The Climax Which Must In Season Come
from The Secret of the Resurrection
Uranda April 18, 1954 Class
The cycles of time, the outworking of events, the steps of progress along the Way, have brought us to this hour. We pause for only a moment to consider in retrospect that which has been, that we may realize that with the passage of time the cycle of our opportunity draws certainly to some type of climax in the outworking of life. And the nature of that climax in the cycle is something which will bring us satisfaction or sorrow. We have at hand for our meditations in this regard a unique and marvelous pattern from the records of the past—the story of our Master’s Life as He lived among men. For in the cycles of His Ministry, with the passage of time there came a point of climax—first with the appearance of sorrow, with the appearance of what seemed to be failure; but secondly, with unspeakable joy and positive Victory.
This Victory, emerging out of that which had brought such sorrow, is that which has stirred hope in human hearts down through many centuries, a hope which could not be given form in any adequate sense by the tens of millions who have felt it, but a surge of hope which extends to us in this day. This that has been vaguely felt and partially perceived must, if the passage of time is to have meaning, begin to take form so that we may develop an awareness of its specific and essential factors, so that we may comprehend the pattern of personal relatedness, that it may for us be more than the stirrings of a sense of hope in the human breast—that it may become for us a conscious recognition of the basis for that hope, not merely in some vague, far-distant time but in this present hour of life.
Looking back along the cycles of history, upon the pages which bear the record of so many lives, we see innumerable examples wherein human beings reached the climax of that cycle that was granted in the passage of time, wherein there was a sharing in the sorrow, in the sense of failure, in the feeling that if meaning was yet to derive from life it must be in some distant time, by some mystic or magic means. There are not so many examples from these same pages of history which show an acceptance of the privilege of Victory. This unique example, established high above all others in the historical record, shows how it is that man has a tendency to disregard the greater needs of his own being and to pass through the years with attention given to the surface of things, until an hour when it is too late for man to know the Victory. And yet, even so, there is the evidence that that which is not humanly distorted, that which is not subject to human limitations, in any case emerges, known or unknown, to continue in the pattern of eternal things.
The question then arises in our minds, in relationship to ourselves, as to that which shall emerge: “When the time of crisis comes for me,” the climax of the cycle, “how much of it shall be that which I have known, and revealed, and shared on earth? And how much of it shall be that which was unknown, obscure and hidden, unrevealed as far as my life is concerned?” It is not that there is that in any life which comes wholly to an end; for with each one there is something which shall surely endure and emerge into the eternal. But if that which emerges has been unknown, unseen, unrevealed during life, then that which is of such a life, as it has been known among men, does not emerge, nor does it continue. There is that with respect to every life which does emerge but if it has not been known during life on earth, the fact that it has emerged will likewise be unknown, and for the children of men there will be no evidence of Victory, no evidence that the life had true eternal meaning.
Here, in relationship to the Great Example, we have an opportunity which should not be passed lightly, an opportunity which is worthy of much meditation. If that which has been revealed in life by the living of any man or woman has been of the Divine Pattern revealed on earth, then that which emerges at the point of climax in the cycle of time will be of the life that was known among men and it will be possible to recognize that it does emerge—and there is the evidence of Victory.
Our Master, living among men, had of necessity to share with men the pattern of things as they then were. And while He expressed and revealed in the cycle of His life that which was of the eternal nature of His own Being so that it was given form on earth, those with whom He was associated, provided the Body of His Being in relationship to the children of men, and they failed to adequately share that revelation. So, for the time being it appeared that what He had revealed was to become submerged in their failure to reveal and to share. In the moment of the crisis, then, in the climax of that life cycle, it appeared that failure had been written upon the page of history. And yet there had been that which was of the Divine Design, revealed in form on earth, that which by its very nature could not pass away but was destined to endure in the eternal cycles of time. It had been revealed. It had been expressed in life. It had been shown forth by word and deed. This then, which was eternal by its very nature, and which had been revealed among men, could not come to an end. It could not cease to be.
And this is the secret of our Master's Glorious Victory. It was not something that came suddenly into action in the dark confines of a tomb, to produce some magic or mystic means by which He should come forth in the Resurrection. If He had waited until that hour to meet the issue it would have been too late, and no magic or mystic means would have appeared by which the Victory might have been revealed. This Victory had its form, its patterns of being, extending back through the years of His life. It was something that was inherent in the years of His public Ministry.
