Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Traditional Easter Message
This past week, hundreds of millions of Christians around the world – Catholic, Protestant and others – observed the most important time in the Christian calendar and one of its oldest beliefs: the pain, sorrow and suffering of Jesus Christ, as well as his physical resurrection. Next month, millions of Orthodox Christians will do the same.
We of this Community, however, observe Easter each year on a fixed date – April 18th – according to the solar, not the lunar, calendar. And, 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 Light Body.
And although the Pauline churches erroneously connect Easter to the Jewish Passover, we know that the Last Supper was indeed 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. (Details of this event can be found in The Essaei Document, as well as in other material of our Community.)
Needless to say, this important distinction alone separates us from the rest of Christianity, in addition to the fact that the Essenes, of which Jesus was a part, functioned under distinct traditions, rites and rituals from their counterparts at the Temple in Jerusalem who had misinterpreted the Law of Moses to include the practice of daily sacrifice of animals and the shedding of blood as an atonement for the sins of the people.
However, I digress. Because most of the Western traditions, cultures and languages connect Easter to the Passover, the word used for this time of the year is common, except in English. For example, in Greek, the Paschal feast is called Pascha; in Hebrew, it is Pasach; in Spanish, Pascua, and so on. But in English we have the word Easter, which comes from the Old English Eostre.
We can trace Eostre to a goddess – an important goddess – called Hausos. The goddess comes from the proto-Indo European religion. And she was known as the Goddess of the Dawn. Her name was reconstructed as Ausos. 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, also 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. This 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 Rigveda as Indra and in ancient Greek mythology as Dionysus. So we see that it has always been a very important time of the year.
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 agony, misery and torment of the man, 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, is 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 in to accord with our own teaching and theology?
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 that 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. And 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 and live in this world. And if that is accomplished, one has received the gift of the resurrection – not as something abstract to wonder about after death, but something one can experience and participate in while one lives in this world.
We know that Jesus – the Christ – not only received the Word of God, but that the Logos incarnated within his Spirit. He became the Living Word of God manifest in man. Yes, he was the Messiah of Aaron and of Israel, but he, like so many others of his Christ Brothers, received the mantle of the Office of Christ on Earth. But we also know that Jesus prophesied a future time – a time when Christ, the celestial and mediating force between God and Man, would appear not in human form but out of the heavens in great power and glory. And this prophesy echoed the older prophecies of Isaiah and Malachi.
1 See the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its in rays. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts. [Malachi 4]
Malachi is prophesying about the End of Times, when God would come again at the Second Advent, when the Sun of Righteousness would appear out of the heavens in great splendor and with a Light which had never been bestowed on Earth before. And this Light would feed and nurture the Spirit at the great and final Messianic Banquet served from the true Temple of God. Thus, the message of Jesus is clear. The need for men and women to partake of the supersubstantial Food that nourishes the Soul is found in the transubstantiated Sun – the sun of matter which is transfigured into Spirit.
Therefore, in commemorating the traditional Easter Season, we do so in anticipation of True Easter, which we celebrate in the Second Advent Church on April 18th each year, according to the solar calendar. We participate in the glorious communion of the Angels of Light, joining with Jesus and the Essaei and all those of other religions who have been reborn into the Community of Light, which is the Resurrection of the Spirit that comes about only through participation in the glorious and Messianic Communion with the Celestial Christ.
The Easter Season is a time of spiritual renewal, reflection and rebirth. Communion with God begins here on Earth, for God’s Plan for the renewal and restoration of the Creation cannot be fulfilled without the unified Community and those disciplined who teach, preserve and live the revealed and sacred Teachings of Light – a teaching which has been practiced and handed down throughout the centuries and restored in our modern times for a special and appointed few. Those who are the Servants of God and Light will receive the Gift of God, which is a blessing He bestows on those who assist Him in His Divine Plan. God reveals Himself to those in Light, and those who are resurrected to Light by means of Light during this life will dwell with Him forever.
Let me close this message with these beautiful lines from the Gnostic Gospel of Phillip. I love these words because I believe they describe the resurrection so well and embody the spiritual message not only of this time of year but of what this Community teaches.
“We are born through the Holy Spirit, but we are born again through the Christ. In both we are anointed through the Spirit…No one can see himself in water or in a mirror without light. Nor again will you be able to see in light without water or a mirror. On account of this, it is fitting to baptize in both light and the water. But the light is the Anointing.
“There were three buildings for offering-places in Jerusalem. One was open to the west; they called it “the holy.” Another was open to the south; the called it “the holy of the holy.” The third was open to the east; they called it “the holy of the holies.” It was the place into which the high priest came alone. The Baptism is the holy house…the holy of the holy. The holy of the holies is the bridal chamber.
“Those who say they will die first and rise again are in error. If they do not first receive the resurrection while they live, when they die they will receive nothing. So also they speak about Baptism, saying that Baptism is a great thing because if people receive it, they will live….The Anointing is greater than Baptism. For by the Anointing we are called Christians, not because of Baptism. And they call Christ so because of the Anointing….He who has been anointed has the All; he has the resurrection, the Light, the Cross, and the Holy Spirit. The Father gave him these things in the bridal chamber….
“The Cup of Prayer holds wine, it holds water. It serves as a type of the blood by which they give thanks. And it is full of the Holy Spirit and it belongs to the completely perfect Man. When we drink this, we will take to ourselves the perfect Man. The living water is a body. It is fitting that we clothe ourselves with the living Man. Therefore, when he comes to go down to the water, he disrobes in order that he may put this one on. A horse begets a horse; a man begets a man; a god begets a god. It is thus with the bridegroom and the bride. The holy man is all holy, including his body. For, if he holds the bread, he will make it holy, or the cup, or anything else which he holds, he will make it pure….Everyone who will go into the bridal chamber will be born of light. For they are not conceived from the marriage which is consecrated in the night…But the mysteries of marriage are fulfilled in the day and light. That day or its light does not set. If anyone becomes a child of the bridal chamber, he will receive light. If anyone does not receive it while he is in these places, the world, he will not be able to receive it in the other place. The one who has received light cannot be seen nor can he be held, and no one can torment him, even if he lives in the world. And also, if he should go out of the world, already he has received the truth in images….
“…Blessed is the one who exists before he comes into being. For he who exists, he was and will be.”
These inspired and enlightened words express the message of Jesus and the essence of his teaching. Therefore, let us be resolved to go forth – our fellowship renewed and strengthened, and our love and joy for one another regenerated. What a symbolically beautiful time of year for this: Springtime, when all things are made new. And let us give thanks for the promise of the Second Advent, as prophesied by Jesus Christ, which has been fulfilled in our special age. What a blessing it is! For how many countless men and women over these past many centuries have longed for and awaited the Second Coming of God – this powerful and profound spiritual Consciousness that is manifesting in the world and permeating all things with an energy never before felt and experienced by the human Spirit? And we are privileged to be a part of it – to assist God in a new way as servants and workers in the New Covenant, which is destined to bring about a new Heaven and a new Earth.
