4th November Trinity 2010, The Day-Star

4^th  or  5^th November Trinity

The end of Revelation 22: 12-21

“Watch, I am coming soon, and I will have my rewards with me so as to give to each person what his deeds amount to. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the goal.”

Blessed are those who cleanse their garments so that they will have power in the realm of the Tree of Life, which overcomes death, and may go through the gates into the Holy City. Outside shall remain those who are bound to low senses, those who serve evil powers, who walk impure paths of soul, who spread death around them, who give themselves up to demonic forces, and who, through their ways and deeds, falsify their true being.

“I, Jesus, sent my angel to report these things to your assembled communities. I AM the root and stock of David, the star who unfolds his brightness in the morning”.

And the Spirit and the Bride, the Holy City, say, “Come!

And may he who hears also say, “Come!” And may the thirsty come, and may everyone who wants it get to drink the Water of Life freely, as grace.

Everyone who hears can find his inmost being strengthened in the prophetic words of this book. Whoever does not yet sense its greatness and truth, God will lead him to full knowledge through the trials of destiny which are written in this book.

And whoever diminishes the words of this prophecy, God will remove from him his share in the Tree of Life that overcomes death, and his share in the Holy City written about in this book.

He who lends these words their power says:

“Yes, I am coming quickly!”

Yea, so be it. Amen:

Come, Jesus our Lord

The grace of the Lord Jesus, be with you all!

4^th November Trinity

November 21, 2010

The end of Revelation 22: 12-21

From the beginning, sailors have created their sea highways. They set their course according to the sun during the day, and by the stars at night. Amid the slow wheeling of the stars, and the wandering of the planets, there is one star that remains fixed—the north star, the pole star, around which every other revolves.

On the seas of life, we too have our guiding star. Each of us has a higher being that shines above our heads like a star. We meet with this higher being every night at the midnight hour of our sleep. This star being is our polestar, shining amid the firmament of our ideals, ideals such as sharing, equal rights, religious tolerance. It helps us chart our own course on earth, in reference to our ideals.

In today’s reading, Christ calls Himself  ‘the star who unfolds his brightness in the morning’. Revelations 22:16  He is a Day-Star. He rises and illuminates each new beginning, each new day. Our own star inspires us to ideals at night. Christ is our guide during the day, on earth, to our daytime activity. He walks before us, as a perceptible guide, on the earth, on the seas of life.

Christ is the Day-Star of sacrificial love, the love that underlies all our ideals. He shows us the way to bring our ideals to realization on earth, in a loving and human way. May we perceive His light, shining in our day waking consciousness; may we see His light of love in our daylight. 

www.thechristiancommunity.org 

4th November Trinity 2011, Fire in the Earth

4^th November Trinity

Revelation 21: 1-8

And I beheld the events in the spirit out of which a new heaven and a new earth proceeded. For the earlier heaven and the earlier earth were gone, and the billowing ocean is no more.

And further I saw the Holy City, untouched by the earthly, coming forth out of the being of God, descending out of the spiritual worlds: the New Jerusalem.

She appeared in her beauty like a bride who has adorned herself for the bridegroom.

Lamb and His Bride, Douce Apocalypse 

And I heard a powerful voice coming from the throne that said: “Behold the Dwelling of God in the midst of humanity. For He will indeed dwell in your midst, and the people will be His people.

‘”God himself will be with them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eye. There will be no more [bodily pain, nor soul pain, nor any other burdens of the inmost being] death, nor sorrow, nor weeping [uproar] nor any other sound of pain, for the old world is gone.”

And He who was seated on the throne said: “Behold: I am creating all anew.”

And He said, “Write, for it is these words that shall make faith and knowledge into true reality.”

And He said to me: “It is accomplished! I AM the Alpha and the Omega, World Beginning and World Goal. To the thirsty I will give from the springs of the waters of life, outside the workings of destiny, as grace. He who overcomes, he shall inherit all this. ‘I will be His God, and to me He will be like a son.’

