Opening Remarks
Even when God’s messengers come to earth they too go through the suffering and pain.
He who has found his identity with God
He who has found his identity with God
Pays with the body’s death his soul’s vast light.
His knowledge immortal triumphs by his death.
He who has become one with God pays for his soul’s vast light by his body’s death. His body is unable to follow the general movement or else death is the sentence given to him by his own fellow humans. Yet his immortal wisdom survives and grows and triumphs by his death.
Heaven’s deathless call
Hewn, quartered on the scaffold as he falls,
His crucified voice proclaims, ‘I, I am God;’
‘Yes, all is God,’ peals back Heaven’s deathless call.
Even as he is crucified and killed and falls on the scaffold his crucified body proclaims that he is God. Indeed all is God is the reply he hears from Heaven.
The seed of Godhead
The seed of Godhead sleeps in mortal hearts,
The flower of Godhead grows on the world-tree:
All shall discover God in self and things.
The Divine seed is in all human beings as the secret soul within us. It must grow one day into its full bloom and be the beautiful flower in God’s creation. When the seed grows all shall one day discover God within and around in all things.
God’s messengers
But when God’s messenger comes to help the world
And lead the soul of earth to higher things,
He too must carry the yoke he came to unloose;
He too must bear the pang that he would heal:
Exempt and unafflicted by earth’s fate,
How shall he cure the ills he never felt?
But when God’s messengers come to help man discover this seed and grow towards its Godhead, they too must first carry the yoke of death and ignorance in whose grip man’s soul is caught. They too must bear the pang and the pain of earth that they have come to heal. If they are exempted from it how will they be able to cure the ills they never felt?
The wrestle are within
He covers the world’s agony with his calm;
But though to the outward eye no sign appears
And peace is given to our torn human hearts,
The struggle is there and paid the unseen price;
The fire, the strife, the wrestle are within.
They become symbols of the world’s agony which they cover with their calm. Though outwardly nothing is seen and peace is given to man, their heart bleeds with the inner struggle and wrestle and the fire and strife so that the price for peace may be given. Once they receive the peace they give it to earth and man.
Battle and a pilgrimage
He carries the suffering world in his own breast;
Its sins weigh on his thoughts, its grief is his:
Earth’s ancient load lies heavy on his soul;
Night and its powers beleaguer his tardy steps,
The Titan adversary’s clutch he bears;
His march is a battle and a pilgrimage.
God’s messengers carry the suffering of the world within their breast and share its sins and grief within their inner beings so that the remedy may be found. Earth’s ancient load of pain weighs upon their soul. The powers of darkness obstruct his path and the Titan adversary grips him at every step. His journey is therefore a battle as well as a pilgrimage on behalf of man.
A million wounds
Life’s evil smites, he is stricken with the world’s pain:
A million wounds gape in his secret heart.
Life’s evil smites and he is stricken by the world’s pain. He bears a million wounds in his secret heart.
A siege, a combat
He journeys sleepless through an unending night;
Antagonist forces crowd across his path;
A siege, a combat is his inner life.
He journeys through a seeming unending night. Forces that oppose God’s plan crowd across his path turning his life into a combat and a siege.
Closing Remarks
Even God’s messengers are not spared the Calvary. In fact their share of the burden is much more since they must open the path and lead man’s soul through the difficulties and the challenges.