Let us examine this point a little, for human beings have tended to imagine, out of the vain imaginations of men's hearts, that the secret of the Resurrection was something that was contained in the grave, that it was the sound of a trumpet, that it was something mystical and magic which took over, as it were, in the hour of crisis, something above and beyond that which human beings may comprehend. But as long as such a concept is retained in consciousness man cannot share that Victory, man cannot know that which the Master revealed in the Victory. We need, as others likewise need, a consciousness of personal relatedness to that which was at work with Him in relationship to the Resurrection and the Life, not something which came suddenly from some unseen realm to produce this result, not something which we cannot know now, and not something for which we must wait unknown centuries yet to come.
The Master revealed the secret of the Resurrection and the Life, about which He spoke, before the moment of His Victory. And how did it appear? From whence did it come? If by some magic means, then we have nothing more than to hope that somehow, sometime, this mystic, magic means will be brought into play for us and we have no sense of sharing a responsibility in the manifestation of the Victory. It is as if God were going to hand such a gift to those of His choosing, at some time of His choice, and that man, aside from having made a claim of belief, has little to do with it. This erroneous concept, springing from the evil imaginations of men’s hearts, continues to maintain a prison to defeat man and make his hope to be in vain.
What was it that came forth, that emerged at the time of this great climax, that it might be seen and known that the Resurrection and the Life are a Reality? What was it that emerged? It was the personalized manifestation of that which the Master revealed during life. It was that of the eternal which was a part of His Being prior to the coming of the climax. It was that which was revealed in His nature and character, not something different afterward than that which had been known before, but identically the same thing—for the wholeness of the revelation, being eternal in its nature, emerged in the Resurrection. And man, no matter how villainous, no matter how degraded—no matter how spineless a Pilate might be—could not, by sword or spear, by cross or method of execution, destroy that which had been already revealed.
Now if, while we live on earth, we reveal by our lives that which can be destroyed, then most certainly, with the coming of the climax in the cycles of time, that will cease to be and, in such a case, for us there will be no outer evidence, no appearance of Victory—for that which has been revealed is not, by its nature, eternal. And having been destroyed, that which does emerge will be invisible, even as it was invisible during the life span of the human being involved. Here is the secret of the Resurrection. It is not that that which is subject to death shall emerge, but only that which is not subject to death. And what is it that is revealed by our living? For every man and woman must come to this time of climax sooner or later. No one can escape it.
This climax in the cycles of time was present in the days before the fall of man. The difference was that the man or the woman had learned to reveal in life only those things which were eternal by their very nature—and at that point of climax there was nothing to pass away. This opportunity is before us in this day as surely as it was before the fall, as surely as it was for our LORD on earth. It is not to be suggested that any man or woman may emerge into the cycle of eternal things without having to meet this climax. Each one will have to meet it. Always it has been so, and always it will be so, regardless of the state of the world. This must be faced by each and every one. The point is—what has been revealed on earth during life with the passage of time that leads to the great climax? Is there that adequately revealed, when segregated from all that has been revealed, that it may be in some revealed and known? Or, coming to the point of climax, when it is too late to do anything about it, will we find that most of that which has been revealed in the living of life must of necessity, by its very nature, pass away?
If, during life on earth, we learn to reveal in form on earth that which, by its very nature, must endure and cannot be destroyed, and if we give any degree of wholeness to such revelation, then at the point of climax there is little or nothing to pass away, and there is evidence of sharing in the Victory. But he who thinks to share the Victory after his body is dead deludes himself, for then there is no means by which whatever Victory there might be may be seen and known among men. And if it be not seen and known among men here on earth, of what value is it? For that which emerges in such a case into the invisible realms is no more than that which came from the invisible realms, and during the life of human beings was not seen or known on earth—therefore, there could be no consciousness of anything emerging. It was not revealed during life so how could it be revealed at the time of the climax in the cycle of life.
This secret is clearly revealed in the life of our Master, and in all the pages of history it is the only point where all of its aspects are clearly revealed. There are hints concerning it at other points but nowhere else were all the factors given form where they might be seen and known of men here on earth. This then, is of utmost importance to us, and we can see in a new light the value of Rebirth, the necessity of becoming a member of the Body through which the Christ is revealed on earth—for if in daily living we reveal that which must pass away, then that which is known of men when the crisis comes will be that which must pass away, and there is nothing visible to men to emerge in the Victory.
Think not that any can escape the crisis. It never has been so with any man or woman who lived on earth. It never will be so in any time to come. Each must face that crisis in his appointed time, soon or late as the case may seem to be. But face it he must! Our Master did. But that which was of the outer appearance, that which stood out in the body of form to be seen as the crisis approached was not that which He had revealed, for with the gathering of events to a point of focus, that which others were revealing became the cloak, the outer appearance, the form of things to be seen, and that which He was revealing was well nigh submerged, well nigh lost, under the cloak imposed by self-active human beings. And in that hour of climax the air had to clear; something had to pass away.
