GETHSEMANE AND THE EUCHARIST: THE PAIN OF CHRIST

Jesus' trial and temptation after His baptism has been well documented in the scripture. The bible tells of His three fold trials in the wilderness by Satan. A much deeper temptation , that which was not much apparent as the wilderness temptation occurred at the Garden of Gethsemane, and upon Jesus` overcoming that temptation was that which the destiny of our salvation was entwined.

God was tried at Gethsemane, reminiscent of the temptation at Eden and the crisis of Abraham whereby he was asked to sacrifice his only son. Here at Gethsemane, we see the supreme action of God , putting forward His son in sacrifice.

Most of our trials in life are easier borne once they have been overcome interiorly; so in this sense we can say , even the trial at Calvary could not have been possible if Christ had not overcome the ordeals of the Garden at Gethsemane.

I would like to compare the experience of the 3 disciples of Christ on Mount Tabor during the Transfiguration of Christ with their experience at Gethsemane during His agony . We see that on both occasions , these disciples : Peter , James and John were worn out with sleep, but we can ask ourselves: how did they keep awake on Mount Tabor but would not overcome the drowsiness at Gethsemane?

Many of us live by the senses, we derive pleasures only out of the spectacular as dictated by what we see, hear, taste, breathe or feel. We are immediately drawn towards marvellous and miraculous signs  such that unless there are acts like these, it becomes difficult for us to perceive God`s actions in the ordinary . We do not see God in our daily duties, much less when we are under pressures, temptations or trials .

It is this apparent weakness of man which prevented the three disciples from keeping awake during the trials of Christ at Gethsemane; they became so much insensitive to the ordeals of the Lord , thereby contributing to putting the salvation of so many at risk.Scripture tells us that God`s strength is made so perfect in our weaknesses. It is when we feel so much incapable of loving, and that we would wish to love anyway, that God`s greatness is perfectly manifested the more . Christ knew this and struggled against not loving at Gethsemane, but the insensitive hearts of the disciples was oblivious of the circumstance of Christ and would not struggle against their drowsiness in order to assist Him and they easily succumbed to slumber. That was the reason Christ admonished them to watch and pray so that they would not fall into sin. The greatest sin is to be insensitive to the plight of our neighbour who is in need.

Christ tells us in the scripture to labour not for the meat which perish but that which endures unto eternal life. God who is Truth tells us of the need for authentic work , which is that of striving for the meat that endures unto eternal life. This meat is His flesh in the Holy Eucharist.

It is because we seem more prone to the spectacular that we fail to see the actions of Christ in the Holy Eucharist who calls us to comfort Him in His longing for souls. Christ wishes the best for us,He would  want to pour out His love , wisdom, strength, mercy and graces on us, but we are asleep; truly asleep, because , when we are entirely focused on making money without visiting  Him, without eating Him, we loose out on authentic wisdom and on what salvation is truly about. Do we spend an hour in a week at least , talking to Him in the Eucharist? He asks us as He did ask the disciples. Can you not spend an hour with me? He needs our company.

Motherhood

I shall never tire of writing about motherhood.

I was at a well-respected friend’s place recently and in our discussion, I recounted about attending a talk by a Christian teacher from Spain (call him Jose) who was telling us his majorly African audience about certain aspects regarding Africans’ spiritual reservations that he is yet to understand. I told my friend about Jose’s experience of how he ventured into a shrine in a particular community which no one was permitted to enter under the penalty of mysterious death within 7 days. Jose mentioned how even the most advanced Christian in the community would simply shrug off the quest to venture into the shrine and would maintain a public denial about the community threat by disregarding any conversation towards that fact.  Jose narrated how he broke the rules and entered into the shrine for some academic researches. He said, here he was, alive after more than 20 years. He wondered how such dread could permeate in the mind of people, even of the intellectuals in the community.

At the end of my account, my friend whom I was visiting responded that Jose probably did not die because the community could not get hold of the name of his mother. We laughed it off.

It is on this basis of observation from my friend that I would like to focus my essay of motherhood in our contemporary society upon.

I consider myself privileged to hail from a ‘mind before matter’ culture, but within this culture of mind there permeates two extremities: That of a mind that is either fixated on producing results through manipulations of components from natural laws; or that of a denial of this prevalence of this natural manipulations through an unwillingness to involve in the inherent cultural and the importation of other more permissible cultures, leaving vacant any experience that would occur from a sincere attempt at verification of the extent and potency of this manipulations. (This vagueness is similar to the artificial dichotomy created between reason and faith.)

For me, this manipulative contact of children through motherhood is not just a mind game but a mind reality. Many spiritual manipulations happen through contact with mothers, and it is easier so for this agents to do this if such mother is aligned more into a competitive arena of rules and laws and the manipulations of matter aimed at material conquest, much more when she does this with a view to a physical annihilation of an opposition.

Destiny has made it possible for us to be children of our mothers. No human entity lives on earth except through a mother. We are bound towards an eternal obligation then to take care of our mothers, for what she becomes in the mind rule, is tied to that which we would be in the future. If we neglect our mothers, we are neglecting our destiny in the rule of the mind. If we do not take care of our mothers, we face unpalatable consequences. What we are now, they were and what they are we shall become. It is a cyclic responsibility. We do a right and justified thing to defend our mothers, in life and at death, for what happens to her vibrates into the core of our being and into our eternal destiny.

Apart from our natural mothers, there are two other mothers that we have which are not immediately apparent: 1) The Lands of our Births and 2) The Sources of our Mind Evolvement (This can be church, mosque, shrine or school). It is from these Sources of mind evolvement that the future of the other mothers lie, that is, - The Lands of our Births and Our Natural Mothers- are tied. If the sources out of which we renew and evolve our minds operate in mediocrity, then we shall always have the land and our natural mothers subject to the manipulations within the confines of rules of labour. We often assume the spiritual arena to be operating on the dictates of our methodologies. There is an infinite prevalence and variations in (or out) there, but these are, and must be subject to one Truth.

