The previous Gospel text dealt with My entry into Jerusalem and
the temple. This one describes My burial and resurrection as well
as My appearance to several of My disciples and Mary Magdalene.
Between My entry into Jerusalem and My burial there is My
condemnation, My immense suffering as a man and as God, My
greatest humiliation as the Creator and Lord of the world and the
proof of My supreme love, a love of which only I, the uncreated,
eternal God and Lord, am capable by submitting to all this in
order so set an example to My created beings and spirits. They
were to learn what is needed to become a child of Him Who is able
to call into existence worlds, solar systems and vast
spirit-realms which He could again eradicate if His mighty will
were not induced by His all-embracing love to preserve all created
things instead of destroying them.
The last days of My life on earth were to prove to all spirits
that everyone who carries a divine spark within him is capable of
even greater sacrifices and self-abnegation, far beyond the
comprehension of all created beings, and this not for his own
salvation, but for that of others.
The second commandment of love has never before been fulfilled
so distinctly and fully as it was by Me in the last days of My
suffering. I humiliated Myself to endure patiently as a man all
the human suffering which to a mortal being appears to be the
worst: torture, death and public disgrace. And this I did as a man
for all other men, whom I regarded as My brothers and who saw Me
die on the cross, praying for them that they be forgiven, although
they were My enemies and had rewarded My great kindness with
ingratitude and revenge.
Could the love of one's fellowman do any more than I did in
those moments? Because of this I promoted it to a divine
commandment, inseparably linked to the first one, namely, to love
the Creator above all. This commandment has also a social
significance for the living together of people through the tenet:
"Do not do unto others what you would not like them to do to you!"
I made these two commandments of love divine with My last
breath as I left this small earth, which among millions upon
millions of globes and suns I had chosen for the great feat only I
could accomplish. As a man, I practiced both of them, fulfilling
them to the greatest possible extent, thus leaving behind for
humanity the ideal of a man on this earth as I wanted him to be.
As a spirit I demonstrated to My higher beings and angels what
they should be able and strive to accomplish when the moment of
their trial approaches.
On earth the keystone to the proof of My deity was My rising
from the dead, for without this My teaching, My deeds and My whole
life would soon have been forgotten. My disciples would have
broken up; maybe they would have remained faithful to Me
individually, but they would not have been of any benefit to their
fellowmen.
It is true, My disciples did believe in My deity, but this was
under the influence of My presence. My personality, My words and
deeds were too impressive not to exert an influence on all around
Me. However, with My person and this moral pressure removed, the
world would gradually have claimed them once more, weakening and
finally obliterating the impact I had made upon them during My
life on earth. Nothing would have remained of My life but the
memory of past happenings, although miraculous and unfathomable.
Therefore, if My work was not to have been in vain, the rising
from the dead -something contrary to all the familiar laws - had
to prove My deity thereby fortifying the faith of My disciples and
adherents, preparing them for their future mission.
Thus My resurrection was the keystone to this never-to-be
destroyed edifice of faith and religion, which until now has
resisted all storms and will soon be resplendent on earth in all
its purity and magnificence, to be the mediator between two
important factors in creation -matter and spirit or the material
realm and that of the spirits.
This is the way it has to be and is also going to be, so that
all mankind may realize that matter is nothing but the encasement
of the spiritual and has been created only for the sake of the
spiritual.
All matter must be spiritualized to enable men to draw close to
My spiritual kingdom, and that the other created beings, following
the perfection of men, can also ascend higher and higher until the
earth-globe itself, released from its density, will not need any
violent measure to bring about its dissolution, but will only
experience a gentle transition.
To give you a clear understanding of this process of
spiritualization and to explain to you the significance of My
Resurrection as well as My Passion during My last days on earth, I
have to remind you of the fact that all My deeds and words, even
the world events during the years of My ministry, would be
recurring gradually until My now imminent second advent. But it
will all happen in spiritual correspondences and not actually to
My person as it did then.
What at that time I had to suffer as the Son of man, applied
also to the progress of My teaching which now represents Me
spiritually on your earth. This, too, was contaminated, mocked and
abused; then it was buried in your churches - as large sepulchers -
and a heavy stone, the stone of empty ceremonies, is blocking it.
There it was to rest forever and be of use only to those who wish
to benefit from it in their worldly, not in their spiritual life.
The course of world history is an exact counterpart of the
years of My ministry. Just as there are in your life three
important spiritual stages: childhood -corresponding to
unconditional faith, adolescence -corresponding to the
forming of an opinion of what was believed, and manhood -corresponding
to discrimination between appearance and actual fact, thus
also My teaching went through all these phases, partly during My
ministry, partly later after My decease, right to this day and to
the future.
In the beginning I, too, compelled the world around Me, partly
through My miracles, to believe and then educated people like
children. And once they began to understand Me, they found through
their judgment the truth of what they had previously only
believed, that is, they entered adolescence. When in this way
their belief and knowledge had been strengthened, they became
mature, stood by My teaching and by Me with conviction,
corroborating with word and deed what to them seemed the holiest,
the supreme knowledge.
