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 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.
