HEAD OVERSEER’S HOLY WEEK MESSAGE
This week, hundreds of millions of Christians of the Western traditions around the world – mainly Catholic and Protestant but a myriad of others – are observing Holy Week (albeit mostly in the privacy of their homes) in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Next week, millions of Eastern Orthodox Christians around the world will do the same.
However, we in the Second Advent Church Community observe Easter on a fixed date – April 18 – each year according to the solar, not lunar, calendar. And, of course, we do so in an entirely different way and with an entirely unique message. Most importantly, we do not recognize or teach the resurrection of the physical body, only the resurrection of the reborn spiritual or Light Body. Of course, this concept in and of itself; would have gotten us all burned at the stake or hanged not so long ago.
You may have heard me say this before, but I emphasize this point and make the distinction of the English root of the word “Easter” because it differs substantially from the word Pascha and its meaning as relative to the Jewish Passover. For instance, in Spanish Easter is “Pascua,” and in French it is “Pâques.”
I will not get into the details here of the Last Supper and how it was a sacred Essene pannuches meal centered around the 50-day pentacontad cycle (during which Jesus declared himself to be the Messiah of Aaron and Israel;) and that it was not related to the Jewish Passover, as is accepted in the Pauline churches. Needless to say, this important distinction alone separates us from the rest of Christianity.
So, to get back to the point, the word “Easter” in English comes from the Anglo-Saxon Eostre, which can be traced to an important goddess called Hausos. The goddess comes from the proto-Indo European religion, and she is the Goddess of the Dawn. Her name was reconstructed as Ausos, and in India she is referred to as Usas; in Greek Eos; and in Latin Aurora.
The name was derived from the root “to Shine,” thus, translating to “The Shining One.” The English word “East” is derived from this word; and so is the Latin “Aurum” meaning gold. The dawn goddess was also the Goddess of Spring. In the Anglo-Saxon world, and also in the Germanic world, this time – this Easter or Eostre – was called Eosturmonath – or Easter Month – which was celebrated for the entire month of April. The Goddess of Spring was involved in the mythology of the Indo-European new year where the Dawn Goddess was liberated by God from imprisonment. She is known in the Rig Veda as Indra and in ancient Greek mythology as Dionysus. So we see that it is a very important time of the year going back thousands of years before the time of Jesus.
So how do we in the Second Advent/Cosolargy Community reconcile ourselves with this ancient observance? How do we – who do not accept the physical resurrection of the body – harmonize ourselves with this “holy week” which emphasizes the pain, sorrow, suffering, and death of Jesus? How do we – who do not teach that he was the sacrificial Passover lamb, an offering acceptable to God whose blood is shed daily on the altars of churches around the world everywhere and that the shedding of his blood, however ritualistically – was an atonement for the sins of the world? How do we come to terms with those many, many millions of people who do? And, how do we – who reject that Christ’s crucifixion was “good” or that it was the Will of God, holding instead that it was the murder of a Son of Light by the civil and religious authorities of the day – how do we bring that into accord with our own teaching and theology?
For example, the other day I heard an evangelical pastor on the news saying that God had sent the coronavirus. Let me repeat that: God has sent COVID-19, and just as the Israelites had been protected in their homes by God with the blood of the lamb during the Passover, Christians staying at home this Holy Week are and will be protected by God by the blood of Christ as the paschal sacrificial lamb. I hope you see what I’m getting at. It is, in all honesty, a disgusting concept.
So how do we reconcile ourselves with this? We do so by emphasizing what we know to be Christ’s true message: First, that we are all endowed by the Creator of our Spiritual Beings with an eternal and immortal Soul, if we but cause that divine generative force – Christ or the Word – to penetrate into the spiritual womb. Second, that once we consent to the Word of God – the Logos – being allowed to impregnate our Spirit, that Spirit becomes animated by the Thought and Will of God the Father and becomes a living, breathing, Conscious Soul able to reason on heavenly things. Third, that once imbued with Christ Consciousness, the Soul, released from the cycle of generated existence, recalls and remembers its history and origin and consciously participates in the Worlds of Light, continually partaking of a divine Communion.
This was the message of Christ Jesus. This is what was symbolized by the Last Supper – the act of the reborn, Conscious Soul partaking of the True Communion, feeding off the Word of God – the Bread from Heaven – and drinking from the Cup filled with God’s Living Waters – which is Divine Light. And this is also the message of the Messianic Church of the Second Advent.
The beauty of it all is that it can be done in the here and now – that our spiritual immortality and divinity can be realized while we exist in this world. And if that is accomplished, one has received the gift of the resurrection – not as something abstract to wonder about before death, but something one can experience and participate in while one lives in this world. But what we must do– and this may be the most difficult of lessons – is to learn to accomplish our spiritual quest in the way that Jesus exemplified his: with peace, love and joy.
I will continue on this theme next week as we approach True Easter on April 18th. We will also continue with our review of the Thirteenth Saying of Jamil. In the meantime, I wish you a very happy Eosturmonath.
Again, if I may be of any personal service to you, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Very truly yours in Light+,
Gene