What was it that passed away? That which human beings were revealing which brought on the crisis at that point, yes. That which the Master had revealed Himself to be, in actual fact, the revelation on earth in life of eternal things—could that pass away? Was it some mystic, magic thing that suddenly appeared within the tomb to take over? Ah, no. It was the fact that that which He was before the crisis was a revelation of that which, by its very nature, endures—which by its very nature could not pass away. It was with this that He was identified in Himself and in the consciousness of others. Therefore, emerging from this point of climax, there came forth the revelation of that which human beings had known before. They had had an opportunity to know its character. They had seen it in its form, the things that endure. They had recognized that form as having identity, and, having seen it before, they recognized it after, when it was shown that the things that are eternal cannot pass away—that by their very nature they must endure.
With respect to any man or woman anywhere, at any time, in any generation, if he or she shall truly reveal, on the basis of identity, on the basis of form, in consistent expression here on earth, that which by its very nature must endure, then out of that crisis, the climax which must in season come, there will be emerging from that crisis the evidence of Victory in a form which human beings can see and recognize and know. He who hopes for some magic working by which he may emerge is asking God to give eternal life to that which must, by its very nature, pass away—and such a thing cannot be. If you, the human being, became identified, within yourself and in the eyes of others round about who have the capacity to recognize and know—if you become identified with that which endures and cannot pass away, then emerging from the climax there will be the evidence of Victory. How long and in what fashion that evidence will remain in form on earth visible to the children of men is not for any human mind to say. Our Master Himself so remained for only forty days in the form that was right and proper for Him. And yet we say, “For only forty days?” What is this thing then, which we share today after the passage of nineteen centuries? Is it not the same? Is it not this that He revealed that we are asked to reveal? If we have no personal relatedness in and with it, if we are not identified by that with which He was identified, how think we to endure? And of what value will be the passage of the years that lead to the climax? For then it will be nothing more than the vanishing away of that which must pass away. And what remains?
People talk about the corpse as if that were the remains. All too often it is. But there should be something else remaining, something remaining in the expression of that life which, by its very nature, cannot pass away—something with which you are identified. Now, you are not the whole. You are but a part. And there are questions which might, in vague and fanciful fashion, take form in your minds with respect to these things. But if you give yourselves to such fancies you will defeat yourselves and make our meditation of no effect in your life. Think, rather, upon that which you can see of this great Truth in its personal relatedness to you. For what think you? What is it that shall endure? What is it that is worthy of any Heaven up there, or here, or Heaven in any place, in any form? What in you, formed in you, identified with you, expressed and revealed through you, is it that is worthy of an enduring place and part in any Heaven anywhere?
Anything else must pass away, and pass away it will. Whether you are identified with it or not, whether you like it or not, in the cycles of time it shall be so. And in that moment when you face your climax it is too late to change it then, for the time allotted for the revelation of that which endures shall then be past, and that which takes place takes in you and with respect to you will be on the basis of that which has been revealed in your life, that which has been identified with you—that with which you yourself have become identified. And that which must pass away will, with certainty and surety. And that which endures, by its very nature, will be a part of eternal things with absolute assurance and certainty.
This does not change. The only thing is—with what are you identified, not by reason of the claim of your lips or the fancy of your mind, but with what are you identified according to the evidence of your life as it stands in the history of the years of your life? It is not what you claim with your lips, not according to the fancy of your mind and what you think to believe. The record of the years is that which shall be told, and if you have revealed in life, in form on earth, that which must pass away, then that with which you are identified, that which identifies you, must pass away. But if, in this passage of the years, that with which you are identified, that with which you have identified yourself, has been of the eternal nature and it has been given form in you, in your living day by day, then this revealed on earth as you, having come from God, cannot in any crisis pass away. It is, and it ever shall be.
This is what took place in the life of our Master—the unique example in all recorded history by which we may clearly see the difference, so that we may distinguish, in advance of the crisis, the nature of that which shall pass away and the nature of that which shall endure, as it relates to ourselves. And we can see that we, each one, have the responsibility and the right of free choice. God will not compel you into any Heaven if you should choose, rather, to live in hell—and in the end pass away with that which must pass away and which is then gone and is no more. There is that in each one which shall emerge and endure but if that has not been revealed on earth in form in the living of life, how shall we know it? How shall we recognize it, as having relationship to you? And from whence shall come the evidence that you have shared the Victory?
