Wednesday, September 4, 2024

This past Saturday’s readings are from the Gnostic Book of Baruch and from The Prophecy to the Races of Man, Chapter 69: The Parousia (pp. 448 – 453). Click here to read the first scriptural reading, and click the audio button below to hear the reading from our Second Advent scripture.

Once again, please feel free to ask me any questions by calling 775-786-7432 or emailing me at messages@cosolargy.org. I am always at your service.

In Light+,

Gene

Japanese-style Second Advent Cross PHOTO: Yukako Kawai

“As the portrait painter keeps an eye upon the king’s face as he draws, and when the king’s face is toward him, he draws the portrait easily, but when the king turns his face away, he cannot draw. In like manner, Christ, the good artist to those who believe in him and gaze continually at him, straightaway portrays after his own image a heavenly person. Out of his own spirit, out of the substance of Light itself, the ineffable Light, he paints a heavenly image. If a person does not gaze constantly at Christ, the Lord will not paint his image with His own Light. We must, therefore, gaze upon him, believing him and loving him, throwing away all else and attending to him in order that he may paint His own heavenly Image and send it into our souls, and thus, wearing Christ, we may receive eternal life, and have full assurance and be at rest.

“As the golden coin, if it does not receive the imprint of the King’s image, does not come upon the market, but is discarded, so the soul, if it has not the image of the Heavenly Spirit in Light, is not fit for the treasures above.”

–St Macarius the Egyptian

The Portrait Painter

It seems odd to think of Christ as a portrait painter, but this is an obvious use of metaphor and allegory.

While I’ve never been a portrait painter myself, I can understand how one would get frustrated if the subject kept turning away or changing position. That is why many portrait painters today will take photos of the subject, and then work from the photos, perhaps only asking the subject to sit for a short while at the end to complete the final details.

At first, it sounds like St. Macarius is saying that Christ is painting a portrait of us, but if you read the quote carefully, you will see that he is painting a portrait of Himself upon our Soul.

Macarius tells us we must be continuously looking at Christ for this to happen. That is impossible to do, in a literal sense, and still function in the material world. What it really means is that we must keep a mental image of Christ in our minds at all times. In Cosolargy, we are taught to keep an image of the Cosolargy Cross in our minds at all times, which is the same thing as that cross is a symbol of Christ.

The Ineffable Light

Those of us who have been in Cosolargy for more than a few months know that when we talk about the Light, we don’t mean the basic light of a light bulb, or even the light of the material sun, but we seek out a greater Light that is Spiritual and comes to us through the Spiritual Sun. St. Macarius calls this “the ineffable Light, which is a good name for it. Ineffable means something so great or powerful that it can’t be described accurately in words. That is the Light we all seek.

Believe in God and Love God

St. Macarius tends to use Christ and God as if they mean the same thing, but we in Cosolargy know that they are not the same. Macarius is correct in saying we must believe in God and Love God if we are to receive God’s greatest gift, that Spiritual Light that awakens and develops the spirit into a conscious Soul, and makes us truly immortal.

The Golden Coin

This is another allegorical way to tell us that we must have Christ in our spirit and soul, we must have that Divine Light in our soul if we are to reach heaven when we leave the world. While it makes many people happy to believe they will get to heaven without having to do anything to earn that great privilege, it is a fantasy. The great mystery schools of the world and the founders of the major religions never taught that. They have always taught that getting to Heaven was a privilege that had to be earned.