The authentic mark of a true mother is in her inclusivity. She is an adept at utilizing the concept of unity amidst the scopes of diversity without fear or favour. A real mother expands her bosom, she is welcoming, she never says ‘me and my children alone’ for she knows that ends in nihilism and that what brings forth fruitfulness is in inclusivity. Such is the prosperity of a motherland that welcomes visitors and immigrants and a Mind source that is universal by nature. That is why the afterlife is often referred to as the City of God, for it operates under an inclusive canopy. It is neither a town, much less a village.

Mothers work so that their children advance more than them. If that be not the case, there is no point vying, for the battle would have been lost from the onset.

Children, on the other hand, need be entirely focused on the well-being of their mother. If that is entirely bereft of the reality, then the battle has been lost, well before fighting.

Of what then should consist motherly devotion on the part of the children? Apart from the material care which is very important, the mind care of the mother is of utmost necessity, for on it depends her future, our destiny and the evolvement of posterity. Gently, slowly but firmly, matured children must work at the mind renewal of their mothers. This is a reciprocal activity, for if the mother has only had a material outlook and has not brought up the children on the mind work of renewal, it would be herculean for the children to derive the capacity of doing this utmost important work. When mothers purely raise their children up to focus on the material, they are simply digging up their own grave.

Change is tough for mothers, in comparison to their children. Mothers can be bent on ‘leaving things as they are’. Don’t leave your mother to leave things as they are. This motherhood hierarchy, of the family, of the land, of the mind source are often reluctant to change. Everything moves, everything changes, only Truth remains. Firmly, slowly but gently, make your mother see the reason at moving, at letting go, if not, there is the danger of mothers turning into Principalities; this is horrible, it is hell! Mothers should beware of complacency. This is why politically it is not plausible to keep recycling old Politicians without bringing in fresh blood. But a child who would want the mother to move could leave the mother wondering, where to? If the child doesn't know where to, and in the name of change forces the mother deeper into mediocrity, then stagnancy and poverty could linger long in the household.

It often happens that children know but mothers wouldn't bulge, then crisis looms. While this crisis is sometimes necessary in other to save motherhood (or childhood as it were), it is important to be gentle but firm and always keep reconciliation as an ultimate focus. I tremble when I see how at the slightest crisis, people leave their families for good, or their land of birth forever, or change churches or mosques at the slightest provocation. Destiny knows why it has positioned you there. Work towards renewing it, only as a last result must you leave. Then you shall be vindicated and your destiny would be a favoured path. Not when you leave erratically.

There are two parallels of motherhood; both are hierarchical and are material, but while one material has succumbed to the spiritual and has transcended rules and laws through faith, the other is at the mercy of manipulations from natural components in an arena of toil and perpetual competition. I am talking of Mary and Eve, and between this, every mother, in every land, in every place of worship, must decide on whose side of the parallels to align.

 It is so wonderful how today, the whole world is revisiting the importance of motherhood and how this is reverberating in the consciousness of humanity. When you connect to an authentic mother, you’ll be inclusive, you’ll value unity even in diversity, you’ll have a passion for the land and you’ll value all women.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the women that matter in my life. I love you all. You give meaning to my life

      

Mater Dei.

Prior to her, the history of the gods was filled with wars, storms, violence and different perambulations.

Satan rebelled against God in heaven and he was cast down. In Eden, man was co-opted into this rebellion. From the serpent, through Eve, man became enslaved and got engrossed the more into this rebellion such that the more rebellious humans are, the more they are initiated into the company of the gods, for Satan, a fallen angel, who would want to be God, had colonised the earth and made himself its god, such that he is referred to as the prince of the world.

With time, the good spirits as was created in the Garden of Eden got chocked up and holy men who appeared throughout the course of history increasingly despaired and became more and more exasperated so to say about a return to the Beatitudes. Such was the agony of John the Evangelist when he saw no one was found worthy to open the scrolls of the book in the Book of Revelations.

The world, until Christ, was under Satan’s yoke. From the highest to the lowest, man was in bondage and the strife either to be an Orisa (god) or to parley with such, was rife. It was a question of winner takes all, the whole world was embroiled in an unpalatable and unhealthy competition for the survival of the fittest, while Satan sat as its Prince and delighted pawning both gods and man into despair and exhumes in triumph at the chaotic emblem stamped on earth since the fall of man.

The strong and powerful men maintained the status of being beneficiary of the gods, sometimes they are referred to as 2nd only to the gods to preserve an awe for them, or even at their deaths, a cult is formed in their honour and they are worshiped as gods.The poor who were always at the bottom of the echelon and could only look with despair at the length of alienation from the strong, and in futility at the gods who must have abandoned them to their fate as outcasts and scapegoats of life. They as such live miserably, as any hope for recompenses even afterlife seemed far out of grasp.

Spiritual time is not as it is in everyday observation or as it is conceptualized in scientific studies. These issues described above, regarding the sport in which Satan has made of humanity and the futility to which the poor have been abandoned are still happening in this age, at this moment. You only need to look around to witness the sport Satan makes of men when they refuse to look deeply at the world from Christ’s perspective. Adam and Eve might well have fallen gigantically in the heart of a man today. Evil still reigns in the heart of men until Christ be made manifest fully upon earth. Principalities and Powers still looms, perhaps as close as the heart of your home, or closer still, in your mind and intellect.

