Being a pure act

The Father is well represented in the Son, as Jesus is the image of the invisible God and in him abode all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Many times Jesus explains things in figures of speech. Likewise he desires to say in the time determined by him that he will tell us clearly of the Father.

Thus, the hour comes that Jesus has to tell of his Father not in figures of speech but in clear terms, with the blessing of the Father as he asks of it from him. As the Father himself loves us, he speaks in the churches through messages coming from the Holy Spirit because it is the Father’s desire to commune with us.

Jesus said, “I came from the Father and have come into the world, now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father (John 16:28).” This he proclaimed for the Apostles then believed that he came from God. He said that the Father is in him, and he was in the Father. We may picture out in this statement that Jesus was not only conceived with the spirit of the Father dwelling in him, but he was the image that is enthroned in God’s splendor since the beginning.

From this pattern of him being the figure, it did become possible for the Father to create Adam, even pattern seraphs and cherubim in the image of Jesus. Jesus is the Alpha; he is the source of all even life. He was in the Father since the beginning being the form from which angels and Adam was formed after. Thus the Father also dwelt in him in his humanity as the Spirit for the Father is in him.

God is without form being a pure act and a pure Spirit, but with Jesus, as the outline of the things to come, even things unseen gave birth to a form, from which out of it Adam was patterned and with God’s own breath, Adam gain life. It is also the same breath of the Father that is taken from us when we expire.

We did not exist in this world if not for the breath of God, which he gave Adam. As it is passed from generation to generation, it is the same breath of the Father that we carry in us as we are gifted with life. The air coming from the mouth of God and our life received is one and the same. It did become possible for God to have a mouth because Jesus was with God - the Word was with God (John 1:1). Though the Father can speak in his own, being a God himself, Jesus became the voice of the Father since the beginning. Furthermore, the dwelling of the Holy Spirit only sharpens our existence in this life with God.

The speaking in tongues on the other hand is a gift, and one among those gifts if we are to obtain fruits of the Spirit of God. Likewise, we need to be born again of the Spirit and not just of water (John 3:5) with these as prerequisites to salvation. The Catholic doctrine claims that this is fulfilled in infant baptism while Protestant churches believe in baptism by immersion. With the acceptance of Jesus as our Lord and Savior believing that he will save us, surrendering our sins to him through confession, we are marked with the blood of the Lamb being Gentiles that are once denied of salvation but are now inheritors to the Kingdom in heaven.

Many years did passed that although just in rare occurrences, I still attend mass; I did not have confession or communion. I don’t want to pass my pain to others even to the priests. In those times, I even have a hard time making the sign of the cross. As I remember from my Rector in Franciscan Conventual, enacting the sign of the cross is well appreciated if it comes from the heart.

So he taught me the proper way of making the sign of the cross and the genuflecting doing it several times along with me until I almost perfected it. In genuflecting, right knee touches the left feet holding with a single or both hands the left knee.

Very much later with inspiration from a priest in Antique, I associated the sign of the cross with these words: “In clearness of mind, As Jesus was born in the womb of Mary, with both having the burden for souls which I carry in my shoulders. Amen.” As a result, I was able to make the sign of the cross without thinking that in the cross, Jesus is condemned.

Likewise, another priest said that with the fingers in the forehead, we affirm our faith; with fingers in the belly, we associate this to Mary’s love to Jesus as she bore him in her womb; and with the fingers on the shoulders, we reiterate our part in bearing the burden in our role to save mankind.

With the cross, death of Christ becomes fresh every time bearing in mind that with my sins and that of others, Jesus was nailed to the cross. Several times in my manifestations, I did want to avenge my Master’s death, but as I am healed, I think of the empty tomb and a word in my heart did I sense that with the resurrection of Jesus, I too arose new and purified with me receiving of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

But it is not easy forgetting things with the pain I bear in my heart that I grieved sobbing loudly after a slain upon my exposure to the Blessed Sacrament as the host is raised as in my grief, I in similar instances, had cried unmindful of the people around. So I confide my sins to the Bishop and he was kind enough to give me an absolution for the sins I’ve committed. After further confessions to many other priests, my feet became resolute that I no longer fall to the floor.

