Christ, the Light of the World

May you experience the presence of Christ, the Light of the World, everywhere, in everyone, so that hope will abound in your life and the world you live in. There is no corner of the planet where Christ is not. And may you share the light of Christ that is within you with everyone you meet, wherever you are, everyday.


Wilfredo Juan Baez

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Gospel of Thomas - coda 21

Gospel of Thomas, coda 21.

“Mary said to Jesus, ‘What are your disciples like?’"

It is not clear who the Mary is who asks this question.  There are a number of known Maries, of course.  Perhaps it is not necessary to know who this Mary is.  What is more important is to know what Jesus’ disciples are like.  The following statement answers the question.

“He said, ‘They are like little children living in a field that is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say, 'Give us back our field.' They take off their clothes in front of them in order to give it back to them, and they return their field to them.’”

The disciples are like little children living in a field that is not theirs.  They lack ownership of the field that they live in.  Really they are living in a world that belongs to someone else.  What is this field?  Perhaps it is the material world.  When the owners of the material world come they ask for the field back.  And the children remove their clothes in order to return the field to them.  The clothing the little children wear are their bodies, the necessary vehicles for living in the material world.  The children return to their original nature when they remove their clothing, an original nature that is spiritual.

“For this reason I say, if the owners of a house know that a thief is coming, they will be on guard before the thief arrives and will not let the thief break into their house (their domain) and steal their possessions. As for you, then, be on guard against the world. Prepare yourselves with great strength, so the robbers can't find a way to get to you, for the trouble you expect will come.”



Who is Jesus speaking to here?  If this coda is to be counted as one, then he is speaking to Mary.  Does Mary want to be a disciple, is she a disciple, or is she merely inquisitive about being one of his disciples.  It appears that she may be a disciple herself.  In this case, the house Jesus refers to is the spiritual self, the domain of the spiritual.  Jesus is saying that the owner of the house, the disciple, must be awake, aware and on-guard against the thief.  The thief is the world.  The thief could take away his spiritual unity and peace.  The disciple in this case is an adept who as attained enlightenment but not as a permanent state, and thus is in danger of losing it.  The disciple needs to practice diligently to maintain that connection or spiritual oneness.

Let there be among you a person who understands.

The person among you who understands may be one in the group of disciples or adepts.  Or it can be that part of one that knows; that is awake and aware; that part is the Christ within.  When one falls asleep or becomes unaware or ignorant it is like one is living a dream that perpetuates itself and keeps one from waking.  It is like the dream is real, but it isn’t.  It is an illusion, but it is difficult to return to one’s spiritual reality.

When the crop ripened, he came quickly carrying a sickle and harvested it. Anyone here with two good ears had better listen!"

Who is that will come to harvest the ripened crop?  And what is the ripened crop.  There is no real harvest in the material world.  Everything there is dead; temporal.  The harvest is of a spiritual crop.  It is a gathering into the spiritual domain of those who have attained that original state of spirit, akin to that of the first spiritual creation alluded to in the first creation story in Genesis, before the second.  When one (crop) develops spiritually (ripens) one is leaves the physical world and enters into the spiritual (is harvested).  At this time there is no one who harvests as the harvest and harvester are one.

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