There is one who dwells in the secret place of the most high and abides under the shadow of the Almighty. She is Mary. The deepest mysteries are embedded in her. Mary knows deep mysteries that are difficult for any human mind to fathom. What, for instance, if she has not revealed to some just a glimpse of the mysteries of her son’s birth? We would probably have no clue regarding Christ’s divinity, and that is only a tip of the iceberg of what she knows.

When God decides to manifest His glory, He uses nothing and nothingness to beat the devil at his game. Sure the last thing being expected by Satan was for a poor tiny nonentity from an obscure village like Nazareth to beat him at his game. He was busy looking up and waiting to beat whoever would come any near his domain since the call of Abraham. Not in his wildest dream did he think God would stoop so low as to become a man. Tufiakua! That, to him is an extremely insane and scandalous act to conceive. Stooping to conquer is not in his ‘Wikipedia’, humility is not part of his DNA.

Before Christ, the Law of Moses came as a process back to the unity and beatitude of the beginning, Satan foresaw that man would be incapable of fulfilling all its rites, so he was certain man would still get locked under his yoke and rebellion against God, and that this would continue ad infinitum. He also believed that man would perpetually perambulate within himself in a perpetual struggle for supremacy without the realization of his oneness. Man was constantly manipulated by Evil and the land was literally stuck under in the knot of the venture for supremacy of the Orisas.

As an expert of the art of God, Satan knew justice demands that man makes recompense for his disobedience and he believed the Law to be a big distraction through which man would hopelessly hope to redeem himself, for he was aware that no flesh and blood would be capable of fulfilling all the rigours that the Law demanded for a journey back to the beatitudes. He also knows that, according to natural law he was aware of a perpetual gulf between man and God, and God would need a perfectly pure medium to travel to save man, and as long as he, Satan remained the prince of the world, there was no way a pure creature would survive sin and corruption. Even if there was to be such a person, the question of free will to which every man must be subject would make the task insurmountable.

That God would decide to go through the pain of re-creating another world in order to save a world who would do no good to His hallowedness is an effort too great for nothing. A recreation was started, this time, not externally, as happened in Genesis, but internally in the heart of a masterpiece of His. Creation was secretly and quietly fine tuned and perpetually made infinitely more beautiful than was of Eden. Mary was the creation. In her, nature was recreated. Water, earth, vegetations, fish, birds sky etc was fully embedded in her, because in the 2^nd and final epic battle between goodness and evil, God Himself was to come down to save man, and inside this creature called Mary, creation was perfected as a medium for the Creator to descend and live and be born in order to rescue man out of his enslavement and his co-option into the rebellion against Him.

Satan cannot understand the reason for 3 things: Love, mercy and grace. As such one of the deepest prayers that evil cannot stand is this longing: O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. For that 2nd creativity was hidden from him. This new refashioning of creation, in the Church’s dogma is referred to as the Immaculate Conception.  But there was still one thing God would not do in this grand design of His. Out of His justice, He could not touch free will.

To save man, God depended yet on the response of a girl He had made. All heavens remained in suspense as Angel Gabriel was sent to deliver this message to the little girl of Nazareth. It was a gargantuan risk taken by the Divine, similar to a football game, when the final spot kick by a team player would determine the victory or defeat. All heavenly hosts held their breadth hoping that the divine gamble would pay off and not be a double ‘mistake’ if she refuses. Fingers crossed...

Divine Intelligence had perfected everything in that girl, she was immaculately conceived, she was filled with every grace, but free will was what His justice would not allow Him to tamper with in man.  From that moment: from that fiat, from that acknowledging statement: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord…”, the Fall was reversed in an instant. A family of man had become god without having to go through the rebellious route and thus not in allegiance to Satan but through the humility route, by the acknowledgement of her nothingness. Nothingness is a verb the devil loathes but which he has become. Mary acknowledged and faced up to her nothingness and by that she has become Something. God pierced through into humanity, the Word was made flesh, the genius out of the divine had paid of and the first out of all humans –Mary- was saved! “My spirit rejoices in God my saviour!”

All strives, chaos, and kirakitas now have a new channel, an authentic one, a lasting one. God has created a medium, through which all the rebellious ideologies of the evil one is smashed by a sincere and realistic acknowledgement of one human of her nothingness in utter dependence on Divinity, so that she can offer back to God everything that is rightly His. “He has looked upon the nothingness of His handmaid…”

A Vacuum who understands perfectly the fallen state of man allows the passage of Eternity into time. In her, time and eternity become married. In time, Satan is a billion of year’s old intelligence who holds humanity to ransom in gravity and friction. In Eternity, Satan is a ‘no-more’ force; the actual nothing, for it has been cast in the lake of fire. In the Product of God in Mary : The Christ Jesus, time is being purified and made authentic so that it can be in true subjection to eternity and a cause for authentic freedom.

Because she has been there, a subject of the law, born and bred in the law and under the law, she is able to appeal to all ancient gates to arise and allow enter the king of glory: Her Son and God’s Son, the Christ Jesus, right from His conception in her womb. In the response of her body to the laws of nature, as water and blood flowed through her being, through His movement, respiration, nutrition, growth, excretion in her and by the work of her memory, intellect and will , she commands all ancient gates, right from her body, all the laws of time and space to be lifted and the king of glory was entered fully into this new creation , until He was fully gestated and like God, through Him, with Him and in Him, she is able to freely offer this masterpiece, this God Man, for the salvation of humanity. She is truly the mother of God and that of all authentic children of God. In her we can concretely say: Orisa bi iya ko si (There is no god as a mother). Every human mother who would resonate this saying would have to strike a root in Mary. Her faith and humility naturally smashes barriers generated by Satan and his allies. They are either, both lifted up and co-opted into divine plan or they are smashed into oblivion. That is the enmity promised by God between the serpent and the woman in Genesis.