Human and mortal

The scripture says: “On that day men will throw to the moles and the bats the idols of silver and gold which they made for worship. They go into caverns in the rocks and into crevices in the cliffs, from the terror of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty when he arises to overawe the earth (Isaiah 2:20-21).”

I was once against the worship before graven images or what Catholics refer to as Holy Images. But my understanding was opened. Before as the ancient church history reveal, there was no image or picture in the Church. But priests and theologians have this problem of how to educate the people. A little later, there was the cross but no figure of Man crucified.

I am not distracted by the image of Jesus fastened on the crosses. God gave us also a warning, but for a short time, they were terrorized, though they had a sign of salvation to remind them of the precept of God’s law. For he who turned toward it (the holy image) was saved, not by what he saw, but by him who is the savior of all (Wisdom 16:6-7). In Exodus 25:18, it was commanded to make two cherubim of beaten gold for the two ends of the propitiatory, fastening them so that one cherub springs direct from each end.

We have to take note also that so extraordinary were the mighty deeds God accomplished at the hands of Paul that when face cloths or aprons that touched his skin were applied to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them (Acts 19:11-12). Moses also mounted a molten bronze serpent on the pole that if anyone who has been bitten by a snake looks at it, he will recover (Numbers 21:8).

Very much later I have reconciled myself to the crucifix, though as much as possible if I could only avoid, I don’t want to wear it as if an amulet. The power of God in my heart is more than enough. He taught me how to be humble though strange was my feeling how I am to bear this man that I am.

I’m not a double of Christ nor am I a replica of his humanity associating myself with the word I am as in “I am the man”. It does not say that I be god benefiting from what results to my experience of meditation. That acclamation would make me a Devil. I cannot repeat what Lucifer had done.

I try to be firm on the ground, accepting fully the fullness of my humanity and mortal to fix to myself that I am a man, low in nature and must submit to God. Though my lips have the passion at times, I only want to steal my friends’ heart. I want to give them inner joy and be remembered by them. I could not live without company in Brotherhood. They are to me, my all! Hence, I count them as friends. I too receive scars all over me that my wounds would not much differ from the bruises of Jesus, he being beautiful with his scars.

But it is not well with these people who do not understand me. They stabbed me on the back to add to my cross multiplying my oppression. They insulted me and they chastised me. I can’t do but accept and ignore. They think I’ve run out of my mind when I have sanity maintained.

Perhaps when the time comes that I’ve fully accepted the things that happened in my life and learned to forget these and forgive those who continue to offend me, only then that the wound would heal. But how can I forget if I’m continually reminded through the lashes of the tongues from people who rarely know me and likewise fail to give me a chance to live my life peacefully, free from the scrutiny of these people who cling to what happened in the past and are blind to the good things I’ve done and the healing I’ve obtained.

Anyway, they still remained as those I love and shall not forget. They are my babies that mothers won’t forget. I have carved them in the palm of my hand. I take them to my heart and embrace them, though I’m holding nothing but air.

I created a new big seminary out of the world, all men and little women. The group I created composes of more boys and some girls. With the manifestations that the Father has permitted to happen to me, I wrote for their love letters, which they send to the girls they love and wanted to be their girlfriends. I’ve been blamed for early marriages or pregnancy as early as third year high school.

Is it my fault to have much love in my heart, since I count them as my little ones? I’m afraid they feel that I’m responsible for their sons and daughters’ early marriages. These people are the flock that Jesus has given for me to watch after, but what had I done? I led them to early relationships. I ask forgiveness from the parents for teaching the young to express themselves.

I only wanted to share my love and talent by teaching them how to make love letters and write poems. They learned from me or they received poems I made at random. I bought stationeries in bundles and let them fall in line doing what they want from me. And I even gave my heart, soul and spirit, that I may not be different from the stars that form the constellation.

So I’m not only scarred but likewise I accept I’m also dirty. I have hands not made of gold but wet with blood. Yet, I become like that of the tax collector before the Pharisee, accepting my sins and in both knees plead for mercy to my God. And he took me to His arms, as he was like a Samaritan man. Likewise, he cured my disease and, he became my healer casting out the demons from my body.

As a result, I was set free though with feet still firm on the ground and never did sin gravely again making my heart a vessel of peace and acceptance. I did rise after my fall yet dwelt still with sinners that I might win them unto holiness. Though I strike as of a double-edged sword with the Word, I readily hugged them to my breast though in imagination, and never left them.