The history of My religion, the way it was later on spreading,
presents to you the same stages, with the sole difference that at
the time I Myself was teaching there was no reason for eliminating
or protesting. However, when people, driven by human passions and
guided by worldly opinions and interests, wanted to imitate Me,
they turned the divine into what was worldly, gave men only the
outer bark instead of the core of spiritual life and, as a result,
the good was rejected together with the bad when men had matured
and could use their own judgment.
This is what brought about the extremes of people who believed
everything I taught and those who believed nothing. Now, as the
spiritual stirring is getting stronger, when the corpse in the
sepulcher, sealed and covered with a stone, is " preparing to
rise, now they still want to begin - like once Mary Magdalene - to
prevent the corpse's decay by means of spices and scents. But as
at that time Mary Magdalene was disappointed because she found the
sepulcher empty, the guardians of the spiritual sepulcher of My
teaching will be disappointed, too. They will find the sepulcher
empty with only the shroud left behind wherein they had wrapped
the body of My teaching. But the One Whom they believed to have
kept there under lock and key will have risen, will find His
disciples and adherents Himself and give them new courage and zeal
through His presence.
The closer this time is approaching the greater becomes the
zeal to preserve and guard the corpse. As once My sepulcher was
guarded by Roman soldiers who were unbelievers, there is this
tendency also now to have an armed foreign power support those who
defile and condemn My teaching of love - But in vain. Already the
first ray of light is breaking through onto the stone cover of the
sepulcher. And as every stone begins to vibrate when the first ray
of the morning sun falls onto it and this vibration continues
until the stone is warmed and extends this warmth to that which is
underneath, the coffin-lid is already starting to vibrate. This
vibration will keep increasing the more the reaction would like to
condemn it to eternal rest. The ray of the spiritual love-sun is
going to roll away the stone, drive off the powers that are
spiritually asleep and, leaving them and their helpers only the
shroud, once more revive the "corpse" and guide it on to its
perfection on the path of light.
It is dark in the sepulcher, but the Light-God of divine truth
wants only light; and light gives warmth and warmth, life.
Thus also the corpse of My teaching will rise from the
sepulcher into which it had been put by worldly selfishness and
lust for power. It will increase the light, warmth and life where
they are already glowing in human hearts and spread with blessing
these three elements where they may have been lacking completely.
This is the spiritual picture of My resurrection in My teaching
of love, which I actually performed almost two thousand years ago
and which will soon once more be taking place all over the world.
As My disciples and followers once rejoiced at My rising, this
resurrection too will be celebrated by all humanity and every
individual in his own heart. Thus I am going to rise in the hearts
of My faithful when they shall have thrown away the shrouds in
which they had wrapped Me, leaving all worldly ceremonies and
religious rites far behind them, believing only in the spiritual
meaning of My teaching and actually practicing what they believe.
This resurrection in the hearts will be the rebirth, the final
step towards breaking with the world and the first step or
beginning of a spiritual life where material ties will no longer
have the power to lead man astray or delay him on his road to
spiritualization.
Therefore, awake, My children! Open your spiritual eyes, ears
and hearts! Jesus, represented through His gentle teaching of
meekness and love, Who on the cross loved not only His neighbour
but prayed for His enemies, this Jesus shall rise within you! And
as the earth is to become His church, His house of prayer where
peace, tranquility and happiness shall once more dwell, also your
hearts shall be paradisiacally adorned only with blossoms of love
for God and your fellowmen.
Prepare for this feast of resurrection in your hearts! It is
the feast of your spiritualization, of the transfiguration of your
own inner self.
As I once, transfigured, with a spiritualized body rose out of
the dark sepulcher you too shall leave your sepulcher of worldly
passions and desires transfigured, spiritualized, bettered,
ennobled, and worthy of Me. If until now the world, your education
and social circumstances have enveloped you in shrouds with spices
and scents to prevent your earthly being from decay, throwaway all
these useless things, for they are tools of matter and not of the
spirit! Remember, you are not of this world! You used to be spirit
and shall again be spirit. There is your home, there He is
beckoning to you Who, to help you comprehend it, has died the
physical death for you and has risen again spiritually so that
after a life that was pure like His you may rise spiritually,
casting off what is of the world and, by becoming His children
through this spiritual rebirth, require on the smallest scale what
He has done for you on the largest. Think of what it means to be
called a child of the Creator and Lord of the worlds and to become
a brother to those spirits who have long before you gone through
this school I victoriously and who now in their eternal happiness
and bliss are watching with great joy and brotherly love the
everlasting resurrection and rebirth of their brothers.
Regard the resurrection as spiritual, which it is, and
know that it was accomplished as an eternal memorial and example
for you and My entire realm of spirits and souls.
At that time, after I had overcome human nature and assumed the
divine nature, I shed all that was of the world. You should do the
same. Then the day of your spiritual resurrection and rebirth
shall be your most important day on earth - the keystone to your
earthly mission and the foundation-stone to your spiritual one!
Amen.