Something happened after forty days of His birth that can be easily ignored in the scripture. Mary freely acted God; she freely offered to God what belonged to God. As she carried her into the temple, all ancient gates arose into the old creation and the prophecy of God was fulfilled: “I shall put enmity between thee and the woman, between her offspring and yours…”. Simeon saw this salvation and prayed the Nunc Dimittis. What else?

In the Old testaments, God seemed not to really like the idea of the Israelites asking for a King, but it was through this line of kingship that His Son, the Christ was born and made manifest. Likewise, the idea of Orisa (god) can appear revolting, as in a child’s mind, it still connotes rebellion to the One Supreme God. No. Since Mary, authentic Orisas need submit to One God in Christ. In actual fact, any Christian, born in Mary and of water and the Holy Spirit is an Orisa, infinitely greater than the orisas who bully them by striking their heels. But with her faith and humility, they smack and pulverise their heads.

Because she is composed of matter and she acknowledges the fact that whatever spirit she’s got belongs to the Giver, she qualifies perfectly to be an orisa, but an orisa who alone has the means to offer everything back to the owner. Previous orisas tremble at this fact, for it was a humble acknowledgement of death and defeat, she let go of her opinions and plans to accept a seemingly impossible divine strategy.

“This girl really messed things up” That seems to be the echo resounding from the college of humanity who had reigned out of their allegiance to evil. “Why would she give to Him all what we have gathered over the years, out of rebellion and toil, to Him by a momentous fiat?” From Mary, every orisa since inception now faces a choice, either to lift higher ancient doors and succumb to the kingship of God, or to be annihilated into that which they dread the most: gehenna.

Mary has the capacity to influence God in a way that we can only call scandalous. Perhaps, if you’ve no capacity to listen to scandals, you are advised to stop the reading here.

Mary has power over nature and natural phenomena. She works on destiny and aligns it towards the straight part of mercy. She is ‘A tun ori eni ti ko suwon se’ (she remoulds an otherwise tarnished destiny) She can stay the hand of God like no one else. God is obedient to Mary. She has this capacity because she trusted and let go. Even in our age, one wonders at how much God bestows on His servants when they are truly humble and faithful. Isn’t Elijah a man like us? Mary is infinitely greater than Elijah. She is at the same time, a daughter of God, a spouse of God and the mother of God. She is soaked into the Trinity. She is full of grace. She prophesied that all generations would call her blessed. Avoid this at your own risk.

Christ was to start His public mission at 12 when He was found teaching the doctors in the temple at Jerusalem; Mary stayed this path and fashioned God’s destiny and our salvation. Christ had to wait another 18 years under her domain before she allowed His manifestation of His glory - even when He was not ready - at Cana. These signs, for the discerning mind are pointers to the one great sacrifice of Calvary. Mary, like Abraham, gave Him over for us at Calvary. If she wanted, she wouldn’t...

In conclusion...

I write because of my conviction that in our extreme materialistic, matter before mind world. If we are to return to the path of salvation and freedom, we have to rediscover the path. Christ says: You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. He said again, Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart and you shall find rest to your souls. Humility is truth. There is a depth of humility and faith that I believe we need to rediscover in Jesus Christ and only with the help of Mary shall we arrive at it. Getting to the path of true humility is not a soft work. Mariology should be an integral path to total deliverance in our age and time.

Those who say Mary is nothing are right. She is nothing but she is a mother of Something. In Revelations 12 she was led into the desert to be rescued. Only by Mary can we discover the root of our nothingness in the desert of our being and the realisation of our utter dependence on God. Satan and his children could and would not do this because there is a dread of not being in control. In the school of Mary, her children find out that in this humility and nothingness lies the greatest power and might, even over God!

Today we celebrate the New Year in time, but the Church celebrates Mater Dei, because in her, Time and Eternity are married such that Time is made new every day through the influence of Eternity.

Happy New Year!  

21 Inspirations In Time.

1)      Nelson Mandela: Activist and Politician who braved internal oppositions after he was freed and forgave his enemies and gave them equal rights after he was elected President.

2)      Gordon Brown: Former British Prime Minister, the leading protagonist against the 2008 economic crisis. He ‘saved the world’ at the cost of his Political career.

3)      Julian Assange: The WikiLeak's bulwark who braved mighty oppositions and revealed the hypocrisy of the US government and many Governments across the world. 3 years on, his freedom is still largely curtailed at an Ecuadorian embassy in London.

4)      Benazir Bhutto: Pakistani Politician, who escaped assassination twice, still went to the same area and eventually got shot and died the third time. She risked martyrdom for the emancipation of her land.

5)      Malala Yousafzai: 15 year old Pakistani blogger who was shot and risked her life for advocating education for girls.

6)      Benedict XVI

: Catholic Pope who risked tradition by abdicating the Papacy of his own volition in order to liberate the church the more.

7)      Murtala Ramat Mohamed: Former Nigeria Military President. He gave up his life in the cause of fighting corruption and correcting irregularities in government.

8)      MKO Abiola: Business mogul turned politician who let go of freedom and braved death for the cause of democracy.

9)      Dora Akunyili: Former NAFDAC Director and Communication Minister who fought the perpetuity of retrogressing Principalities to a standstill. She gave up her life in the service of her nation.

10)   Pastor Bakare: Fearless radical Pastor and Politician who would not be cowed. Critic of Lie not minding whose head is gored. Courageous advocate of truth and justice in the land.

11)   Mallam Nuhu Ribadu: Former EFCC Chairman, an anti-corruption stalwart whose like is yet to be seen in the nation.

