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April 16th, 2002
Received by H.R.
Cuenca, Ecuador.
Are you ready? May I continue with my discourse?
So then.
Today's message is totally out of chronological sequence. I will
relate an event that took place in the year 28. You will remember
that in our narration of Jesus' life we are still in the year 26.
However the situation that I want to describe fits very well into
yesterday's message.
The year 26, as you have seen so far, was a very happy year for
Jesus. He was able to gather little by little a firm group of followers,
he conquered the hearts of the whole village of Kpar Nahum, his
village, and his teachings and fame began to spread all over the
country, up to Jerusalem.
Two years later, the situation was very different. Success often
entails the envy of others. Good teachings always provoke others
to find what is bad or wrong in them, and if they cannot find it,
they invent it. And an honest life and right words may seem a threat
to those, whose lives and deformed behavior contrast even more in
comparison. It was then, when many groups of Jews, Pharisees and
others, launched their undertaking to discredit Jesus. It was then,
when words fell such as: “You are possessed by demons. You
are a Samaritan (a serious insult). You are a mamzer (a bastard,
a very serious insult according to the law)."
Naturally, we were worried about the growing hostility, and we
discussed this problem also with the Master.
Jesus, as we have seen, had the habit of exposing his teachings
in form of parables. He did not do so in order to hide their true
meaning, but to explain, in the language of the common people, something
which otherwise would have been very difficult to explain. We have
talked about the parable of the lilies in the field. Does it not
express in a few words a deep truth, which everybody can understand,
and which one could write entire volumes about?
In the New Testament you can read sentences like these:
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"I am the bread of life. The man who comes to me will
never be hungry and the man who believes in me will never
be thirsty.”
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.”
"The kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, taken by a woman
and put into three measures of flour until the whole had risen."
"Keep your eyes open," said Jesus to them, "and
be on your guard against the ’yeast’ of the Pharisees
and Sadducees! I wonder why you don’t yet understand
that I wasn’t talking about bread at all — I told
you to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
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Then they grasped the fact that he had not told them to beware
of yeast in the ordinary sense but of the influence of the teaching
of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
In these simple sentences you can readily recognize important contents:
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Divine Love, so sweet in the soul, that leads us to desire
always more of It.
Once again, Divine Love, which converts the soul through
Its transforming power into something new, divine.
The bread of life, that is to say, the Master's teachings,
which nurture us and give us life, because only through them
we are able to achieve true at-onement with God. These teachings
are the way to perfect happiness, without hunger and thirst.
And then, the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Well,
this formula of “Pharisees and Sadducees,” or of
“Pharisee and Scribes,” is a monolithic and stereotypical
block from a later time, when Jesus' opponents were symbolized
by means of this expression. But once again, Jesus compares
teachings with yeast or with food. People understood this.
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In another part of the New Testament you can read:
“It is not what goes into a men’s mouth that makes him
common or unclean. It is what comes out of a man’s mouth that
makes him unclean. "Don’t you see that whatever goes into
the mouth passes into the stomach and then out of the body altogether?
But the things that come out of a man’s mouth come from his
heart and mind, and it is they that really make a man unclean.”
Also here, food is the symbol for doctrines. By the way, this verse
is not about consuming pork and shrimps, about pure or impure food,
this had never been a topic of discussions. It is about teachings.
Now, some day in the year 28, we were gathered with the Master
and...
Well, my dear brother, I am really trying hard, and so do you.
However, I think that it is preferable to postpone the rest for
tomorrow. I can see that the message would not come through as I
wish.
Don't worry, tomorrow will be another day. Go out into the garden
for a while and enjoy the sun! Relax! You will see, tomorrow
all will turn out well.
I’ll see you then.
God bless you,
Judas
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