Fifth Gospel(81)
‘Heaven is before you, Andrew!’ the master affirmed, ‘It is only that you can’t see it until the spirit light fashions the eye of your soul.’
‘What must we do to prepare our souls, master?’ asked little John.
He looked at John. ‘Think good thoughts, feel for others, and do good deeds. That is how you prepare your souls. Such men can make themselves new again. This is what I mean, when I say, you must be born again.’ He looked at them, ‘If you foster calmness and balance, all comfort and well-being on earth shall be your reward. When I am gone, you must teach others to do the same.’
‘But if we were to tell people such things they would laugh at us! A man hungers and thirsts, and these must be satisfied,’ said Thomas, a cross-eyed merchant who had joined them at Capernaum.
‘Thomas, you must say to them, if you purify your souls, you will hunger and thirst only for what is good. Then, this goodness in you shall feel compassion for all men who hunger and thirst, even those who hate you, and revile you.’
‘These are just words!’ Judas dismissed. ‘What you ask for is impossible! How can we feel compassion and mercy in our souls for an enemy that crucifies us and kills our children, our women and our old men? Sinners must burn in hell if God is just.’
‘Judas, my friend, God is just but I have come to tell you about love. A soul full of hate has only hate for a harvest. Those men that you love in this life, though they do not merit your love, will love you in the next life. If you feel compassion and mercy for a man now, you will find it returned to you later…this is preparing the soil of the soul for a harvest of love.’
Simon-Peter said, ‘I have seen what lives and plays in the water and the air and the light, I have seen it! Is this then, the spirit world of which you speak, master?’
‘Yes, Peter, but blessed are those that do not see it and yet still believe in it. But when faith becomes vision it will be as though you had stepped out of your body, as if it were nothing more than a garment. The soul will then shine out like a light over the world of spirit, that is what I mean when I say, you must become naked before God…you see, to you I speak plain.’
Cross-eyed Thomas said, with a dismal sigh, ‘If we become seers master, then we are done for! Prophets are not only hated by powerful men who fear their judgements and admonitions but the ordinary people also hate them for they don’t always agree with their opinions! Prophets even hate other prophets who do not foretell the same things! Nobody likes them. They are either stoned or run through with a blade, or else they are torn apart by the crowds, or thrown over the edges of cliffs! And afterwards, no man raises statues to them or truly honours them. All in all, master, they do not fare well!’
‘One would think a merchant would be used to being hated!’ said Matthew, the tax collector, ‘Specially a cross-eyed one!’
Thomas took in a breath of indignation, ‘Look who’s throwing stones! A tax collector no less…a man who is hated even by his own mother!’
The master sighed and quieted them with a hand, ‘There is no doubting it. You will be persecuted and killed if you have the light in you, as I shall be persecuted and killed. This is because the blind don’t understand light, you see? But when you are persecuted for the sake of your goodness by blind men, rejoice and be glad, for great shall be your reward in lives to come!’
Judas’ eyes were like two sparks in the night. ‘Well…you say these things to us, and you expect us to believe you, and yet we still do not know who you really are, the carpenter from Nazareth or the Son of God…which is it?’
‘Forgive me, Judas, my brother,’ Jesus said to him, ‘but if you had the light in you, you would see me, and know me.’
Judas fell quiet. After that James and the others, feeling badly for the way Judas had spoken settled down to sleep.
The night encroached and James lay beneath the cedars thinking that he was so full of love for his master that he would die for his sake. And in that moment between sleep and wakefulness he looked up to the stars and heard a tender voice in his ear say that one day he would die a martyr’s death in a far off land in a place called ‘The Field of Stars’. But he would not be forgotten. Centuries later a great French King called Charlemagne would follow those same stars to that field. He would call that route, The Way of St James, and he would be the first pilgrim to his grave, not realising that the grave of James was really his own grave. In time a great temple would be erected to house his grave and every year thousands of pilgrims would follow the stars for miles, just to see it.