“Those however who were cowardly [the spineless], and who had no trust [the faithless, unbelieving], who were servants of evil and perverted the image of Man [the despicable, vile, foul], who wanted to destroy the sacred [murderers], who went along impure paths of soul [sexually immoral, whoremongers], who worked with forces of evil [witches, practitioners of the magic arts], who bound themselves to evil beings [idolaters, idol-worshippers]—and all who served the Lie [liars of every kind]—their share will be on the lake which burns as with fire and sulfur; that is the second death, the death of the soul [the death after death].”

4^th November Trinity

November 20, 2011

Rev. 21: 1-8

Life can be compared to a great wheel. Any point on the rim of the wheel is sometimes up, sometimes down. Nevertheless, that place on the rim always comes down on a different spot; for the whole purpose of a wheel is to move forward, to make progress.

We have come to the point in the wheel of the church year where one great cycle is ending. This is the last Sunday before the new beginning at Advent. And appropriately, the reading helps us look at the great cosmic rounds in which we are involved. We hear ‘Behold, I am creating all anew!’

In the next round, what will emerge is a beauteous dwelling place for God in the midst of humanity. It is a city, being built, now, by humankind. The dwelling place for God is created by all the noble, true and beautiful deeds of human beings over the aeons. We ourselves are helping build the new city of God at the center of the new heaven and the new earth.

For as the poet David Whyte says:

….You were there in the beginning

you heard the story, you heard the merciless

and tender words telling you where you had to go.

Exile is never easy and the journey

itself leaves a bitter taste. But then,

when you heard that voice, you had to go.

You couldn't sit by the fire, you couldn't live

so close to the live flame of that compassion

you had to go out in the world and make it your own

so you could come back with

that flame in your voice, saying listen...

this warmth, this unbearable light, this fearful love...

It is all here, it is all here.[1]

---

[1] David Whyte, “In the Beginning” in Fire in the Earth

4th November Trinity 2012, The Great Virtues

4^th November Trinity

Revelation 21: 1-27

And I beheld the events in the spirit out of which a new heaven and a new earth proceeded. For the earlier heaven and the earlier earth were gone, and the billowing ocean is no more.

And further I saw the Holy City, untouched by the earthly, coming forth out of the being of God, descending out of the spiritual worlds: the New Jerusalem.

She appeared in her beauty like a bride who has adorned herself for the bridegroom.

Lamb and His Bride, Douce Apocalypse 

And I heard a powerful voice coming from the throne that said: “Behold the Dwelling of God in the midst of humanity. For He will indeed dwell in your midst, and the people will be His people.

‘”God himself will be with them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eye. There will be no more [bodily pain, nor soul pain, nor any other burdens of the inmost being] death, nor sorrow, nor weeping [uproar] nor any other sound of pain, for the old world is gone.”

And He who was seated on the throne said: “Behold: I am creating all anew.”

And He said, “Write, for it is these words that shall make faith and knowledge into true reality.”

And He said to me: “It is accomplished! I AM the Alpha and the Omega, World Beginning and World Goal. To the thirsty I will give from the springs of the waters of life, outside the workings of destiny, as grace. He who overcomes, he shall inherit all this. ‘I will be His God, and to me He will be like a son.’

“Those however who were cowardly [the spineless], and who had no trust [the faithless, unbelieving], who were servants of evil and perverted the image of Man [the despicable, vile, foul], who wanted to destroy the sacred [murderers], who went along impure paths of soul [sexually immoral, whoremongers], who worked with forces of evil [witches, practitioners of the magic arts], who bound themselves to evil beings [idolaters, idol-worshippers]—and all who served the Lie [liars of every kind]—their share will be on the lake which burns as with fire and sulfur; that is the second death, the death of the soul [the death after death].”

And there came to me one of the seven angels who have the seven bowls filled with the last seven plagues of the world; and he spoke with me and said, “Come, I will show you the eternal Feminine, the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

And he carried me in spirit-form up to a great high mountain, and let me see how the Holy City, Jerusalem, the City of Peace, descended out of the spiritual worlds, coming forth from the being of God, wrapped in the most intimate splendor of the revelation of God.