© Emissaries of Divine Light
Rebirth and Resurrection
Martin Cecil April 22, 1973
The truth takes form in expression according to the working of the Law. The extent of response determines what shall find expression in this regard. If it seems that something has to be imposed it will not be the truth. There is a way by which these things may be experienced, a way which is based in response. There must be an asking, a seeking, a knocking—but this must be directed toward the source of truth. Human beings habitually ask of each other. They seek in the environment around them. They knock at doors behind which there is only darkness. Asking and seeking and knocking in self-centeredness can only bring an increased darkness of ignorance. It is useless to look in the wrong direction to find the truth.
The truth comes from God. The truth puts in an appearance when the Law is fulfilled. It is a very exact process, not understood at all in the self-centered state which human beings know. The darkness of self-centeredness is spoken of symbolically in the Bible as Egyptian darkness. Those who are self-centered find themselves in this darkened state of ignorance. The darkness does not comprehend the light, so it is imagined that ignorance is enlightenment. In self-centeredness the Lord remains unknown. He may be imagined, some may believe in their imagination, but the Lord must remain unknown, because the darkness comprehends not the light. In ignorance there is the imagination that what is seen is based in an enlightened state, but is in fact all darkness, and as long as a person doesn't know it's darkness he is deluded indeed. The world has remained in this deluded state for countless centuries, and insofar as the vast majority of human beings are concerned in the world today it is the same as ever—darkness.
But in the creative process darkness is found to be the starting point. It may be used to advantage. Today, Easter Day, the Christian world remembers the resurrection of the body of Jesus from out of the tomb into the garden—resurrection, an experience which occurred right here on earth in spite of all that was done to that particular individual body. In spite of physical suffering, in spite of physical damage, in spite of all the injustice that was experienced, it was apparent that there was nothing that human beings could do to prevent the resurrection of the body of Jesus—in other words, to kill it. It is assumed that when the body was put in the tomb it was dead. From all outward appearances this seemed to be so, but regardless of the seeming, it is quite evident that life was still present, or else how would the body have come forth from the tomb? So here was a portrayal, with respect to one individual, of what could be, should be and would be the experience of the true body of the Son of God composed of many individuals—to occur in the days to come.
The whole world is in darkness; mankind is in a profound state of ignorance. This would surely be denied by most people on earth, I suppose particularly by those who are involved in the scientific field and others who are involved in the religious field. The scientist imagines that he knows so much; the religionist imagines that he knows and understands so much; but all is darkness, because of the self-centered state of those who assume that they are not ignorant. Self-centeredness and ignorance are synonymous. All human beings are self-centered and therefore ignorant. They are, in that self-centered state, in a tomb which is dark. What occurs in the tomb, according to the self-centered viewpoint and the self-centered experience, is disintegration. But the same tomb of darkness, once self-centeredness is dispelled, becomes a womb out of which may be born the truth of man. It is the same darkness in either case. If it is left merely as the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of self-centeredness, so that those who are self-centered do not see it as darkness, then there can be but one result and that is disintegration. Disintegration is a right experience in the tomb; integration is the right experience in the womb. Darkness is in the womb, but it is not the darkness of ignorance—it is the darkness which is present at the initiation of a creative cycle. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”
Here is what might be called divine darkness. It wasn't the darkness of ignorance insofar as God was concerned but merely a fitting starting point for a particular creative cycle. And this is always so when God creates. What is Egyptian darkness to man in self-centeredness provides the darkness of the womb for the initiation of a creative process by God—the spirit of God may move upon the face of the waters. All this relates to the processes of resurrection. They are analogous in principle to the processes of conception, gestation, birth, and development to maturity, within the range of human experience. By the same token, if we are considering the resurrection of an already existing body on earth, a body that is seemingly in the tomb but really in the womb, the same principles apply. There is a creative process. This initial starting point is followed naturally by the successive creative days in proper sequence. Now this same thing occurs in the resurrection with which we are concerned now, today—the resurrection of the body of the Son of God on earth, that man may be present on earth once more.
