WEEKLY MESSAGE: April 27, 2022

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

The Twenty-second Saying (Part 12)

“Then The Mariner said, ‘My mind returns to the difficulty of exemplifying righteousness. Why is it so difficult, and I am speaking singularly, to exemplify righteousness – to live The Way. Also, despite our ideals and our intentions, why is it so difficult to do the proper thing – the right thing?’

“The Man said, ‘The world is a world of matter. And matter originated out of Darkness. Therefore, Darkness is the ruler, the governor, and the god of the material world. This is the first great fundamental teaching that must be acknowledged by all initiates of The Way. Thw world evolved out of the archetype which was the Fallen Angel, then out of Adam and Eve, the progenitors of the human race. There is nothing Good in the world – only Evil, only Darkness, only suffering, and only pain. If it were otherwise, we would not experience death. Regardless of how beautiful a child may be to its parents, that child will eventually grow, suffer and die. And that child is lost to the parent, as the parent is lost to the child. There can be no permanence in matter. Therefore, matter is not Good, because Good cannot suffer and Good cannot die. That is a fundamental teaching.

“‘Acknowledging and accepting that the world is not a Good place, that the world must be restored to Goodness by changing to Light and to spirit, the teacher – the disciple of God, the minister of God – does not cling to the world. He or she clings to the spirit, clings to God, and is strengthened and nurtured by The Image and The Word of God. One is first spirit and secondly a physical being or a human being.

“‘We struggle in the world because we exist in a world of Evil and Darkness. The world suffers violence. Men and women who possess great power and wealth suffer and die just as poor people do. There is no real, lasting benefit in the world.

“‘The world is continually at war on greater and lesser scales. The State is at war. The bureaucrats are at war. All are at war with one another. Life forms in the world are involved in a constant vicious cycle of eating and killing other forms by which to live. Everything is based on death. The survival of the fittest is constantly demonstrated in our society and in our social and family life. No matter how much we love our spouse, our children, our brothers and sisters, father and mother, there is continual strife. This is the way of the world – of our human nature – but not the way of our spiritual Nature.

“‘Therefore, we must expect the world to be at war with us – to war with the Church. The Church is obligated to instruct the world by example. The best way to live an example is to be stern, as was Jesus, even if you are killed for it. We need to be stern, to be strict, to lead by example, to organize, and to live in Community, because only by strength of numbers can we hope to overcome the power of the State. The State governs us by numbers.

“‘The world is kept ignorant of God because people are in the hands of the Powers of Darkness. And the Powers of Darkness must always fight against the Light. It is a perpetual struggle. And even if you were to be enlightened and even if you were to become ennobled and become a great spiritual Teacher, you would still have to suffer the indignation, the undignified act of suffering old age and death. In the end, the world triumphs over the body. There cannot be peace or Goodness on earth except in spirit. Therefore, the world must change and be restored to its original state. That is the goal of spiritual Teachers. If we let go of the spirit and cling to the world, we are lost. But though we lose our bodies or our human beingness, if we cling to the spirit, that is where we find our immortality and our permanence.

“‘In giving The Image and The Word to humankind – to the world – God gives Food for nourishment of the Soul. In other words, God’s Image and Word is food to the spirit. God is what feeds us; not prayer, not devotions, not the sacraments, not the priests of the old church, not anything of the world. If we can understand that it is only God’s Image and Word as our Food and Nourishment that sustains and redeems and restores us, then we can understand the need for living in Community, which allows us to become instruments of change for the world. If Light does not live and exist in the world, then the world will have no knowledge of it; and it is our obligation to give knowledge of God’s Image and Word to it.

“‘That is why we must build a City and a Nation of God. We must dwell in Sanctuary – we need to preserve The Teachings in archives and keep them in existence for the world so they will not be lost. Jesus was killed, the disciples were killed, the first Church was destroyed; and through that destruction, the Teachings of the True Begotten Son of God – The Image and The Word manifest – were lost. And the world inherited a perverted, artificial, man-made religion that people follow, believing it is the Way to God, which it is not. That is a horrible realization once you are reborn and have knowledge of the Truth. Each must hold to The Way and not be weakened by the hold of the world.’”