12)   Gbenga Adeboye: A multi-talented Philosopher and media personality who courageously used his talents to speak out against various evils in the land, he risked and gave his life in the service of truth and employed his talents towards the emancipation of the soul of man.

13)   Fela Anikulapo Kuti: Fearless Musician who used his music to expose the corruption in government.

14)   Ali Baba: Comedian. God raised him, he used his facilities to raise others. Now, comedy is a mighty industry in Nigeria through his lifting others up.

15)   Shuaib Amodu: Former Super Eagles Coach. Twice he qualified Nigeria for the World Cup; twice he was refused the right to lead Nigeria to the world Cup. Twice Nigeria ‘fumbled’ at the world cup as a result. He held no animosity. Keshi today is reaping the fruits of Amodu’s actions.

16)   Bishop Babatunde Adelakun: Former Catholic Bishop of Oyo diocese, who even before Benedict XVI would, taught me by his actions that an elder must always learn to let go. He always leads his companions in the act of ‘letting go’.

17)   Br Joseph Kotoye: A man whom, up till now, I’m yet to come across his like. A Mechanical Design Engineer. He literarily sold all what he had and gave his life to the service of the poor. No, I am not giving a medieval story, neither is he European or American; he is a simple ‘commoner’  living at Abule Egba in Lagos.

18)   Mr Samuel Akinjogunla: A man of ultra-confidence in God. His way of life and the manner of his death has become a resounding gospel in my life.

19)   Akinkunmi Akinola : My brother. He was born in sorrow, he lived in toil and he died in pains. A boy of 13 who is graced with having no animosity. Heaven embraced him. I see that every day.

20)   Engr Michael Araoye Akinola: He risked, braved and gave ALL for the emancipation of his children!

21)   You:  Yes you who are reading this. You are my Inspiration , my lesson about what it means to live!

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY

(An Extract from the book: The Secret History of the World by Jonathan Black)

Consider, finally how your consciousness is different from your parents’ consciousness. Yours is probably more liberal, more sympathetic, more able to appreciate the point of view of other races, classes, gender, sexual tastes and so on. In some way you are probably more aware of yourself. Because of Freud’s ideas… you are less likely to remain unaware of the underlying sexual motivations of your impulses… Or of commercial motivations– because of Marx. You are probably less repressed, less fearful of authority, more questioning and have less strong family ties. You probably tell lies more readily, have weaker power of concentration and less determination to stick at boring tasks for the sake of a long term goal… Few would want to stay with the same sexual partner for a lifetime… Part of you wants to run from the responsibility that being loved brings. Our consciousness is then different from our parents’ consciousness.

…Jesus Christ lived on earth in the middle of the history of the cosmos. His life represents the great turning point of history. Everything after it mirrors what happened beforehand.

For example, in AD 2000 our lives mirror the life of Abraham in 2000BC, walking among the idolatrous skyscrapers of Uruk. Today’s skyscraper may be taken as representing fundamentalism. On the one hand there are right wing Christians, whom we should bracket with the crude forms of Islam…On the other hand there is the militant scientific materialism that wants to snuff out the human spirit. Machines are making us machine-like. This is the influence of Satan, who wants to go further and squeeze out our spirit altogether and make us mere matter.

…the Anti-Christ will do away with much dangerous superstition and work to unite the religions of the world… How to recognize Satan? Or any false prophet? Or any false purportedly spiritual teaching? False teaching usually has little or no moral dimension, the benefits of reawakening the chakras, for example, being recommended merely in terms of selfish ‘personal growth’. True spiritual teaching puts the love of others and love of humanity at its heart – intelligent love, freely given. Beware, too, of teaching that doesn’t invite questioning, or tolerate mockery.

…these societies were concerned to help forge new; more highly intelligent forms of consciousness…humans once had unhindered access to the spirit worlds. Then this access became obscured and dimmed as matter hardened. Now the barrier between ourselves and the spirit worlds is becoming thinner again. The material world is fraying and becoming threadbare.

…We may become less quick to presume that our intuitions, our brilliant ideas are our own- and more open to the suggestion that they might be outwardly promptings…we may develop a heightened sense that our interactions with other people is a far more mysterious process  than we routinely suppose.

…The world is like the perspected picture that can equally well be seen as a witch or a pretty young girl. People often choose one world-view in preference to another because somewhere in the depths of their being that is what they want to believe.

…we become aware of the rhythm of our breaths, our hearts, our sexual rhythms, the rhythm of waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep. If we can consciously attune our own individual rhythms to the rhythms of the cosmos …we may eventually join our evolutions to the evolution of the cosmos. 

…Philosophy calls for a rediscovery of the spiritual … a discovery of the divine capabilities ranged within us. This was the secret preserved and nurtured by geniuses as diverse as Plato, St Paul, Leonardo, Shakespeare and Newton:

1.       If you can think so deeply that you can rediscover the spiritual root of thought, if you can recognize thoughts as living, spiritual beings…

2.       If you can develop a strong enough sense of your own individuality that you can become aware of your interaction with the Thought-Beings that weave in and out of yourself, yet not be overwhelmed by this reality…

3.       If you can recreate the ancient sense of wonder and use this sense of wonder to help awaken the willpower that lies sleeping in your deep, dark recesses…

4.       If the fire of love for your fellow human beings rises from your heart and causes you to weep tears of compassion…

…then you have been working on the 4 Elements. You have begun the process of their transformation. This is the mysterious fourfold ‘work’ also alluded to by St Paul in 1 Corinthians 13… ‘And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love…’

Intuition is transformed intellect that perceives the spiritual beings as real. Paul calls this faith.

Wonder is transformed feeling, feeling that has become aware of the spiritual workings of the cosmos but is not overwhelmed by them. Paul calls this hope.