Words which were spoken through the lips of Jesus have come down to us now in the English language. I would like to read some of these words now, that we might consider them, not as words spoken in the dim and distant past by some unknown man but spoken now, in this moment, as the truth taking form to be shared and understood by us. These words come from the record contained in the 6th chapter of the Gospel according to John, starting with the 37th verse: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
There is an implication here that those who do not “come to me” are cast out. Only those who do come to Him are in no wise cast out. “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.” Here mention is made of the Father, by whom? By the Son—the Son of God referring to God as His Father. This of course relates to the fact that God is Universal, whereas what comes to focus insofar as this particular world is concerned just relates to this particular world—and in a special sense to mankind. The Son of God is then, naturally, the Focus Point of Deity emerging out of the Universal God with respect to this particular world. Here is a recognition of the oneness of what comes to focus with respect to this world and the totality of God—there is no separation. So the One whom we speak of as Lord is the Son of God in relationship to Universal God, but at the same time He is Lord insofar as this world is concerned, because through Him Universal God comes to focus for this world. “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.” All that comes to focus from Universal God, extending through the Son of God into this world, shall in the working of the Law bring all that belongs to God back to the Son of God, and through the Son of God to God. “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Of course! He will not violate the Law. But those who do not come are automatically cast out.
“For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
“And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
“And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
This statement has taken on some peculiar meanings in what is called Christianity, but we may see what it is that is really being said. When He came on earth in the body of Jesus, that body was a substitute pattern for the true body of the Son of God. It was not the body of the Son of God; it was a substitute pattern for the body of the Son of God—it represented the body of the Son of God. The body of the Son of God is contained within the body of humanity; it is composed of many human beings. It is not the body of just one person, not even the body of our Lord and King when He was on earth. His individual body was a representative body for the body of the Son of God.
The body of the Son of God has been present on earth, although apparently lifeless. Human beings can easily look around and see that it has been seemingly absent. Of course there has been an endeavor from the standpoint of Christianity, and the ideas which have been developed in that doctrine, that somehow or other, by instituting and organizing churches, the body of the Son of God could be produced by human beings. It is no wonder that on this basis there should be so much conflict, because everybody has a different idea about it. But the truth of the matter is that the body of the Son of God has remained apparently lifeless in the tomb. Look as one might, it couldn't be found; it was in the dark. But the tomb in which man's self-centeredness disintegrates is also the womb in which the body of the Son of God may be resurrected. It requires that those who compose the body be born again—born of water and of the spirit.
The spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters. This is the initiating point for the creative cycle of resurrection, leading toward the manifestation on earth of the Son of God. This is the second coming, in the sense that the Son of God was once manifest on earth. It is not speaking of the substitute body called Jesus, the representative body of the Son of God. The second coming relates to what was once before a reality; namely, the true body of the Son of God. This was present on earth before man fell. It has apparently been in the tomb ever since.
Now is the time of resurrection. There have been other opportunities for resurrection along the way, surely, but those are now meaningless except insofar as they brought us to this point. If we do not take advantage of having been brought to this point, well our lives are wasted; we make ourselves meaningless and disintegrate in self-centeredness. The body of the Son of God is in what appears to be a tomb of disintegration but is in reality, insofar as the body of the Son of God is concerned, a womb of resurrection. Now this seemed to be so in relationship to the body of Jesus. Everybody thought that they had put His dead body in the tomb. But it turned out that it wasn't a tomb insofar as that body was concerned. It proved to be a womb through which the creative processes of the resurrection worked out.
The creative processes of the resurrection of the body of the Son of God today work out in what is apparently a tomb. All things disintegrate in this darkened state of self-centeredness. A tomb is dark and the place of disintegration, from the standpoint of self-centeredness. Human bodies disintegrate; the things that human beings build disintegrate; everything that is done in the human sense, from the word go, is disintegrating. Here is the self-centered state, the tomb state, the state of darkened ignorance in which human beings have insisted upon remaining, partly because they didn't see anything else and partly because they thought they were going to enjoy what was happening in the tomb. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die! Rather it should be put: Eat, drink and be merry, for today we are dying! And if you can get much merriment out of that process you have succeeded where every human being thus far has failed. No. As there is a willingness to relinquish self-centeredness there may be a recognition of the darkness of the tomb.
We see it as darkness, but by the same token we recognize that here is the means by which the creative process of resurrection may occur, so we do not object to the fact that the tomb is dark. This is a very different attitude from that held, as a rule, by those who begin to awaken to the fact of darkness, because most people, becoming aware of the appalling state of disintegration in the world and the appalling state of self-centered human beings in the world, become very distraught about it and want to try to convert everyone to something so that they can stop the disintegration. But the fact of the matter is that there's nothing wrong with disintegration in the tomb; that's what should happen in the tomb. However there is also the state of darkness in the womb, where integration occurs. Integration occurs with respect to the body of the Son of God which is in the process of experiencing the resurrection—disintegration occurs with respect to all the rest. This clears things up.