Her shining [gleaming] is like that of a precious gemstone, like the stone jasper, clear as crystal.

Her walls are of mighty size and height; she has twelve gates and at the gates stand twelve angels. On the gates are written the names of the twelve sons of Israel; three gates from the East, three gates from the North, three gates from the South, and three gates from the West.

And the wall of the City rests on twelve sacred foundations, and the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb work in them.

And he who spoke with me carried a golden measuring rod, in order to measure the City and her gates and her walls.

And the City is spread out in a square; her length is the same as her width. And he measured the City with the measuring rod. It measured twelve thousand miles; the length and breadth and height were alike. And he measured her walls at one hundred forty-four cubits [ells], the measure of a man, which now the angel was using.

The covering of her walls was of jasper, and the City herself of purified gold, clear as glass. And the sacred foundation of the wall were adorned with every precious stone:

the first, a jasper,

the second, a sapphire,

the third, a chalcedony,

the fourth, emerald,

the fifth sardonyx,

the sixth, carnelian,

the seventh, chrysolite,

the eighth, beryl,

the ninth, topaz,

the tenth, chrysoprase

the eleventh, hyacinth,

the twelfth, an amethyst.

The twelve gates were twelve pearls, and each of the gates made of a single pearl. And the city was of purified gold, like a transparent crystal.

I did not see a temple in the City, for the Lord God, Ruler of All, is her sanctuary, and the Lamb.

And the City needs neither sun nor moon, for she shines from within; for the shining revelation of God is streaming brightness in her, and her light is the Lamb.

And all nations shall walk in her light, and the rulers of the earth will carry their spiritual treasures into her. And her gates will never be closed by day, for there, night will be no more.

And all the shining treasures of the revelations of the world, and all the spiritual worth of the nations will be brought into her.

And nothing can enter which is not spiritualized, nothing which perverts the image of Man, nothing which remains under the power of the Lie, but rather only those who are written into the Book of Life of the Lamb.

4^th November Trinity

Syriac Maronite icon

November 18, 2012

Revelation 21: 1-27

Today’s reading is a mighty picture of the future of the soul of humanity. She is described as a city, the place of the many. She is the place where all of the soul work of humankind has been collected. And at the same time, this collective soul is a bride. She has suffered the pains and travails of life on earth. She has come through the Great Suffering, and out of her suffering, and the virtues they have created, God has created a new dwelling place for her. The city is founded on the twelve great virtues humankind has always striven for, such as endurance, insight, a sense for truth, great-heartedness.

Like the oyster, her suffering has been transformed into twelve great pearls of great price—they have become the twelve gateways into the city of transformation. They are the entrances to the place where the radiant Lamb of Offering, humankind’s Bridegroom dwells. Wisdom born of suffering suffuses the city with a light that reflects and magnifies the golden light of God.

We are shown the great vision, the goal of human evolution. It is the picture of what humanity has achieved in the spirit, and the union of humankind’s soul with her Beloved Creator.

Each communion service, each Act of Consecration, contributes to the forming and polishing of the foundations of mankind’s future dwelling. It gives us the pattern for our work: listening to God’s words, cleansing and offering ourselves to his work of transformation, receiving his strength for the Great Work of building the future.

---

www.thechristiancommunity.org

4th November Trinity 13, Building Blocks

4^th November Trinity

Revelation 21: 1-27

And I beheld the events in the spirit out of which a new heaven and a new earth proceeded. For the earlier heaven and the earlier earth were gone, and the billowing ocean is no more.

And further I saw the Holy City, untouched by the earthly, coming forth out of the being of God, descending out of the spiritual worlds

the New Jerusalem

She appeared in her beauty like a bride who has adorned herself for the bridegroom.

And I heard a powerful voice coming from the throne that said: “Behold the Dwelling of God in the midst of humanity. For He will indeed dwell in your midst, and the people will be His people.

