3rd November Trinity 2016, The Great Suffering

3rd November Trinity

Durer, Adoration of the Lamb ,Metropolitan Museum

Revelation 7: 9-17

Next I looked and saw a great crowd beyond anyone’s power to count, from every nation and all races and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb draped in garments of white and with palm branches in their hands, and they shout with a great voice saying, “Healing and help [salvation] to our God who sits on the throne and through the Lamb.”

And all the angels were standing in a ring around the throne and the elders and the four living beings, and they fell down in front of the throne upon their faces and adored God saying,

Yea, so be it. Amen. 

All the blessing power of the Word, that creating permeates the world, all the revealing might of the spirit, that enlightens the senses appearance, all the light of wisdom that leads us to true knowledge, the secret of transformation which gives worth to all being, that brings the world forward, and all the strength and power of the spirit –they belong to our God from aeon to aeon. Yea, so be it, Amen. [To our God be blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength for an age of ages. Amen.”]

And one of the elders spoke up, asking me: “These people draped in garments of white, who are they and where did they come from?”

And I said to him, “Good sir, you yourself know.”

And he said to me: "These are the ones just come from the great Suffering. They washed their garments clean and made them shining white in the blood of the Lamb.

That is why they can stand here before the throne of God

And serve him day and night in his temple.

The One who sits on the throne shall settle down upon them [dwell upon them].

They shall not hunger ever again, nor thirst again;

The sun shall not bear down too hard upon them, nor anything burn them,

Because the Lamb, in the midst of the throne, will be their shepherd

And guide them to the springs of the water of life,

And God will wipe away each teardrop from  their eyes."

3rd November Trinity

November 13, 2016

Revelation 7: 9-17

The word 'suffer' has two meanings. One meaning is to mourn, to fell sorrow or regret over loss. The second meaning is to 'undergo', to endure patiently, to allow.

Grunewald Crucifixion

In the reading today, we hear about those who have undergone the Great Suffering. They are those who on earth have patiently endured life's losses. One existential loss we all suffer under is our lack of an immediate awareness of God and his angels. We long for a lost paradise. This is a trial certainly, but a suffering to be endured for a purpose. This very lack of awareness is the basis for our freedom of choice. We can choose to rail against our fate. Or we can decide to patiently endure this condition of separateness. And eventually, our suffering will bear fruit. For pain and suffering properly endured are purifying. Through suffering endured, our life garments are washed clean of egotism.

Master of the Holy Trinity, Mosoc

Pain and suffering create organs of perception. Our inner eye opens to the great suffering of others. They open to the great suffering of the divine on behalf of humanity. We become aware that the divine world needs our help, our active participation. Our acknowledgment, our praise and honoring of the great divine work of World Karma strengthens God's purpose in the world. 

Those whose eye is opened can, like Job, begin to see. They can begin to say, The Lord gives, and the Lord takes back. May the name of the Lord be praised.*

*Job 1: 21
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