Conscience is transformed will, when by the exercise of thought and imagination, faith and hope; we have begun to transform that bullish part of ourselves, including the will that lives beneath the threshold of consciousness. Paul calls this charity or love.

By applying faith to hope, and by applying faith and hope to love, a human being may then be transformed into an angel.

+So the scorpion is transformed into an Eagle. The Eagle works with the Bull, then the Bull grows wings. The winged Bull works on the Lion, so that it grows wings in its turn.

And the end of this fourfold process is that the winged Lion works on the Man so that he is transformed into an Angel. This is a great mystery…

The 4 Elements play a crucial role in the formation of the physical universe, and to work on them … is to transform not just ourselves but the whole universe, even to its outer limits. If an individual cries tears of compassion, his animal nature is to some extent transformed, but so, too are the Cherubim that interweave throughout the whole cosmos.

Changes in human physiology become seeds of the transfiguration of the entire material universe…eventually there will be no single atom left that has not been worked on by man.

…The world and humanity were created in the following order: first the mineral part, second the vegetable, third the animal, and last, as the crown of creation, the distinctly human element.

…In the latter stages of history, these parts will be transformed in the reverse order, human, vegetable and lastly, mineral. At the end of time even the very atoms of our material natures will be transformed like the physical body of Jesus Christ in the Transfiguration.

…humanity is only briefly dipped into matter, that the hardening of the earth and of our skulls has enabled us to evolve a proper sense of self, and so the potential to think, will and love freely. But before this brief sojourn among physical objects, our experience was of ideas. The objects of our Imaginations, which we conceived of as coming from the spirits, angels and gods, were real to us.

The lesson of modern history is that matter is being transformed, dispersed, so that in the not too distant future we will re-enter the realm of imagination.

…history is divided into 7 days. Saturday was the rule of Saturn, Sunday was the age when the earth was united with the sun, Monday was the age before the moon departed. Tuesday was the age that started with the locking into place of the fixed material world.

…Our waking consciousness will develop so that it bears the same relationship to our present –day waking consciousness as today’s waking consciousness bears to our dreaming consciousness. We will realise that, although we have believed ourselves to be awake, we have actually been asleep.

This development will be hard-won… As matter becomes less dense, so our bodies will respond more and more to spiritual impulses. The goodness in good people will shine out of them, while the faces and bodies of evil people will be molded by the animal passions that dominate them.

Good people will find it increasingly hard to be happy if they are surrounded by people who are miserable. Eventually, no one will be happy until everyone is happy.

If the material world is brief, so too is death. In time we will no longer die but sleep very deeply, and then less and less deeply. Death, as St Paul says will be swallowed up…biological generation will eventually become unnecessary. We will discover the ‘Word that has been lost’… we will be able to create by power of the voice.

…time as we understand it today will no longer exist. Our thoughts will take on a life of their own, working on our behalf but independently of us.

…Eventually, not only will the sun come up differently as St John Chrysostom predicted, but a sun will rise up inside each of us.

All of this will have been accomplished by the power of thought!

By and large the people who have most changed history have not been the generals or politicians, but the artists and the thinkers.

…in a mind before matter universe there is more than romance and excitement in thinking- there is magic too. It is not just what I do or say but what I think that affects my fellow humans and the whole course of history.

Plato said that all Philosophy begins with wonder. Modern science is killing of wonder…Science is not certain. It is a myth like any other, representing what people in the deepest parts of themselves want to believe.

…if we take a fresh look at the basic conditions of our existence…they may be seen in a way that is nearly completely opposite of what we have been brought up to believe. This is what Philosophy does, if it is done well.

The remains of an ancient wisdom lie all around us in the names of the days of the week and the months of the year, in the arrangement of the pips in the apple, in the strangeness of the mistletoe, in music, in the stories we tell our children and in the design of many public buildings and statues and in our greatest art and literature.

If we can’t see this ancient wisdom, it is because we have been conditioned not to. We have been bewitched by materialism.

Science assumes materialism will remain the dominant philosophy until the end of time… Materialism will come to be seen as a mere blip.

…The physicist Niels Bohr said, ‘The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement, but the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth’.

…The truth is that we must use our imagination.

…Imagination is the key.

An ESSAY ABOUT THE JOURNEY FORTH (part 7) Hope: Driver of the Journey Forth

The real tragedy of our age is the vicissitude of hope. We live in an age where, more and more, the virtue of hope is deemed unnecessary and being subtly murdered. It is the calamity of our time that, that which is the great motivator of life and civilisation has been reduced to a passing emotion. Hope, which breaks us from the shackles of mediocrity, this great passion which forges us on, this deep breadth of mankind, has been strategically eliminated out of the necessary sequence of growth. I mourn the demise of hope.

Let’s start from a very familiar discussion:  What is it for instance, that would forge us to care for our environment or to be passionate about life? The debate about global warming is as critical as that of abortion; and just like abortion, the experience of climatic change is as vivid an experience, as it is denied. The will power to do what we are meant to do to correct a negative anomaly seem to be lacking, we ignore the moral discipline needed to avert an ultimate climatic calamity,  just as we do not own up to the consequence of our actions in bed, by creating havoc for the next generation when we kill the unborn. The inertia preventing us from powering down is that stopping us from zipping us. But that is not the horror – after all, we are all a society of sinners-  the horror is in the scepticism of reality, it is in the justification of wrong, and that is what I call despair, the death of hope?

We see no potential for a journey forth, that is why we lack the charisma to journey through our actions. Materialism has slipped into our cerebrum and we justify our ‘throw away ‘mannerism with every fallacious argument.  Another word for caring for our environment is rightly referred to as Sustainability, which is, saving something for the future, thereby averting an insufficiency for the next generation.