Yet, I remain fully human in a different identity with God aware that in as much as I try to depart from sin, I’m yet tempted to the lure of the flesh. But God knows how to handle my temptations with me overcoming these that I may continue to serve as salt to the earth. He protects me with a helmet of salvation. He shields me from further pain and makes his cross as a barricade against forces of evil.

I never did live empty anymore but continue to hunger that I may sip the endless body of water in the ocean of love and affirmations.

A voice crying

One evening, as I was alone in the room, I was in fray with the enticement that was surging deep inside me. I cannot do but to let it out, to pour it down my belly for the allurement is so brawny. Then I think about God, or let me say Christ, his being human, how he was able to fight temptation.

Likewise, what happens to his being God or his Deity? Did it exist in communion with his nature as a man? Perhaps, it could have been difficult for him to merge these two natures and thereby exist as whole. If you were on my part, what would you do to resolve this puzzle? Did his being God existed tranquil enough together with his being human?

For me, this would be a deep thing to assess upon. What about on your opinion? As far as I understand, though in clearness, God is 100% human and 100% Divine, or I say Jesus Christ himself, he was actually an ordinary man possessing strange powers, human in all sense with his existence as God completely transcendent from his being human. However, he acknowledges the power from the Father and giving God the glory, Jesus was able to make miracles.

In addition to, the inner self in Jesus that grieves and cries out loud as a voice crying in the wilderness that is in the wacky body of water inside the rock that Moses strikes that water may come out is nothing but the FATHER or the Spirit of God (Isaiah 11:2). I pray and hope this could help us go deeper into the nature of Jesus as you may help me too in this puzzle. So perhaps others too may have their point in trying to explain the truth.

Besides, you can help me explain the theory of his being God the Son, being our God merely present in Christ. It would be natural for me to ask, and I need to deepen on this fact. Furthermore, I have a hard time explaining referring the Trinity to an egg that have an egg yoke, an egg white and an eggshell, with the three persons of the Godhead completely different from each other but is One God.

As we may conclude, God cannot exist without the Son and the Holy Spirit, nor the Spirit can exist without the Father and the Son, nor the Son can exist without the Father and the Holy Spirit. Life, Body and Spirit both go together, they are in complete communion.

Thus, we are referring here to the so-called Trinity, which is not in the Bible as others say, but could be justified in truth. ACT proceeds BEING. The ACT of the Father being the wacky water in the desert, which lays down His life for the brethren with the body where his spirit dwelt, did endure crucifixion, made it possible for Him as the Father to Jesus to make Jesus Christ considering him the BEING or the creation as part of the Trinity.

I hope this humble analysis can help. But perhaps you may have some other ideas. It follows also that through the love of the Father and the Son; an active force did spring forth making it the third person of the Trinity, which is the Holy Spirit.

I beg that we come together and convene brotherly just as the three persons of the Godhead are tranquil with each other. We ought to work together for the betterment of churches, being all formed in the image of Christ. We need to work as the flock of Christ affirming each other. We need to taste and see the goodness of the Lord, as we become brothers to all nations.

Let us pray that God would open our understanding that we may understand the scriptures. We need to sense where we can be guided and in what factor can our thoughts find enlightenment. We may find light in us if we work together. As all of us may realize, we have the Bible as the source of truth. We see that the prophets had been in one accord with God. So there is also a need for us to commune together taking part in what the Lord wants for us.

As we see figuring it out, we are the children of God having different existence from what Jesus have experienced. We in our actuality are mere human beings though in a way we may grasp, we are also in constellation with the Master. Jesus shines like the stars in heaven and we grieve for love. He is our beginning and end, our Alpha and our Omega, our God, and our Lord, our Savior.

In spite of our weakness, God preserves us whole; as he had been there to cover us as seem with wings keeping us safe against evil. We need to be careful as not to hurt our brothers, just as we use to be meek like before when the Holy Spirit we received in baptism are not yet choked. We are here to encourage each other just like Jesus who having bruised and wounded still become an affirming person and was in the cross a plus sign.

