Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

I am as guilty as the next person, for in life we are for the most part possessed by our possessions (i.e. a car, a job, a house, status, friends etc). Yet the one possession we infinitely harbour and most often neglect is our eternal soul. 

Too often we betray the moment without factoring the consequences of our decisions, actions or inactions. Those latter three in most cases are influenced by fear, greed and a host of external stimuli which control our behaviour. In Hinduism, their is an epic poem called the Bhagavad Gita. In one segment Lord Krishna explains to the warrior Arjuna the following:

One believes he is the slayer, another believes he is the slain. Both are ignorant; there is neither slayer nor slain. You were never born; you will never die. You have never changed; you can never change. Unborn, eternal, immutable, immemorial, you do not die when the body dies. (Bhagavad Gita 2:19-20)

The Gita presents the notion that there is honour in one being the slayer and the other being the slain. That it is incumbent upon us to understand the true nature of who and what we are. Today, we have been cast into a vat of confusion and chaos, no longer comprehending the true essence of our existence. As Arjuna, we are confused about what actions to take, and unable to extrapolate the consequences of our inaction.

Jesus made the task of living and dying quite easy for us to understand. Jesus came as the slayer of evil and sin, yet ended His earthly journey when He was slain upon the cross. The duality of Jesus and His redemptive message are shared during the times of Christmas and Easter. These too/two are possessions we should not take for granted.

I offer you a poem I wrote some time ago.

Merry Christmas

Joseph Pede

I Offer You Jesus

Monday, September 6, 2010

Did the Son of Man really walk the Earth

Was immaculate conception the true nature of His birth

Were Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar the names of the illuminated Wise Men

Why the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh when all that was needed was a simple Amen

How did Jesus acquire such wisdom

Did he travel east to follow the teachings of Gautama Buddha, and then translate them for all

of Christendom 

Is this all a hoax and the reinvention of a Sumatran story

Perhaps one might say, His life was none more than an religious allegory

What possessed such a Spirit to favour the meek

How did He explain the Sabbath as the holiest day of the week

What good did it do in raising Lazarus from the dead

His own resurrection may be a falsehood they say it is said

Of divinity, if not divine, He did cross His life for all of man

Accompanied by two thieves, Mother Mary and a tiny loyal clan

His body pierced in anguish upon the tortured lumber

Nails of iron tore at His flesh as He hung in agonizing slumber

There was no scripted INRE hanging above His head

There were no crown of thorns, as the Bible, embellishingly said

His cross was made in the form of a simple Tau

The event and sacrifice Barabbas then offered up to the sacred cow

His hair was loosely curled and of a reddish hue

His short beard in the same fashion makes all other legends untrue

His agonizing brown eyes, while in dying, shed one tear

This is the manner in which the Son of Man did to me appear

He looked half way up, but not to the sky

His first thought was in why prophecy had selected such a savage way for Him to die

His loneliness upon the Cross was heart-breaking beyond belief

My body cast inside His anguish, but of Heaven He asked for no relief

Jesus, for some, was the product of flesh and bone

Albeit, through political manoeuvring Constantine with Jesus did unify his throne

The Council of Nicaea in grand style formalized His legacy and story

A bold new Christianity and Rome now rejoiced in Theocratic glory

In defining a Prophet or a God we must ask one simple question

That pronouncement asked just after your last confession

Why does Jesus still exist in the mind of man

The answer is because He existed with us before time began

Consciousness is the DNA of the immortal soul

Faith is the belief that Lucifer from us once stole

Prayer provides the answer to each question

Life the journey that may end with heavenly succession

Good and evil do exist

This is why the tribes of man find it difficult to co-exist

You have been empowered to choose your angel or demon

If you choose eternity I offer you Jesus’ semen.

Thank you,

Joseph Pede