But we say: what is the need of saving for posterity? Why should I be stopped from making an immediate gain right here, and now? What, for instance, have I got to lose by taking a few pills and getting things straight rather than having an unwanted child lock up my progress and destiny? Or why should I care for the habitat of my children’s children since when I am gone I am gone?

No, my friend, you are not gone! The truth is, life is a continuum, and death is not an escape. Lay your bed well so that you can lie peacefully on it. Charity begins at home. When we treat our earthly home shabbily what shall we say across the Bridge? And over there is the reality of this Vain Shadow; and over there is right here! We kill and get rid of anything that would give us paranoia about hope, as such; we strangle the life out of an afterlife. The virus of despair is a cankerworm that has eaten deep and subtly into every arena of our age. What happens to you when you are gone is very dependent on how passionate you are about posterity. ‘E s’a ‘ye‘re o ‘(Threat the world benevolently).

When there is no hope, time is reduced to a strange ephemerality and confined into an awkward space, thus humanity is seen as nothing but a materialistic phantom. She becomes more and more narcistic. She corrodes everything, and nothing lasts neither anymore nor forevermore in her eyes. She turns all antiques into fiscal aggrandisement and monetizes everything into the vapour of vanity. She sees herself as the ultimate object for service and whatever does not serve her appetite for immediate gain is fatally eliminated. Man becomes a Lord unto himself, relationship is weakened the more, family life is crushed and posterity becomes more and more devoid of a moral compass and is bereft of an integral leadership needed to satisfy his deepest longings. Man loses faith because he breaks up with hope; he has mortgaged time and space for the porridge of immediate mammonistic gratification.

When we break with hope, when this continuum is snapped, posterity suffers, and when posterity does suffer, no one would actually acquire that complete rest in which everyone craves. But when we hope, whether we work or rest, we adopt mercy as our kin. Think about it. Not until moments become memory and memory becomes reality and everyone live in spirit and truth, we shall always have lies undermining the truthfulness of hope and thus shall true freedom and liberation be locked up under the shackles of despair.

If you have ever had the rare privilege of losing a really loved one, you’ll realise this point better. This transport into another realm, the voice that secretly tells you it couldn’t be the end, the longings, the desires, and the serenity, the enigma of continuum which produces a radiant calm and an aura of awe. But then the powers-that-be snap this reverent experience with the noise and commotion of time. I pray we grasp the meaning of life at this point of loss and let not go of it, because therein is freedom. And if you are like me who twitch at the thought of physical death or dread the idea of losing a loved one, I’ve got a far better solution: Fix your gaze to the cross of Christ, there you shall find the source of the journey forth. Just look and keep on looking. Something tells you to venture deeper into this continuum but you quickly find an alibi in a lie that says the link is forever snapped. Blessed are those who mourn. Christ is risen from the dead!

Epilogue:

This piece concludes The Essay about the Journey Forth but the experience of the journey forth itself continues in you and in me, it is an inexhaustible vista. That is what has been opened forth for us in the celebration of this day: Easter.

And I must say it is a pure coincidence that the final piece of my essay falls on Easter day, I never planned it as such. This day summarises all I have ever wanted to say and all I am yet to say.

The journey of this write-up is in itself a parable which I shall continue to decipher its meaning and reason with time. A few weeks back just before lent began, I felt a deep urge to put forth my experience as I never dared in public. It was not such a big sacrifice writing all these voluminous scripts, for I love writing, and I confess that I have gained so much from the write-up myself, probably more than anyone who would be patient enough to read anything of these ‘baggadashes’.

What costs me is having to put down some issues about me, both around my ideas and within my experience and not knowing how it would be perceived, yet the fact of doing so has only given me an impetus to be more daring. It has lightened me and I am literarily filled with a greater momentum to travel farther than I have done. Thank you for reading. Wishing you a happy Easter, the source and summit of our journey forth.

An ESSAY ABOUT THE JOURNEY FORTH (part 6) Ecumenism:The Future of Religion

Religious crisis in our age is just as messy as the political one. The West looks at Islam as a growing ground for terrorism; Islam looks at Christianity as a breeding space for sinfulness, materialism and atheism. Christians look at atheists as fools with whom no discussion whatsoever is worth; Atheists generally view religion as the arena of mediocrity and the proliferation of crisis and war. Christianity suspects Islam for anti-Semitism, Islam suspects Christianity for aiding Zionism. Even in the midst of each religion you have multiple fractures, Sunni against Shiites, Catholics against Protestants etc. Most of these friction and crises come from stories from our individual bases and stem from the danger of generalisation. We generalise because we are lazy to verify.

 Amidst massive distrusts between Abrahamic families and huge suspicions about the Western agenda, there permeates, a sort of egocentric complacency regarding spiritual engagement with the wider ecosystem. Multitudes in the Western religious sphere who have ideologically ‘kaferise’, ‘haramise’ and ‘infidelise’ the vast polytheist, pantheist and atheist world and would rather ostracise them from their perception on matters of truth rather than risk being tainted with their views.

 I have my own little story to tell to clarify this:

With my Catholic background, I grew up to regard  modern day ‘Born Again’ churches as preys, pests, wolves in sheep clothing and advocates of shallow forms of Christianity by the propagation of prosperity and a suffering free life.

Back then during my university days, I’d often seen these ‘mushroom churches’ (as we call them) lobbying around the Catholic premises, sometimes holding crusades thereabout, trying to win Catholics whom they equally perceive as ‘not saved’ ,‘not redeemed’, idol worshiping Christians.

