years. She is very calm with a beautiful and peaceful face. “The best face I’ve ever painted.”
It is a large painting, two meters wide, very big. “I love it!! I hope to show it in church. It is sacred art.”
Javier recently approached a museum to show his art, but they rejected it for being “too religious.” He wanted to say, “you think like Trump.” But “I don’t care. I paint for the glory of God. Some one must paint it….It is very hard to be an artist in the US.”
As for the political emergencies we currently face? “There is no need to give up hope, it’s been worse than this in the past. We can change the vibrations of the earth” by the beauty we make.
See Matthew Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet.
And Fox, Passion For Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, p. 409. And the Via Creativa, pp. 293-416.
See also Fox, The Tao of Thomas Aquinas, pp. 53-56.
See also Fox, Sheer Joy: Conversations with Thomas Aquinas on Creation Spirituality, pp. 245-282.
And Fox, The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human.
See Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ, pp. 51-84.
Banner Image: “The Annunciation” by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1896. Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
How does the artist’s interview compare to your own meditation on his expression of the Day of the Annunciation? Does it offer additional insight? Do you re-energize yourself in difficult times by interaction with art and artists for their insights on matters?
Recommended Reading
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin
Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart
Matthew Fox’s comprehensive translation of Meister Eckhart’s sermons is a meeting of true prophets across centuries, resulting in a spirituality for the new millennium. The holiness of creation, the divine life in each person and the divine power of our creativity, our call to do justice and practice compassion–these are among Eckhart’s themes, brilliantly interpreted and explained for today’s reader.
“The most important book on mysticism in 500 years.” — Madonna Kolbenschlag, author of Kissing Sleeping Beauty Goodbye.
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
A stunning spiritual handbook drawn from the substantive teachings of Aquinas’ mystical/prophetic genius, offering a sublime roadmap for spirituality and action.
Foreword by Ilia Delio.
“What a wonderful book! Only Matt Fox could bring to life the wisdom and brilliance of Aquinas with so much creativity. The Tao of Thomas Aquinas is a masterpiece.”
–Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
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
The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human
The A.W.E. Project reminds us that awe is the appropriate response to the unfathomable wonder that is creation… A.W.E. is also the acronym for Fox’s proposed style of learning – an approach to balance the three R’s. This approach to learning, eldering, and mentoring is intelligent enough to honor the teachings of the Ancestors, to nurture Wisdom in addition to imparting knowledge, and to Educate through Fox’s 10 C’s. The 10 C’s are the core of the A.W.E. philosophy and process of education, and include: compassion, contemplation, and creativity. The A.W.E. Project does for the vast subject of “learning” what Fox’s Reinvention of Work did for vocation and Original Blessing did for theology. Included in the book is a dvd of the 10 C’s put to 10 video raps created and performed by Professor Pitt.
“An awe-based vision of educational renewal.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
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.
8 thoughts on “The Annunciation: One Artist’s Take on the Times We Live In”
“Fear Not”
When we give up ‘fear’ we are then able to walk on water unremarkably. At the end of the day, what will ‘the powers’ do, enter the code and vaporize us all? Then who will they be able to ‘kick about’? Fear not, as we are more than vapour and more than we know and can see. While not all may be fun, it is beauty, love and healing can spring forth from our pain.
Growing pains are not to stop when adolescence ceases. They are part and parcel of the journey, a journey that most would like to avoid though. Adolescence is to be our working model for growth and change, one that we should remember and hold onto. There were never any real promises that adulthood would be much different, but we believed that ‘coming of age’ was to change all of that. Not so, as we continue to find out, so it is best to break that mold of a perfect and fitting world. Not to be discouraged though. We are ‘not of the world’ and Christ consciousness and the Cross we carry and bear and that pains us, takes us to the place that we belong. Fear not. — BB.
Postscript – “Mary ‘pray for us now’ and ….”. These are the powerful and living words we appear to gloss over. ‘Now’ more so then after ‘now’.
Javier’s art is very compelling. Thank you for sharing the interview. The dove in Mary’s hand seems central. It reminds me of a dove dream I had long ago and our Canadian minstrel/poet, Leonard Cohen’s song:
ANTHEM:
The birds they sang at the break of day
“Start again”, I heard them say:
Don’t dwell on what has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah, the wars they will be fought again,
the holy dove, she will be caught again,
bought and sold and bought again
the dove is never free.
We asked for signs, the signs were sent
the birth betrayed, the marriage spent,
Yeah, the widowhood of every government
signs for all to see.
I can’t run no more with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places say their prayers out loud,
but they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up a thundercloud
and they’re going to hear from me.
You can add up the parts, you won’t have the sum,
you can strike up the march, there is no drum,
Every heart, every heart to love will come
but like a refugee.
Ring the bells that still can ring,
forget your perfect offering,
there is a crack, a crack in everything
that’s how the light gets in.
That’s how the light gets in,
that’s how the light gets in.
Beautifully put! Thanks for sharing Leonard Cohen ‘s compelling song.
Amen Sister!
Thank you! I think that Leonard was a prophet, and his work is timeless. This is one of my favorites of his because the last stanza is one of hope.
Matthew & DM team: thank you for the beautiful meditations on the Annunciation, the different artist portrayals, and their eternal spiritual symbols for our challenging modern times!
Oh yes, artists do energize us in difficult times. Like others, through my own art, I slip subversive ideas into society, hoping to steer it in a more just, more positive direction. We can each create subversive art whether it is growing a garden in the inner city, writing pieces like Anne Lamott has in today’s Washington Post, painting an evocative Madonna the way Javier Garcia Lemus is doing (and Signorelli did in the cathedral in Orvieto so many centuries ago), writing poetry the way Leonard Cohen does, or writing a play. Art can change things. Artists think outside the box, and they cannot be hoodwinked or easily controlled. That’s why fascist regimes suppress them. Hallelujah! We/They are still creating!
HOPE from History Compressed
The Gospel of Luke describes Mary receiving the news that Christ would be with us all.
The struggle of Judaism at the time was against Rome. It was hopeless, but Mary on her visitation to her cousin said,”…for the Mighty One has done great things for us – holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. [Luke 1:46-50]
We have hope. Let us speak out against Trump and his minions.