I have prevailed upon my good friend and persona Brother Jeremiah of the Divine Order of the Buile Shuibhne* to write the occasional letter on spiritual subjects. I have never seen him so moved and in a way that is uncharacteristic of the gentle monastic. Yet, I have promised not to edit him and if this is the letter he wants me to print then I will do so. I have only written some brief footnotes. Be warned, though, he does generate some heat. —-JM
Yeshua: In the desert of my soul I sought power and found the Father, in the wilderness of my heart I sought wisdom and found the Mother, and when I had them both, they brought forth the Son, the Divine Child, all-embracing, universal Love….
Pilatus: And this love, does it extend even to one who would take your life, to Kiapha? Does it extend even to Rome, to Caesar?
Yeshua: It could not be otherwise and still be Love.
The above exchange from “Hegemon,” a play by Jeremy McGuire, who kindly allows me occasional space here, stands in direct contrast with the so-called Christians I see on the streets, in the town hall meetings and on the television and I am appalled.
I have held my tongue long enough. I sit here in my scriptorium staring at the candle that is even now dripping hot wax onto my highly polished oaken desk, and the only question that beats on my brain is, “How can I control my agitation enough to steady my hand so I can write?” The things, the truly abominable things I have seen done in the name of the Prince of Peace! How that gentle soul must weep to see how his followers, nay, those who claim to be his followers, have become the very creatures he spent his life and spilled his blood to teach against!
They are the Pharisees. They are the Sadducees. They are the bloated potentates and they are also the sycophant suppliants who curry favor with the rich and powerful to gain some of the fruits of their patronage. They are the builders of temples, of stone palaces, of Towers of Babel dedicated to the God of Commerce, laying up their stores in material things, all of which Jesus disdained as detestable distractions from the pursuit of Spirit.
Just lately the Pharisites have enlisted the energy of the Bible-waving mob to keep the poor from being cared for in clinics and hospitals when every source available tells us of Jesus the healer who gave it away to anyone who asked! (Oh, be still my heart and quiet my trembling hand!)
Why do they condemn with shouts and curses that for which Jesus lived and died and then go pompously to their ostentatious mega-churches to pray to him confident that they have struck a blow against “Godless Socialism.”
And that is not their greatest offense. I have long held them in my eye, and even now I watch, dumbfounded, as they use their formidable wealth to foment hatred and anger and violence toward all who are not like them. I see their pitiless eyes bringing down Heaven’s wrath on those who choose to be of different faiths, or are, not by choice, of different races, societies, affections and lineages.
People who purport to be his ministers actually advocate assassination and war against what they perceive to be a false religion, nay not even a religion, they won’t even credit it that much, but refer to Islam as “a violent political system bent on world domination!” Oh, the shame!
There are many people whose faces are twisted with hate and who proclaim themselves Christians. I would differ. I may call myself a koala but all the wishful thinking in the world will not make me one. Do not tell me you know Jesus when your voice is raised in shrieks of fear and anger. I will say unequivocally, if you sow hatred, and division and dissension among people, you are not of God.
Do not look for the Second Coming of the Messiah out “there” in some eschatological future; it is already happening all around you and has been for some time, a spiritual wind blowing over the waters that you will miss because it is not what you have been taught to expect. You will miss it because it is not some dramatic entrance in the clouds at the head of a thundering army of angels. It is soft and subtle as a thought.
Do not speak either of Anti-Christ as if that also were some shadowy and menacing figure in the future. I say no. If you would see Anti-Christ, you need look no further than inside yourself. Did Jesus not say, “By their fruits ye shall know them?” And, what fruits do you lay at his feet but what he himself would reject as the work of the Evil One? Do you scream lies and slanders in the name of Jesus that are rooted in your own fears and regrets? If you do, I can say without equivocation that you are not Christian! You are Anti-Christ.
Dostoyevsky wrote, and I do believe, that even were Jesus to come again, you would crucify him!**
You are particularly insidious when you consider that, for many, you are the only exposure to Christianity they have and it is your loathsome face that is for them the face of Jesus.
Shame on you! If your face is the face of Christianity, who but a raving lunatic would wish to become one?
I beg you to seek inside yourself and see if you cannot find more there than fear and anger. To do other is to act in opposition to the Holy Breath*** that unites us all.
Ah! But, forgive me my indignation.
In truth, though, they are not to be condemned by me or any other man for they are deceived and are deserving of our pity for by their actions they accomplish the exact opposite of that for which they strive, or that which they claim to desire as followers of Christ.
And where are the other followers of Christ who will disavow them? Alas, they are far too tolerant and will not criticize even such obvious frauds. “Judge not lest ye be judged,” they say. I do believe. However, that it’s time to step up and repudiate hate, to say that these rebellious souls do not represent Christianity. It is time we repudiated its Shadow!
(For let no one doubt, every religion or philosophy has a shadow, but at least we can discern the difference between the kind of faith that ennobles us and that which diminishes us.)
I don’t claim to be an expert on Jesus: I will leave such claims to the screeching and ignorant mob, but this I do know: Jesus taught universal love, as do all the Great Initiates in cultures that are as varied as the grasses of the plains. “Be in the world,” he said, “but not of the world.” Jesus taught us to rise above our brutal instincts and realize that apparent differences, rooted in the perceptions of our five-senses, are nothing. Differences on the material plane, differences of skin color, nationality, religion, politics, and culture, should never come between us as human beings, and they certainly may not be used as wedges to divide us from each other or from the Universal Spirit.
I do understand that those to whom this letter is addressed are most likely to nod in agreement and point their fingers at others. The greatest deception of evil is in its capacity to deflect.
Until my next letter, if I am allowed to submit one, I remain your humble servant,
–Brother Jeremiah, OBS
* Buile Suibhne Translated as “Mad Sweeney” the Irish version of the divine madman of the forest similar to Nebuchadnezzar II in the Book of Daniel. Such people return from madness as Seers. It is not known whether Br. Jeremiah is a seer or just mad.
**Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamozov: The Grand Inquisitor.
*** One Latin word for breath is “spiritus.” In an interview I had with Br. Jeremiah, he explained that it is probably closer to the early church’s understanding and it is far more descriptive of the actual process of spiritual sharing than Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost, both of which carry lots of unfortunate cultural baggage. I will print that interview in a future article.
Recent Comments