It was like war, I had often been outraged by the daringness of these people. In higher Institutions, they would often sneak into Catholic churches; mix with the congregation with a mission of convincing Catholics of the erroneous outlook of their beliefs; their access point often being the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, a Catholic group with Pentecostal spirituality. I Joined the Charismatic myself, and was only motivated to remain, not because they practice my kind of spirituality, but to ‘defend Christ’s sheep from these wolves in sheep clothing’. For me, it was a ‘versus’ and nothing else counted.

But then, along the line, in the University, something else happened to me. I liked a girl who was Catholic and was not attending Catholic Church but the interdenominational fellowship of the university’s Christian Union. Partly in an effort to bring the girl back and partly out of shear being where she was, I began to attend the University Christian Union (UCU) prayer group at least once a week. There was nothing interdenominational about this particular church though, at least from a Catholic perspective. There was always this round of lengthy prayers that go on and on, I remember it was in that church I  stabilised my praying 15 decades of rosary (with my hands in my pocket) Sometimes I do 30 decades before the prayer sessions end, It was always lengthy, but the girl was my motivation to stay.

That was my first full experience of Pentecostalism, for until then, there was little or no motivation towards attending these ‘born again’ churches .Prior to this experience, my knowledge of this group was limited to the TV, and then I simply switch channels. I had a better experience with Islam, having had Muslims as relatives, and being raised together with them, we grew to respect our common point of divergence: The Divinity of Christ. As a Catholic, I was more at home with our share of calm orthodoxy compared with the raze and fire brand manners of Pentecostalism.

Trust Pentecostals Christians to do follow ups on new members, The moment I started attending the UCU, I began to have visitors from the church and it was during visits like these that there developed sincere friendships between me and some great Pentecostals who would go extra miles at helping me out of issues completely outside faith in other to win me. Pentecostalism is filled with energy to assist and I admire that a lot. Zeal and energy is what you cannot deny of Pentecostalism.

I wouldn’t have had a balanced perspective, for instance if I had not ventured into Charism and Pentecostalism. I would still have become an active Catholic, but an opinionated one, and one that is completely oblivious of the outer world. Of course Pentecostalism is loaded with proselytes, there was more than enough doctrinal frictions between us during those days, and if I had not been constant in my journey back by knowing good Priests, making great catholic friends, and studying catholic literatures , or if I had found an attraction in Pentecostal spirituality, I would either have been consumed hook, line and sinker into Pentecostalism, or our relationship would either have been snapped or it wouldn’t have resulted into that mutual respect that I have with my Pentecostal friends today.

Pentecostalism and Charismatic have helped deepened my spirituality, I see myself better placed to speak from either perspectives because I have not simply heard nor read about them , I have also experienced them and I am able to manage our shared differences with respect. Though I will say that you need to be steep in what you believe if you would like to venture, otherwise one would be swept off by the littlest tidal wave of attractive but unverified emotion, doctrine and ideology. Our journey to Truth can often take an Israelite (lengthy) turn when we are not adequately prepared to venture.

It was a struggle but it was worth the venture, I corrected and purified my Catholicism by contact with Pentecostalism; I can only hope that my friends who journey forth from the Pentecostal perspective would also gain from our relationship. If you don’t want what is mine, I take from what is yours and add to what is mine and become richer while you still look at yourself as a champion. You are nothing but a local champion. He who is graced with the art of balancing wins all and journeys farther. Prejudice does one little favour, but the capacity to journey forth together in peace, love and humility lies in the mastery of ‘the journey back’ for it stamps the assurance of truth. We change sincerely what we should because we love truth and we have to learn to experience this Truth.

From my refined experience, I vindicated the ‘Born Again’ who says Catholics were not truly converted, I have actually come across numerous Catholics who follow doctrine without this personal touch of Christ (Though, a lot has changed and is still changing in the catholic world of today regarding a lively experience of Christ) just like my opined perspective of Pentecostalism lacking depth and stopping on the level of emotion, has also been justified. But my error from both perspectives lies in generalising, and that can be dangerous.

My journey with Pentecostals has deepened my personal experience of Christ because this appears to be one of the most popular dictates of Pentecostalism: experience. Which is true, and this has helped me a lot. Catholicism, until recently, tends to lean more on the bend of communal experience than a personal one. While I have seen the great truth in personal experience, it has in no way diminished my position on the affectivity and unification of faith which is collegial and I can only hope that my friends also see this great unity of and communion of saints, both living and dead. Man is never an island.

This is my story, back to my point on religion:

Far from being an advocate of Relativism, I see that Ecumenism, albeit risky, has been and will continue to be the great driver of the religious outlook of the 21^st century, and he who does not journey back , rather than being helped by its variety, would be swept off by the tidal wave of its complexity and shall not be able to journey forth in the ocean of sincere ecumenism.

The Pope once said that the call of faith no more calls for the discussion of Theology while sipping tea, it is an engagement of love , and because we shrink from the journey back we dread journeying forth with our Abrahamic brethren , much less our Godly brethren. Far from being a rosy gentleman’s affair, issues relating to truth demands energy and that energy is love, and love is a verb, it takes place in journeying.

I presently live in an environment of deep seated scepticism of God, and this has made me value the more my shared destiny with anyone who does believe in God. I accuse Monotheism of having the hidden tendency of monopolising God. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, it was said to Horatio: ‘There are more in heaven and earth than exists in your philosophy’. God is more to and more inclusive than whatever you are thinking of Him right now.  And as we engage (when we are sincere) we shall find in the most unusual places and faiths, people of truth who would inspire us to become more faithful and loving.

Ask of Peter what it must have cost him to eat that ‘rubbish’ Christ proffered to him, he ate and you and I were assimilated into God’s mystery. Let us go and do likewise.