JOSEPH

 

                   A HIGH RISKING ENCOUNTER

 Jesus and John the Baptist

 

It is not surprising, Jesus,

that things turned out badly for you.

You played with fire and you burned yourself.

 

Let us start with your encounter with John the Baptist.

Everybody knew that that guy

was a dangerous type,

a marginal, an alarmist

who questioned everything.

Nowadays many would have labelled him

as a “terrorist” or a “woke”…

But the rebels, the poor and the downtrodden

acclaimed him as a great prophet.

To come close to him, for sure,

was not “politically correct”.

But you, Jesus, a simple worker

in a lost dump hole of Galilee,

you who belonged to the anonymous and the despised,

you ran the enormous risk

to go and meet him along the Jordan River.

 

You found him there, not far from the desert,

his two feet in the water

and a camel skin on his shoulders.

A fire was burning in his heart and his mouth.

He attacked the leaders, the priests and the people

that he compared to a rotten tree.

Brandishing some kind of an axe

and acting as if cutting down a tree

he showed the fate that was awaiting them

if they did not give their life a 180 degree turn.

 

You saw him also as the new Elijah

calling the fire from heaven

over internal divisions  

the social inequalities, corruption.

hatred and all kind of violence

that reduced the people to a wreck

and paved a royal path for foreign invasions.

Anyway, the powerful Rome was already there

with its powerful armies

occupying and exploiting the country,

shedding blood in torrents.

 

Even the “good people”,

who, in spite of everything,

remained faithful to the God of Israel,

did not escape John's wrath.

He blamed their apathy,

their naïve carefree attitude,

and especially their faith of black-mailers,

treating God as a national property

and their hostage.

They thought they had a RIGHT on him.

They believed that God,

the great friend and ally of their ancestor Abraham,

had the obligation to intervene before long in person

and turn the situation in their favour.

If not, maybe they would turn their backs on him...

 

Meanwhile, the priests and the rabbi,

whose careers depended on the whims and fancies of the

Romans,

were panicking desperately.  

To make sure that they didn't lose control over the people 

they filled its ears with the usual serenades

about peace, patience and forgiveness,

and the obedience without grumbling to the will of God.

They preached that God was allowing  

the present occupation of the country by the Romans

to cleanse the people from all their many sins.

In fact, in his boundless mercy,

he was giving them a chance to amend their ways

so that they return more than ever

to worship, prayers and sacrifices.

 

With John the Baptist.

that was another story.

For him, the time was not so much

for prayers and sacrifices,

as for justice  ans sharing.

To those people who piled up riches

he would say: “Give half of your belongings to the

poor!”

To tax collectors: “Stop stealing!”

To the military: “Stop exploiting the people!”

To the police:”Be content with your salary!”

In one word :we have to strip injustice off like an old skin

and throw ourselves into the water to start anew.

 

Those words ran down within you, Jesus,

like fresh water in the throat of a desert pilgrim.

For you, they seem to spring up straight from the

mouth of God.

This minute, you exposed yourself like a worm,

and, at your own risk, you dived

as well in the water of the river

like in the great movement of John.

 

It was your « baptism »

(that word means exactly « diving ») 

 

But once under water,

somehow in full apnoea,

you had the surprize of your life.

In a flash of lightning,

you entered in a

strange and marvellous state…

Ideas, dreams, desires,

images, concepts,

dogmas, rules and structures,

all of that flew away like mist.

It was as if your “ordinary conscience”,

 (the one of each day, the one of the ego)

had suddenly been “submerged”…

by a « deeper conscience ».

(that everyone possesses but is ignored by most people)

You entered into the AMAZING,

into a state of total liberty

and absolute plenitude.

All that you had believed until now

as perceptible and true

appeared to you as empty and non-existent.

It seemed that you were touching the Real

for the first time.

Like stream that joins the sea,

you were bathing in THE ONE-WHO-IS.

It was THE OPENING OUT,

THE AWAKENING, THE ILLUMINATION.

 

In the eyes of humans,

at that very moment,

you were really born

as the beloved SON of the Father,

as the AWAKENED

and the AWAKENER. 

In that moment,

you received the mission

to be LIGHT for the world.

 

John the Baptist whom the good people

regarded as the greatest of all men 

began to pale in front of you.

Like the Moon with the approach of the Sun,

he slowly faded away...

 

It is in the light of the Bush on fire

that Moses had received the mission to free his people

from the chains of slavery,

you, Jesus,  

it is in your luminous diving into the Jordan River

that you received  the mission to liberate the

human being from the chains of darkness and of death.

 

In the depths of your being

the totality of your human reality had unfurled.

It appeared to you as one,

without any separation from the rest of humanity

or from creation,

or even from divinity.

 

You saw also the whole of humans

as beloved sisters and brothers

of the One-Who-Is,

linked to one another

like the rays of a same sun,

enjoying an absolute freedom

in a diversity of limitless nuances.

 

There, you have embraced your mission

to awaken among the humans the deep dimension

of who we really are,

that is,  women and men similar to you,

in good health like you,

sparkling with light like you

in harmony with the universe

and connected with the Great Source of all that is.

 

Apart from John,

no one had any idea

of what you had just lived.

Contrary to Moses,

no ray of light

had remained plastered to your face.

You were remaining a man like others

with this sole difference

that you did not follow

the masters of the law

neither the extinguishers of light and liberty;

you were not a parakeet of the official discourse

nor a bullhorn of the consensus of the herd.

With you was beginning

a totally new world.

 

 

And so, you left the country of John

in the direction of your native Galilee,

on a path not laid out in advance

where were awaiting for you

many other high risking situations...

 

to be continued... 

 

                                                            Eloy Roy

 

 

Translated from the French by Jacques Bourdages