‘”God himself will be with them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eye. There will be no more [bodily pain, nor soul pain, nor any other burdens of the inmost being] death, nor sorrow, nor weeping [uproar] nor any other sound of pain, for the old world is gone.”

And He who was seated on the throne said: “Behold: I am creating all anew.”

And He said, “Write, for it is these words that shall make faith and knowledge into true reality.”

And He said to me: “It is accomplished! I AM the Alpha and the Omega, World Beginning and World Goal. To the thirsty I will give from the springs of the waters of life, outside the workings of destiny, as grace. He who overcomes, he shall inherit all this. ‘I will be His God, and to me He will be like a son.’

“Those however who were cowardly [the spineless], and who had no trust [the faithless, unbelieving], who were servants of evil and perverted the image of Man [the despicable, vile, foul], who wanted to destroy the sacred [murderers], who went along impure paths of soul [sexually immoral, whoremongers], who worked with forces of evil [witches, practitioners of the magic arts], who bound themselves to evil beings [idolaters, idol-worshippers]—and all who served the Lie [liars of every kind]—their share will be on the lake which burns as with fire and sulfur; that is the second death, the death of the soul [the death after death].”

And there came to me one of the seven angels who have the seven bowls filled with the last seven plagues of the world; and he spoke with me and said, “Come, I will show you the eternal Feminine, the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 

4^th November Trinity

November 17, 2013

Rev 21: 1 – 9

We may wish to construct a building. For that we need a clear idea of its purpose, so that the architect can create an appropriate design, and the builders work accordingly.

At earth’s beginning, the sons of Adam had to learn how to build dwellings in order to live on the earth. So too does humanity as a whole need to learn to build a future collective dwelling place—but not just for humans. We need to create a dwelling place that would include God and His Son. This dwelling place is the collective heart of humanity. It is imaged as a place of many mansions, a city. It will be a place where all the beauteous inner treasures of humankind are gathered as gem-like building stones. This heart-city will be a place where the divine enters and dwells like a groom enters the bridal bower.

Paradoxically, this heart-city that we are building actually emerges from the heart of God. For all of our noblest thoughts and feelings, all our love and devotion, all our striving and work, we can offer to God. He treasures it in His own great heart, until the time comes when the heart-city is complete. It will be a place where Christ’s light is our daylight; a place where mercy and comfort abound; a place where grace makes everything anew.

For in the words of the poet:

We have not come here to take prisoners,

But to surrender ever more deeply

To freedom and joy.

We have not come into this exquisite world

To hold ourselves hostage from love....

For we have not come here to take prisoners

Or to confine our wondrous spirits,

But to experience ever and ever more deeply

Our divine courage, freedom and

Light![1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Hafiz, “ We Have Not Come to Take Prisoners”, in The Gift--Versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky

3rd November Trinity 2007, Increase the Light

3^rd November Trinity

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. [To our God be blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength for an age of ages. 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.

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.

3^rd Sunday November Trinity

Durer

November 11, 2007

Revelation 7: 9-17

  

This wonderful image: a Being of Light and sacrificial Love on a great throne; the four living beings of space, the twenty-four elders of time; and all the angels, all of them prostrate in a ring around the source of light and love. In the humility of their great power, they are sending toward Him a counter-offering: all their own praise and radiance, their wisdom and gratitude, their honor and strength, thereby strengthening His light, His love, His healing work.

And with them are the countless purified human beings who have died. They are standing upright, themselves radiant Selves clad in white, raising their own voices in praise and in the recognition that all help and healing comes from the Son on the Father’s throne. In their very understanding and praise of this, they are sending their own strengthening forces toward the Lamb and the Spirit God, who is the light radiating from the throne. Those purified, living across the threshold are helping increase the light in the spiritual world, to strengthen it, so that it shines even into the earthly realm. This is their task, and ultimately also ours.

Earth has become a place of spiritual darkness, of suffering and pain. But we, both those living on earth and those living in the heavens, are led by the Lamb who is also the Shepherd. He leads us through the suffering, to the living wellspring, the shining waters of life, where all suffering and grief is transformed into joy, into light and living love.