We may then rejoice on Easter Day because of the resurrection, not merely the resurrection of Jesus two thousand years ago. What meaning does that have to us now unless we share the experience now? We can't share it back there. This is the futile endeavor that human beings have undertaken every Easter, isn't it?—to try to share something that happened two thousand years ago. Well it happened to Jesus; He knew what it was; but nobody else did and nobody else has since. Let's begin to share it now so that the door He opened in this regard through the body that represented the body of the Son of God may be the experience of the actual body of the Son of God. That He provided this example, an evidence of the way it works, is a marvelous thing and we would not in any sense detract from that, because if that hadn't been done we would be in a sorry mess now—if anything still existed at all. But that was done. The door was opened—the veil was rent. There is nothing to stop the resurrection of the body of the Son of God in the creative cycles as they move—now!
We may share these creative cycles now in the experience which allows the true resurrection to occur. And who knows what that is? Nobody, because it hasn't been experienced. That's the only way it can be known. Just to believe some fanciful idea, or even just to believe the principle of resurrection, doesn't inform us at all as to what the resurrection is. We are only informed by experiencing it. The resurrection relates to the individual and collective restoration to the experience of Man—to the mature experience of Man. And we remember that Man was created on the sixth creative day. He wasn't created on the first creative day. But if what was created on the first day had not been created, certainly Man could not have been created come the sixth day. So it is necessary to move through the cycle of six. “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work.” Here is the completed cycle, for Man was created on the sixth day and what Man is remains unknown until this cycle of resurrection has worked itself through to the sixth day. This is something that occurs individually and collectively. Unfortunately the creative cycle hitherto, both individually and collectively, has always been aborted.
When our Lord and King was on earth in the body of Jesus He initiated the cycle then. The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” through the lips of Jesus. And there was light. Scarcely anyone knew it, because the darkness comprehends not the light. Only those who recognize their own darkened state of ignorance and are disgusted by it will begin to wake up to the light; but as long as one can wallow in the filth of the darkness of Egypt and enjoy it there's not much hope for a person. There must be a recognition of what one is doing and of the horrible condition which results from that doing. Awakened to that, then there will be horror with respect to it and a desire to let the cycles of maturing, the cycles of resurrection, work out. Human beings have simply refused to let this happen heretofore. They insist upon their self-centered ways. They want it to work out in the way they want it to work out, according to the idea and concept of what would be pleasing to themselves. And it does not work out that way. If anyone tries to make it work out that way they stay in the tomb and they disintegrate in the tomb. They may try to take pleasure in that.
The word is: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,” before the evil days come too much, before the disintegrative processes have gone too far. Let it work out in the way of God. And how could anyone possibly let it work out in that way without turning in the direction of God, without asking in that direction, without seeking in that direction, without knocking in that direction? First of all a person must see the stupidity and the futility of asking some self-centered source. No, there must be a turning in the right direction, toward the truth, toward the source, toward where what is true may be experienced. Asking, seeking and knocking are ways of describing response to God, response to the Lord, response to the truth, to the way by which it takes form. If we do not participate in the exact way by which the truth takes form we can't know the truth. We remain consequently in the darkness of ignorance, in the Egyptian darkness of the tomb, where disintegration occurs.
This which is finding expression now relates to the truth of these things. Where does the truth come from if not from God? And it comes according to the asking, the seeking and the knocking. For where there is true asking there is receiving; where there is true seeking there is finding; and where there is knocking at the right door the door is opened and the truth is known. But you won't find the truth in the realm of self-centeredness. Yet human beings everywhere are inclined to feel that they're going to find the truth of love in the realm of self-centeredness. All they find is lies in self-centeredness; all they find is the experience of disintegration. Just look around. There it is on every hand. Therefore how foolish to look in any of those directions, many and varied as they may be in the realm of self-centeredness. Nothing that has the slightest meaning can be found there. The truth is not there.
The truth is in God, and we have to begin to conform with our true nature to comprehend and experience the truth. Our true nature emerges in the cycles of resurrection. The initial starting point is always the spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters, the truth of oneself. Asking “What is the truth of myself?” because in self-centeredness nobody knows, and seeking the experience of the truth of oneself, and knocking at the door, which has hitherto been closed, so that that truth can come out in experience, in expression—it's the only way it can be known. But as long as we are wrapped up with self-centeredness, in ourselves and in other people, the door is shut and locked.
So here is the resurrection now, something that relates to this day, so this day might have some meaning instead of being a constant repetition of meaninglessness. Mind you, the opportunity to see the meaning is always there—for over nineteen centuries it's been there. Now we begin to see. Why? Because the spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters. “And God said, Let there be light.” And when we let this happen, we see; we begin to share an understanding of the truth.