We are human and are sinful but God gives us a chance to be renewed as we read his comforting words. Unlike our old self that was blinded with hatred for the oppression we received, we need to consider what others feel with the words we speak. Even Christ with his heart of flesh had chosen to be likened in the form of a servant, even becoming like lamb silent before its Shearer.

Though we are completely nothing as we came from nothing, we partake with the work of God, thinking what good we can do, looking not on things transcendent from us but on that which are acceptable and realistic. God can change us with the touch of the Holy Spirit that we may have the newness of mind and disposition.

Life is but in communion with others. As a priest has said during the Mass, we live with others that when we go to heaven, we are not alone for we take other people with us. Our fellows are also influenced by the way we are disposed that we become responsible if they stumble because of us.

Boracay episode

I was thinking how I was able to reorientate myself to the holiness of Jesus through the gospel texts. He said: “Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, not yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat (KJV).”

I happen to recall things about these last April 2007 with one who saw me in Boracay. Actually that was already the 2^nd time of my journey round Boracay then Antique. Boracay is a little more than a hundred kilometers away from our hometown. I did have my pocket but there was nothing in it, and it was February 14, Valentines day! God told me “Go, therefore my child and preach the gospel, and bring nothing with you but your own self.”

I went to my religious associate and asked her if she could assist me with the expenses for a National Convention, which is precise. She said, that was very expensive but she could only share a Valentine Gift of a hundred pesos. Then I went to my Godmother to greet her Happy Valentine without asking for anything this time. She gave me a pen and a souvenir and two hundred pesos. In my travel, I had with me a brown Bible with markings in the pages.

In the jeepney, with which I travel along, with the three hundred pesos in my pocket, was my childhood best friend from a certain institution and his office mate. I was singing gospel songs along the way for there are only a few of us in the jeepney. At Caticlan Port they boarded separately. A fellow was kind enough to assist me board the motorboat by taking my hand. The boat was already full that I had no place to sit so I stood.

Then the Lord said to me through my heart, “It is time!” that I needed not ask Him what to say in simple words about. I placed my Bible between my feet and said to those boarding the boat, “Can I have the floor? Please lend me your ears.” That time before, I keep trying every time to relay the Word even without looking from the Bible, so I started to convey to those in the motorboat scripture to scripture without stating text’s numbers. And that’s how God spoke to the people through me.

My last statement was: Repent, for the Kingdom is at hand. God wants to tell something. He wants to convey and speak plainly of the Father for Jesus existing since the time in the mountain of the Lord that freed the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt and was in the wilderness being the Spirit that then dwelt in the Son (Isaiah 11:2) is the Father. Then in a loud voice I said, “Jesus is in the Father!” Of course it follows that he is also the Son by the Holy Spirit. Then in front of them as I avoid looking at these fellows I love and have loved since my affection for humanity grows in my heart, I grieved: “Lord,” I said, “why has thou prophesied to destroy the world, for it is beautiful? But I could not do anything for I have no hold in Thy power nor command I can muster.”

Teary eyed I hid my face from them. Then one said, “Jyo, take a seat here beside me for the current of water is strong and you might fall.” I was thankful that there was someone who cared for me, and he even knew my name. I remember one time when I was asked of my name, I burst out: “I don’t even know what role I play in this journey, how can I tell you of what I do not know?” Of course, there was only one I AM in John 8:58, and that is Jesus. I am completely different from him for he is God.

Here I pause for a prayer.

My heart is tearing, and my grief is sore. I don’t know about the nature of God but he opened my eyes as He opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures (Luke 24:45).

I cannot continue, pardon me for my heart is breaking. That is how I love humanity, all of them regardless of religions and affiliations, even those that backbite, and stabbed me in the back. I love the students regardless of their background. I have friends in my Friendster as of press time. I share the gospel through my Blog in Friendster.

I’m like water, like air. But my mind is sharp and in my heart did I bear love for the inhabitants of this earth. I am enclosed as I am bare, but I expose myself to the world. Likewise, the love of my friends filled what I lack. They show me trails and I followed them. Nevertheless in the present time, I will show them the way.

“Come and See!” In my mind, I seem to hear Jesus saying! And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning him (Luke 24:27). He sends to these people the promise of his Father till they worship him, and return to their Jerusalem.

