Messages 2001

Religious Festivals.

December 17th, 2001

Received by H.

Cuenca, Ecuador.

My dear H___ I would like to begin this message with a series of questions.

What does the Yom Kippur day mean to you?

H..: It is the Day of Forgiveness in the Jewish calendar.

It is the Repentance Day. Very well. And what does the Shavuoth feast mean to you?

H..: It is the Hebrew name for Pentecost.

Indeed. The word means “weeks,” because it is celebrated seven weeks after Passover. I am aware that you know the meaning of this feast for the Christian churches. But what was its original meaning for the Hebrews?

H..: It was some kind of thanksgiving for the harvest.

Exactly. But the Christian churches changed its meaning, using an established feast to overlay it with a new symbolism.

Then, I ask you, what does the Inti Raymi feast mean to you?

H..: It is a feast of the Incas of the Andes. It is celebrated on summer solstice, in June, when the sun stands highest on the firmament. It is a feast in honor of the sun god.

And do you know a similar feast in your native country?

H..: Well, there it is not so much about the summer solstice, but about the winter solstice. On December 21st people there prepare enormous bonfires to celebrate the fact that daylight will increase in the coming months. Boys jump through the fire to impress their girlfriends. It is in fact a social feast, held outdoors, in the cold, around the bonfire, with some liquor to warm them. One can see bonfires on all the mountains.

Very well. And to which of those feasts do you feel closer affinity?

H..: To Pentecost, in the Christian sense, or rather, in the knowledge that on that day the apostles received an enormous amount of Divine Love, demonstrating that this was possible for everybody. And also the feast of winter solstice, a very beautiful tradition.

Very well. So, we have here a series of Hebrew, pagan and Christian feasts, and you are able to express your affinity. Inti Raymi for you is perhaps something exotic, but it has nothing to do with your culture. As to Pentecost, the original feast is but a distant memory, and the traditional Christian meaning has been changed through the influence of Jesus’ teachings, as he transmitted them through Mr. Padgett.

Yom Kippur for you is just a word without sentimental reaction, and the pagan feast of winter solstice touches the fibers of your soul. This is because you come from a Germanic culture, and this feast forms part of that culture. If I had asked another person the same questions, the answers would surely have been somewhat different.

Each man comes from a culture very characteristic for him, which models largely his way of thinking, and which has a great sentimental effect on him. The primitive church took advantage of that and established its feasts on existing festival days, as in the example of Christmas. We have already commented once that the feast of Inti Raymi was transformed — without a 100% complete success — into Saint John’s feast in the Andes of South America.

Now, Christmas time is approaching once again, and I am aware that these moments always cause some tension amongst people who are on the Divine Love pathway, because they know that this feast, in fact, is not celebrated on Jesus’ birthday. Moreover they know that many of those “adornments” to this feast do not correspond to truth, and that at bottom there lies a pagan concept. Should they participate in the celebration of this feast — or of other feasts of similar characteristics — or should they not?

If we analyze the example of Easter, where some Christian groups hold Good Friday as the principal day, because on that day “Jesus’ blood washed away the sins of men,” and other congregations prefer Easter Sunday, because on that day “Jesus resuscitated from the dead, defeating death definitively,” we see that the difference between Jesus’ teachings, as transmitted through Mr. Padgett, and the traditional symbolism of this feast, is truly abysmal.

On the other hand, you know that there are Christian groups that reject traditional feasts, in the sense that their way of commemorating is very different. Their children don’t receive presents at Christmas, there is no such happiness at Easter as you knew it in your childhood, and although their children don’t admit this, they feel bad, observing how everybody is happy and receives presents, and they get nothing but some sermons.

We don’t want you to separate from society, we don’t want our religion to be a religion of privation and sadness. We don’t want new dogmas which distinguish you from the others. We don’t want anything of that. We want that it shall be God’s Love, manifested through you, which distinguishes you from the others. The rest is symbolism without relevance.

Dr. Samuels received some messages from Jesus’ referring to these feasts. These messages have suffered some criticism, because one may notice the great influence of the medium himself in these messages. And this is true. A Jewish medium receives a message and superimposes his own Jewish culture upon its contents. Many of you will not be attracted to the contents of these writings, but I want to underline the following phrase contained in one of the messages:

“The question of holidays to be observed by the Church of the New Birth is not one of instituting new festival days, but of clarifying the significance of those we do possess and reinterpreting in the light of the Divine Love, those we wish to retain for celebration.”

This is very clear and correct. But then, there comes a long discourse on some Hebrew feasts which are simply not your feasts, H___, they are Dr. Samuels’ feasts.

Follow the advice given in the above-mentioned sentence, reinterpreting the feasts which already exist. Christmas, then, is the feast when we commemorate that with Jesus’ coming God also re-established His great Gift of Divine Love, making It available for all humanity.

Easter will be the feast when you don’t celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, or that his blood “washed away all sins.” Instead commemorate the eleventh and most difficult commandment, which Jesus has given you, that is, to love your neighbor as Jesus loves you, with the Divine Love, this unconditional and absolute Love.

Pentecost will not be a feast celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit hovering over the disciples’ heads in form of a flame, but a time when you remember that the Holy Spirit brought Divine Love in great abundance, filling the apostles’ souls. Thus you remember a fact which happens daily on earth. Of course the quantity of Love transferred to the souls is not always necessarily as overwhelming as it was then, but the same principle of the bestowal of God’s Love is happening each and every day in the world.

The aim is to give an appropriate symbolism to what one already has, independent of the culture in the one that you live. The religion of the New Birth is a religion of happiness and freedom. So, keep up this happiness and take advantage of the freedom.

Maybe there is a feeling of guilt when celebrating Christmas because many messages say that Jesus does not like Christmas time. But remember, it is not Christmas that Jesus criticizes, but the fact that he, in that season, is presented as the “Child God,” attributing to him something that he is not and eclipsing the Father, putting the Creator of all things into the background, giving preference to Jesus, who in fact is only His creation. However there is nothing wrong in commemorating the Master’s birth, who brought us freedom and salvation through his teachings on the availability of God’s Love. Moreover, whether you celebrate this in December or January, does the date really matter?

This is all that I wanted to say. Jesus’ teachings should never cause fear, but rather hope and happiness, showing a safe road to the union with the Father. And He, God, wants you to be cheerful. Have fun!

Your brother in the spirit,

Judas, who wishes that the “spirit of Christmas” might be the spirit of every day.