In remembering the many dimensions of the Christmas stories as we have been doing in our recent DMs, I have praised the artist M.C. Richards and other artists.
On Christmas morning, I attended Mass in my local Episcopal church and was blessed to hear a very solid sermon on the reading of John 1 which was the gospel for the day. The same gospel that featured in my Christmas morning DM. The priest was Arthur Holden, a former dean at the Episcopal Divinity School at GTU in Berkeley, and he told a story of being invited when he was 15 years old into a special dancing class (he did not consider himself a good dancer) that was about John 1. The words were read and a musician put them to music, to which the teenagers danced.
The part that hit me the most was that he told how the process of dancing to John 1 struck him very deeply, and has stayed with him to this day—with special attention to how “the Word was rejected,” where he was allowed to improvise on the floor and thrash around in anguish.
I congratulated him on the sermon and said it was a masterful argument for art as meditation. Here, as a mature retired and re-fired man, he still remembers, vividly so, that telling of the gospel story of John 1 by way of music and dance.
Art is the organic way to learn and share important stories. Act them out. Embody them. Paint them. Put them to writing—yes, to speaking and sermons too. This is what art does, as M. C. Richards says, “all art is bodily.” Incarnational. Fleshy. And that makes it easier to remember than say, dogmas and doctrines.
Another artist with whom I have worked is Salvadoran artist Ullrrich Javier Lemus, now a US citizen. I teamed him up with M.C. Richards and her seven “I Am” plaques that she created years ago in our book, Stations of the Cosmic Christ. Seven of these stations are M.C.’s, and nine are from Javier, of which one is the “Nativity.” We reproduce it in this DM.
This is what Javier says about his sculpture piece (which he “fired” in an oven ,since he did not have access to a kiln as such when he made it): In the Nativity, I put the mother with the child, presenting her with a blessed face—she is happy, and she is tender, pleased with the fetus that starts forming in her womb. The shape of the head is like the umbilical cord, which is connected of course with the fetus. In the back are the lines, which represent explosion of life coming to be in the universe. Blood flows and life is passed on.
On the left side is a curve to present the curve of life itself. Life never goes in one way; it always goes in different directions. The colors are pastel stone, brownish, and this mother—any mother—is happy at giving birth. The fetus might be seen as infinity, in which case the mother is a Cosmic Mother, a Cosmic Mary, mother of the universe.
There is an emphasis on the umbilical cord, which is a marvelous metaphor for interdependence. The whole universe is interdependent. Also, the face is a very indigenous face, a very ancient woman there from an ancient tribe. It’s an indigenous profile—she looks like she could be American Indian, or an Indian from South or Central America or Mexico.
Putting the heart inside the head also tells an important story. To me, that means Wisdom as opposed to raw knowledge. With Wisdom, heart and head unite. And Wisdom is part of what the divine Feminine gives birth to. This woman is very down to earth.
We are all mothers of God, birthers of the Cosmic Christ in ourselves and hopefully in our work and citizenship. Christmas is our birthday also, a “second coming” of the Christ.
Banner Image: “Love Came Down At Christmas.” Image by Gerd Altman on Pixabay.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you celebrate Christmas as your own rebirth as well as that of Jesus’ birth? Do you recognize your adult vocations as a “second coming” of the Christ?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance.
Stations of the Cosmic Christ, pp. 64-69.
“Sermons 23, 24: ‘We are Children of God and Mothers of God’; ‘We are Other Christs’” in Matthew Fox, Passion For Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart, pp. 325-353.
“Deep Ecumenism, Ecojustice, and Art as Meditation,” in Fox, Wrestling with the Prophets, pp. 199-214.
Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human.
Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality.
The Return of Father Sky: A Cosmic Mystery for Kids of All Ages.
The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood for Our Times.
4 thoughts on “More Artists on the Christmas Archetype”
Thank you Matthew for reminding us of the deeper and more personal/communal spiritual meaning of Christmas, the ongoing spiritual rebirth and growth of the universal, LOVING Creative COSMIC CHRIST PRESENT uniquely within and among Our DIVERSE LOVING ONENESS daily and eternally with All spiritual beings/dimensions of Our Sacred Living and Evolving CO-CREATION COSMOS….
Javier’s description of his plaque is beautiful and brings to life what he has created out of clay. Jazelle’s dance is also beautiful. Until I watched the video, I couldn’t imagine what dancing lines from scripture might be like. She certainly does! And it makes visible and concrete what it might feel like to have God’s spirit poured out upon us. Ah…the arts. They are indeed one of the ways in which we experience the presence of God and understand God’s messages to us. I’ve never thought of seeing Christmas as a way to experience my own rebirth. I do contemplate on Meister Eckhart’s statement (to paraphrase): What good is it for me to celebrate the birth of Christ if I don’t birth him in my own heart in my own time. They do go together, don’t they. Next Christmas I would like to remember your words and feel Christ rebirthing in me as I celebrate the season. I wonder how that would appear in a play. 🙂
Christianity characterized by creativity. That would change EVERYTHING!
Hi, Matthew. I was very touched by your sharing in this video. You have stirred something in me. I viewed it together with my husband yesterday and was very pleased that we both found it rich and inspiring. I feel compelled to watch it over and take notes to understand what it stirred within me. A question and an observation: Question: You referred to your book on Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works regarding her exegesis of John 1 and sharing her sentiments that all being is an expression of the word of God or Logos. Would you please tell me the page that it’s on as I would like to read it in my own book, thank you. Observation: You mentioned the birth of Christ could also be considered the birthing of all of us as we become other Christs. My immediate thought was that rather than becoming other Christs, we were all perhaps becoming one with the Christ Consciousness within. Maybe that is just another way to say what you said. Might that be close to the mark also? Thank you for considering these thoughts. I give thanks to Creator for the opportunity to witness you in the world as a precious modern-day Mystic and Prophet yourself, as the Mystic within me experiences the intensity, immensity and intimacy with the Divine through the vehicle of your precious self and your sharing. Thank you for being faithful to Creator’s calling and lifting us up and inspiring our hearts once again 🙂 .