Here we are together to let this occur in our own experience, that we might come out of that selfish self-centeredness, which is the darkness of Egypt in the world, to experience the truth of ourselves, step by step, in the unfolding cycles of resurrection. And as we are willing to let it happen individually it happens also collectively, and the body of the Son of God is restored to stand once again in the garden on earth.
If we don't ask, or seek, or knock, in the right direction we don't receive or find and nothing is opened. And what is the basic spirit of true asking? It could be summarized in these words: “I love you, Lord. I love you, Lord. Apart from you I am nothing; with you I know myself. I love you, Lord.” This is usually not the first attitude of human beings. There is always a cry in the world that one human being should say to another, “I love you.” And people claim to feel empty because someone doesn't say to them, “I love you.” Here is the self-centeredness.
Until a person can say and experience in living constantly what is implied and conveyed by the words, “I love you, Lord,” that person is not capable of loving anyone else or of knowing what love might be from someone else. There is just one thing required from which all else follows, yes, but until that one step is really taken, “I love you, Lord,” there is no other step. When this is seen as being true, one takes the step, and when one sees this to be true and takes the step there comes a certain sadness to observe how human beings reject this first step. Consequently they go no place, because there's no place to go. Oh, there is frantic endeavor to make a place and sometimes people think they're going to succeed, but it never happened on earth since the fall of man.
No, just one right attitude, “I love you, Lord”—just that. That's sufficient. That brings all things. It allows the cycles of resurrection to unfold and the beauty of being to be known and the glorious pattern of the divine design of right relationship with others to be experienced in the body of the Son of God, because nothing enters into the body of the Son of God that is self-centered, that is desirous of self-fulfilment. No, not for “me,” not for “my” delight, but just “I love you, Lord.” Just that.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
I Ascend to My Father and Your Father
Uranda April 9, 1950 11 a.m.
It is a glorious day and already we have had a glorious outworking and now we are privileged to gather again to share in a further communion in the Spirit of God's Love and Truth and the expression of His Life. “And when he had opened the Seventh seal, there was silence in Heaven about the space of half an hour.” You have been sharing this morning the unspeakable beauty of that silence in Heaven, that which cannot be expressed in word, that which must be lived to give it meaning in the unfolding cycles of time.
Easter Morning—we have felt this day something of the feeling which pervaded Heaven that first Easter morning when our Master established the Victory. Usually, in thinking of Easter, the thought expressed is that our Lord was resurrected from the tomb. The fact is that our Lord was never subject to the tomb, but His Body was. It was our Lord's Body that was resurrected, not the Lord Himself, for man could not touch Him. The Lord Himself, men could not crucify; the Lord Himself could not be placed in a tomb and sealed there—it was His Body against which self-active human beings took action—it was His Body that was placed in the tomb—and it was His Body that came forth in the Resurrection and the Life. So is it today—it is not the Lord who has stood in need of the Resurrection and the Life, but the body of His Faithful Ones on earth, the body of His Children everywhere that has stood in need of the Resurrection and the Life.
You have today tasted something of that Resurrecting Power by which the Members of His Body are set free from the darkness of the tomb, that, entering into the Garden of God, they may know that it is futile to look in the tomb to find the Lord. Too long have human beings looked into the tomb, but, as the Angels said, “He is not there.” No, it is not in the tomb that we will find our Lord although He sends His Angels to bring us forth from the tomb of this world's darkness into the Light of an Easter Day.
It is in the Garden, you will remember, that Mary, when she first recognized the Master's Presence, supposed Him to be the gardener. He was, and is, but not in the sense she thought. No, first perceiving Him, she did not see Him as He was; she did not recognize Him, but He was there in the Garden beyond the tomb. Her fear was that they, persons unknown, had taken her Lord away. How many times since that day have human beings imagined that someone, somewhere, what someone else did, what someone else said, had taken their Lord away. Human beings with their puny activities cannot take the Lord away—it cannot be done. How should the Lord be taken away? No, He was not in the tomb; it was futile to look there and it still is, but they, persons unknown or known, have not taken Him away; they cannot—He is there in the Garden of God.
When her name fell from His blessed lips, “Mary,” the sound of His Voice awakened her from that trance of sorrow that had engulfed her. She was awakened so that she could see that which was before her. The Master was there in the Garden—she knew someone was there but she had not recognized Him. How often human beings have been like that. But the wonderful thing is this: that when he called her name she did not just go blindly on; she was not so deeply engulfed in her own thoughts and ideas that she did not hear; no, she heard Him speak and knew His Voice and answered, “Master.”
