The Lamb of God

“ Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sins. . . .” The consciousness of man, whereby God can be fully known in the flesh, is the lamb of God—God’s most precious gift to man (and with it his free will). This is what must be sacrificed—made sacred. For genuine intimate communion with God, man must be made sacred, must be transformed into God’s original design—not pre-consciousness but rather full conscious awareness.

This full conscious communion with God becomes possible as man freely offers his conscious will to God. God gives man his pure lamb of consciousness, hoping man will, after having made a demi-god of it in service to his ego, offer it back to God to be re-purified, made sacred, as only God can.

Our task in this God-man relationship is to “behold” our willful ego that can no longer provide for us what we most want— peace of mind and inner joy. “Behold” in ourselves what needs to die—what needs to become the blood sacrifice—the gift to God—made pure and sacred by his power and returned to us in a sanctified relationship—a communion of our spiritual essence with the essence of God. That communion of essences is indeed the holy meal that God wants to share with each of us.
Ann Glover O’Dell
23 December 2014

(note: The story of one person’s transformation experience may be read on this website under BOOK entitled Humpty Dumpty Hatched.)

Weeping Unto New Life

“Jesus wept” is the shortest verse in the Bible, yet much has been made of it. And many questions asked. Especially ‘why?’

Fr. Thomas Keating makes an interesting interpretation, linking Lazarus’ death and resurrection with the incident involving his two sisters. Not long before Lazarus died Jesus had been in Bethany to visit his best friends. During the evening Martha was preparing a meal alone while her sister Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, listening to him talk. Martha complained to Jesus that her sister was not helping her. Jesus responded that Martha was busy about many things and that Mary had chosen the better way.

Keating says all three siblings suggest various responses to the gospel message and also three stages to deepening individual spirituality.

Martha is the level of spirituality that wants to provide hospitality, serve the needs of others, and show compassion wherever needed. Martha is not condemned but rather celebrated for all she is able to do. Jesus makes the observation, however, that she seems worried and upset with her self-appointed responsibilities.

Mary’s decision to sit and listen to matters of the spirit constitutes a deeper level of spirituality–and a higher level of conscious awareness. This stage actively seeks the Kingdom of God through reading, listening, pondering, and meditating on insights that come from the Spirit.

Lazarus, the male sibling, representing the will, the ego, the rational conscious awareness, undergoes a veritable death experience—the third and deepest level of spiritual transformation. His is the counterpart to the initiation into the Greek mystery religions, where the initiate must travel to the deepest realms of the dead, undergo a transformation, and return to the world of the living.

And Jesus, a key player in the story, as closest friend of Lazarus, represents the part of Lazarus that experiences authentic sorrow. Only then can transformation into a new living being take place.

We see in the two sisters and brother from Bethany three stages in the life of Jesus as well. He was a compassionate provider, meeting the needs of many people on many levels. He chose both solitude and conversation as he sought to deepen his understanding of the Kingdom of God. Finally he experienced death in order emerge a new being.

Our spiritual journey, if we allow it, will take us through the same three stages.

(Note: On this website is the story of one who has experienced all three stages.  The key to transformation is the will giving permission for something deep inside to do the work.  “Humpty Dumpty Hatched” is available free of charge.)

Fertilization

Isn’t there something deep inside us that wonders if there is more to life than the best we have experienced? If we’re honest with ourselves, I think the answer for at least some of us is yes.

There is a spiritual fertilization that must take place if we are to be able to experience life in all its fullness. Both male and female parts of our personality are required. The egg resides in the unconscious and, like all eggs, contains the essence of life, the potential of a new being. It awaits the sperm of the conscious mind. The seed. The planting of permission.

Perhaps all the duality of the external world is trying to point us to the duality within ourselves. And perhaps all the tension we see between opposites externally is pointing us to the tension within that needs to be resolved.

Tension is resolved in the world when people of opposing views meet and agree on a peaceful, creative way of dealing with each other. The same is true within. All duality needs union where, as in the Hegelian dialectic, opposites come together in a synthesis that is greater than the sum of the two parts.

This is no more true than within the individual personality. The unconscious yearns to be unified with the conscious. Our conscious ego must want something more than it can provide for itself and be willing to give of itself so that union may be achieved.

Unlike most human biological yearnings, the feminine unconscious is the more wiling of the two. Eager. Obsessed, actually. So much so that it is constantly sending up invitations. Teasers.

But the conscious is a do-it-yourself kinda guy. A take-charge ruler, decision maker, multi-tasker and paramount achiever. It fails to recognize that its most authentic joy and creativity lies beyond its control.

For many of us a crisis must occur before our masculine conscious (rational control feature) becomes desperate enough to take paper and pencil and engage the inner feminine (a.k.a. Inner Wisdom). But the Inner Wisdom is available to us at all times. We do not need to wait for a crisis.