Let us join the ones in white in singing our praise of the Lamb. Let us offer Him the joy and strength of our grateful awareness of his healing of mankind. Let us help Him increase the light, the life and the love shining into the world through our offering of our noblest thoughts, our heart’s love, our active devotion.

3rd November Trinity 2008, Pray

3^rd Nov. Trinity

Revelation 14, 1-20       

And I looked, and there was the picture of the Lamb, standing atop Mt. Zion and with him one hundred forty four thousand having his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

           

And I listened and heard a voice from the heavens, a voice like a mighty rush of waters, and like a mighty thunderclap—the voice I heard was like the voices of harpists playing on their harps.

And they all sing a new song, there in front of the throne and in front of the four creatures and the elders, and no one could learn the song but the one hundred forty-four thousand ransomed from the earth. These are the ones who did not defile themselves by the straying, through which the spiritual in man is betrayed; they have remained virginal [pure] in their inmost being and follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were ransomed as the seed of a new humanity which belongs to the Father God and to the Lamb. Deceit and lies are not found in their mouths; pure and unblemished are they in their innermost being.

And I looked and saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, bringing the good news which is good news forever to those live on earth—to every race and nation and every tongue and folk. And the angel cried out with a great voice, saying:

“Stand in awe of God and turn to honor him. For we have come to the hour of his divine decision. Raise yourself in prayer to him who in truth created the heavens and the earth and the sea and all the springs of water.”  

And a second angel followed, who said, “Fallen, fallen is the great city of Babylon, who made all nations drink of the wine of her sacrilege, in order to draw the holy into misuse.”

And a third angel followed them, who cried out with a powerful voice: “Whoever adores the beast and its likeness, and accepts its stamp on forehead or hand, he will drink of the wine of God’s anger, thick and strong and undiluted, from the cup of his wrath. And in the presence of the holy angels and in front of the Lamb shall anger be transformed into pain like the pain of fire and sulphur.

Their suffering rises and darkens the encirling air like smoke through the cycles of time. And day and night those who made the beast into their god, who honored its picture as the highest, who took its being into their innermost being, find no peace. In this place however there works the power of the steadfast endurance of those who have taken the healing power of the Spirit into themselves, who have fulfilled the goals of the Spirit, and who have worked trusting in Jesus’ healing deed.

And I heard a voice out of the worlds of Spirit which said, “Write this down: People of heaven are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the spirit, let them rest from their efforts and labours, since their good deeds, the fruits of their lives, are not lost along their paths of soul, but have preceeded them here.

And I looked, and suddenly I saw in the spirit a white cloud, and seated upon the cloud the figure of a son of humanity, with a golden crown upon his head and a sharpened sickle.

And another angel stepped forth from the temple crying in a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud:

“Let your sickle go forth and harvest, for the hour of harvest has come; ripe and dry and firm are the crops of the earth.”

And the one seated on the cloud threw his sickle down upon the events on earth, and the earth’s crop was harvested.

And again another angel came out of the temple in the heavens; and he too held a sharpened sickle. And a further angel came out who tended the fire at the altar. He cried out with a mighty voice to him who held the sharpened sickle and said, “Let your sickle go forth and harvest the grapevines of the earth, for their grapes have reached their prime.”

So the angel threw his sickle down to the events on earth; and he harvested the earth’s vineyard, and threw the grapes into the great winepress of God’s anger. And they took the winepress outside the city and trampled the grapes. Blood flowed from the winepress that reached to the muzzles of the horses for sixteen hundred miles around.

3^rd November Trinity

November 16, 2008

Revelation 14: 1-20

From myth we know the centaur. From the waist up, it is a human being. The lower half is a horse. The most famous of these creatures was a great healer, for its animal instincts contained great wisdom. But its animal nature also harbored great aggression and destructiveness.

