Disobedience

By Igor Sibaldi

Everything can change, if only we learn not to give up.
A new Annunciation: an Archangel, quite different from the one tradition has accustomed us to, visits that inner and simple part of each of us that ancient theologians indicated as Mary, “the mother of God”. The Archangel explains, shows, proposes and awaits an answer. His speech is very clear.
“Everywhere you look, there’s something missing, something that would make the world seem like a good place to live a long life. You can only see things that you already know, or that you don’t care about. And the majority of things you already know threaten your identity, and determine a situation of oppression…”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anima Edizioni
• Release date: Aug 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9788863654349

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Note

DEDICATION

Dear Marys of Nazareth, I am addressing you directly, or at least that’s what I am hoping to do: it’s not easy to catch your attention – your authentic, ancient attention – through the multitude of looks you have taken on in your society, in your everyday life.

Undoubtedly, in the 21 st Century you show yourselves to others and to your own selves as people who attach great importance to their jobs: either because you work a lot of hours a day in nearly every week of the year, or because you are looking for an employment. You learnt to drive a car that you like, or that you don’t like, or that you don’t ask yourselves whether you like it or not; you watch TV, go to the supermarkets and pharmacies, read and write stuff on the Internet, go to the gym, or think you need to go – and take for granted that Mary of Nazareth was a famous woman, who lived twenty centuries ago. What I hold to be true, instead, is that that girl, so problematic for everybody, is inside you: she’s waiting there, and I would like you to realise that.

There’s no need to be so surprised. It’s common knowledge: as many other characters in the Holy Scriptures, Mary too was imagined with the aim of representing certain potentialities – more or less sublime – that can be found in everyone. And if those Scriptures are defined as ‘holy’ – that is to say, endowed with a particular power – it’s because several generations of readers have realised that just a little courage and clarity of mind is needed to recognise each one of those characters as a mirror.

Or maybe you still don’t know that it’s common knowledge? No one has ever told you? Oh, I am sorry: it’s clear that you hang out too much with authoritative people for whom concealing it was very convenient. By telling it to you, they would have given you too much dignity; and no hierarchy, be this religious or governmental, likes the idea of their subjects knowing they are quite worthy. There is an old proverb that says: ‘Don’t let the farmer be aware of how good cheese is with pears’ – otherwise he will never sell them again for cheap. And, if you knew you also were Mary of Nazareth, you would never sell yourself.

Or, looking at it more optimistically, let’s suppose they have been keeping this fact hidden to spare you a sense of responsibility: knowing you are the mother of someone who will change the world is no small thing for your nervous system! And those authorities reckoned that you wanted to be normal people, an obedient and devout mass, and that the Scriptures’ enigmas would hinder this intention of yours. However, throughout the centuries, there are moments when tackling certain internal circumstances is necessary: this is one such a time. Whether you want it or not, each one of you is carrying within herself a big future, much bigger than what seemed important just a little time ago. Exactly what happened to Mary.

The best demonstration of this – the simplest and most immediate – is that sense of desperate, general boredom that many of your contemporaries try to ignore: everywhere you look, there’s something missing, something that would make the world seem like a good place to live a long life. You can only see things that you already know, or that you don’t care about, and the majority of