Like John the Baptist who comes before Jesus was born, we can also say that our Lord is preferred before us, whose shoe’s latchet we are not worthy to unloose (John 1:27). Whoever drinks of the water shall thirst again, but the water He gives; in him is the well that springs from everlasting. Let us pause for silence and prayer.

Seemingly illusions

More than two thousand years ago, a Man was rumored as God. Born in Bethlehem, he possessed a strange spirit acclaimed as the spirit of his Father (Isaiah 11:2). He was queer and bizarre, because he was conceived by the so-called Holy Ghost through a woman, represented as the woman Israel, which though simple and quiescent, according to stories contemplated upon by the contemplatives in the doctrines of the contemporary desert fathers, was not conceived in sin by Anna, the wife of Joachim.

This woman who bore the child I may call as Jessie, was tagged as the Immaculate Conception, and was a loving cousin of Elizabeth who coincidentally was bearing in her womb a child, who would eventually eat locust as his meal and never tasted wine. He calls Herodias an adulteress and Herod a thief of his brother’s wife.

Thousands of years after, I existed here among the new generation and was likely sinful too. But I trust God that he would help me change the course of my journey. After all, He knows the proper time for him to subdue my misery. For the meantime, I content myself in being patient with the desert period of my life.

Eventually, a spiritist identified me indwelt with spirits in my confusing condition. He heard me answer his questions lamenting about my state of marketplace. This is maybe why some mistake me a strange man and thought I was different. I’m aware that I was the common topic of students. It would not differ with teachers and a few of other more people. However, I observed that I was loved and preferred by many a couple of years ago as a return to my love for them.

My God from a distance was watching me in joyful acquaintance and hilarious moments with students. He is consistent in believing the truth about how I felt for the humanity while a bit transcendent. I am likely mistaken by people around who could not understand me feeling concern for others and being involved with their activity. It seems to me that I am misunderstood as I am merged with the cosmos. That’s why some ridiculed me, except for those who captured my cosmic appearance creating intimacy.

However in the later stage of my journey, I was displeased as I become withdrawn feeling separation from the new generation though visible as I become quiet listening to their anguish and desperation of my cocoon period with me unable to respond to their accusations as I become carnal with my choices and turned sinful in some ways. I faithfully listened to them as out of my inconsiderate silence, I made them cruel enough with their pronouncements. There I understood what indifference silence could cause with them frustrated enough to help me.

To rely to this Jessie I love was to me like nourishing the sweetest perfume. He was called in the same name by a friend of mine who is a nun, that to her, Jessie in his childhood was found preaching in the temple at an early age answering the questions of teachers and doctors. He when found by his father and mother, declared to them that He was in His Father’s House and they ought not to bother looking for him.

Here I stop, and pause, and feel sad that I don’t want to continue this writing. Who am I? I’m not different but was also an ordinary man. I did not even have my yoga powers, except that my mind was opened to some seemingly illusions because I presumed as I felt it that my chakras erupted, as my kundalini that twirled burst.

I keep talking with my fellow seminarians in Tagaytay about certain movie stars Romnick and Sheryl who as celebrities stole the scene like the contemplatives. I was told that a certain religious order were allegedly ridiculing the Franciscans of praying before a banana tree till their knees hurt. Likewise this had disturbed me and I took it seriously.

Some don’t like me talking about religious things. A certain website would likely prevent me behaving this way. So, many times I switch to love and love stories though it somehow pollutes my mind and heart. There, I can be listened. On the other hand, I enjoy writing about love though I have no brain but as they classify in the site, I have plenty of charm. Many times, my audiences are women.

But here again, we are drawing away from the story of this so-called Jessie I love, that allegedly though he is completely human yet He is also absolutely Divine. Yes, you hear it clear. He is God. In him dwells the whole fullness of the deity bodily (Colossians 2:9). He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creatures (Colossians 1:15). And it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell (Colossians 1:19).

Some of my friends may not be comfortable with this. But I have no choice, this is my lot: to tell about God that I may help save souls. But I’m already tired like Jesus who dispensed his listeners and rested. He is completely human for he slept in the boat. He is absolutely God for he stills the storm and walks in water. Who is this Man that even the winds and the rain, and the sea obey him? He is no other than our God.

Here, I stop again for a prayer.