The centaur is a picture for the composition of the human being. Our physical nature is like the horse, with all its instinctual wisdom as well as its aggression. Our eternal spirit, our true humanness, is wedded on earth to our animal nature. Our self-awareness rises above our animal nature. Our truly human self is meant to guide and direct our animal nature, and ultimately to transform it.

Arild Rosenkrantz

It is humanity’s task gradually, over lifetimes, to make ourselves fully human, to transform the beast in us into something more akin to an angel.

Today’s gospel reading from the middle of the revelation to John shows a future division of humanity into those who have achieved this transformation, and those who have not. There is the great crowd in white, standing before God’s throne. They have remained true to developing their pure human core. They have taken the image and activity of the Son of Man into themselves, the activity of the Divine Human Being. What is inside them shines out of their countenance. Therefore they have the name of the Lamb and of the Father written on their foreheads. They have become the seed of a new phase of human existence. They sing a new song. What they have achieved, the development of their true humanity, will carry over into a new spiritualized world.

What is ripe is harvested. What is no longer of use is destroyed. One day, humanity’s inner ripeness will be tested. Those who have transformed their animal nature into something higher, who have matured their true humanity, will enter the company of the angels. Those who have failed to master their beastly nature, who wear the mark of the beast on their foreheads, will have to suffer the purifying fire. For the beast in us must be overcome.

Through Christ, the Light of the world, we can achieve this transformation. He is our bridge to our true humanity. Connecting with Him, conversing with Him, is the Way.  A medieval mystic says:

No one can be saved

Arild Rosenkrantz

without divine light.

Divine light causes us

to begin and thereafter

enables our progress

as it leads us

to the summit of perfection.

Therefore, if you desire

to begin

and would receive

this divine light, pray.

If you have begun to make

some little progress

and would see this light

intensified within you, pray.

And if you have reached

the summit of perfection,

and desire to be super-illumined

so as to remain in that state, pray.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Blessed Angela of Foligno (1248 – 1309), “Divine Light”, in Love’s Immensity, Mystics on the Endless Life, Scott Cairns, p. 87

3rd November Trinity 2009, Too Small

3^rd November Trinity

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. [To our God be blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength for an age of ages. 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.

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.

3^rd November Trinity

November 15, 2009

Revelation 7: 9-17

When a child gets hurt, the grownup naturally responds with empathy. He or she holds the child, rocks it, soothes it. The adult feels the child’s pain, and accompanies the child’s suffering.

One of the central issues of human lives is the question of suffering. Why does it exist? What is its purpose and meaning? This is the question raised by the ancient story of Job. As Job’s story begins, he is a wealthy and prosperous man. He loses everything.

Today’s reading suggests one answer: to suffer is to cleanse, to strip away that which prevents us from seeing God. We have sunk so deeply into earthly matter, into earthly matters. The way of being that allows us to operate well in the earthly sphere closes the door to our perception of God. We have shrunk to being mere humans on earth. We are no longer aware of ourselves as a spirit among spirits. We have lost our perception of God. In order to perceive Him, and our relationship to Him, we need to be cleansed of our materialism. And such cleansing is accompanied by suffering.

It seems unfair in a way that God so made the world that his creatures must

Ghent Altarpiece

suffer on their way to Him. But the reading also presents our seeing with an important picture. It is the image of God as the Lamb. The Lamb, too, has suffered. This is God the Son, who here, today is with and within every human being; who continues to suffer alongside, inside all who suffer. He offers us His own blood to cleanse earthly matter. He leads us through our process of cleansing and suffering, through all our greater and smaller deaths. He brings us to the wellspring of the waters of ever renewing eternal life. He wipes away our tears as we undergo our own cleansing, our own process of transformation. If we listen we can hear, inside, His words in the words of the poet:

When your vision has gone

no part of the world can find you.

… Time to go into the dark….

There you can be sure

you are not beyond love….

You must learn one thing:

…Give up all the other worlds

except the one to which you belong.

Learn [that]…anything or anyone

that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] David Whyte, “Sweet Darkness” in House of Belonging