There was acknowledgment; there was recognition; there was the depth of love response, uttermost devotion according to the Law of the Kingdom, “Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all Thy heart and mind and spirit and soul and with all thy strength.” Yes, in that answer that came forth from the depths of her heart, you can see and feel and know her fulfillment of the Law, and she saw her Lord. How many times the Master, walking in the Garden of God on earth has called the names of those who did not hear, those who went blindly on, immersed in their own ideas and concepts and their own anguish and human desires, so busy looking in the tomb, so busy worrying about who they might have been and what they might have done to the Lord that they could not hear His Voice.
In time past, you recognize, He has called your name, for today is not the first time He called your name, but you never answered Him as you did this morning. When the anguished heart grows still, and when the mind is quiet, when there is the fullness of love response to Him, then can the human being hear the Call, for He has called your name as surely as He called the name of Mary long ago. We have known something of His Presence; we have sensed it; we have recognized it; so have tens of thousands and millions of others. It is not that we have forgotten the Lord.
Mary was searching for Him; so are tens of millions of others searching, looking in the tomb when He is not there; but in the Garden of God He is walking, and He calls the name of each one who searches for Him. You know that He has called your name, and hearing, you have begun to see and hear truly that wondrous Voice of Love—that Love that will not let you go. Mary answered, “Master.” What do we answer when He calls? If He is our Master, then let us so function in our lives that we prove that it is so, in the fullness of devotion, obedience and trust—in that faith that springs from love for God that cannot be shaken by what any may think or say or do or be, or by what may take place in the world around us, faith that springs from unshakable love for God, that God's Love working through us may have meaning on earth.
That Easter Day set the pattern and opened the Way for this Easter Day which we are privileged to share. What greater honor, what greater privilege could God bestow than this? Our Lord came into the world because God so loved the world and He brought the message, “Repent and be baptized, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” We have found it so. In our lives we have proven His Words are true—true and righteous altogether—the Way, the Truth and the Life. As we meditate upon that Easter Day and see the outworkings of this Easter Day, in our own hearts and minds we know that we have begun to taste, begun to see, that we have begun to feel—but it is little more than that—the Victory of His Kingdom, the Eternal wonders. We have just begun. He opened the Way; He set the pattern for this Easter Day.
After He spoke to Mary, He said, “Touch me not for I have not yet ascended unto my Father.” Having brought His Body forth from the tomb, His first business was to ascend to the Father and what did He say? He told Mary to go and tell the other disciples, saying, “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” His instruction was and is to follow Him—follow Him in the Resurrection and the Life, follow Him in ascending unto the Father. His first business, His first fulfillment of responsibility after the Resurrection of His Body was to ascend unto the Father. It was after that that He met with His disciples and talked with them concerning the things of the Kingdom. First, he ascended unto the Father, and following through, following Him, we must do likewise.
It is not enough merely to taste of the Resurrection and the Life; we must together ascend unto the Father. The only way we can know that fulfillment is by following our Master in the expression of His Love for the Father. His Commandment was: “Follow me.” That is His Commandment to each one of us—follow Him. We have seen how that following must lead to the crucifixion of that human self that is not of Him, how it must lead through the tomb, through the Resurrection and then, if we are to follow Him all the Way, the next step is to ascend unto the Father.
What was it He said unto the one who saw Him in the Garden, what message did He give? He said, go and tell them, “Behold I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” He made it very clear that He was not ascending to some High Heaven denied to those who should follow after Him. He was ascending and as He said before, “Whither I go ye know, and the Way ye know.” He had prayed and given assurance to those who followed after that “Where I am, there ye may be also.” He expected His followers to follow Him all the Way, including the ascension to the Father. We thank God that it is so.
As you continue to let the Cycles of the Spirit work in the silences of your soul, holding true under the Law of the Kingdom, abiding in the attitude of the Angels’ Song, you shall surely find the processes of ascension working in and through you to fulfill His Word even as He said, “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” He made it clear and plain that as He ascended unto the Father, He expected those who followed Him to let themselves ascend unto the Father. “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me,” and so we are to let the process of ascension work in heart and mind and body and soul that we may share that which He established then, that which He made possible for the children of men.
This is our opportunity, our privilege, our sacred responsibility on this beautiful Sunday, this Easter, Nineteen Hundred Fifty. The Peace of our Lord, Jesus Christ be with you now and forever. Aum-en.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
