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readoldthingsThe Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 5:10-12 reads:
The Prince of this World
The theme of the final two Beatitudes is persecution. We are blessed when we are persecuted for the sake of "righteousness;" we are blessed when we are persecuted for Jesus's sake.
We first heard about Righteousness-- Dikaios, which we also translate as "Justice"-- in the Third Beatitude, where we were taught to direct our power of appetite toward it, rather than material wants. We have already been promised that if we direct our appetite toward Justice, we will be fulfilled. But now we learn something else: To reject the temptations of this world and the appetites of the body and to pursue Justice instead comes at a cost in this life. Very often, that cost is rejection and persecution by our fellows.
Remember that the Sermon on the Mount immediately follows Jesus's temptation in the wilderness. Turn stones into bread; use the power of God to satisfy your ego; worship the Devil and gain political power. All amounted to the satisfaction of the appetite. Like Jesus, we too are to reject Satan; but like Jesus, we will be reviled and persecuted by those who are still under the spell of material things. We can expect to be persecuted for the pursuit of Justice; we can expect to be persecuted for doing so in the Name of Jesus. Our reward is in Heaven, the spiritual world; the Kingdom of Heaven is not on the Earth.
What Makes Right, Callicles?
In the Gorgias, Plato portrays an argument between Socrates and a man named Callicles over the nature of Justice. For Callicles, Justice simply means the satisfaction, by the powerful, of their desires; and goodness consists in material pleasure, and nothing else. As he tells Socrates,
The Law of Callicles is the law of this world, the law of the Devil, and those who would follow the Spiritual Path must expect the animosity of the Callicleses in their own lives.
Those Who Return to the Cave
Plato says as much elsewhere, in the Republic, when he discusses those who return to the cave, after having sojourned in the real world and seen the light.
The Way of the Lonely Ones
This is one of the great hardships of the Path. Manly P. Hall called esotericism "The Way of the Lonely Ones," and he wasn't kidding. Open persecution is one thing, but even if you manage to avoid it, the challenge is still there. The further along this road you go, the harder it becomes to have more-or-less ordinary friendships. The lucky among us marry someone who is on the same journey-- and actually I don't know how people who are involved in magic and the spiritual life can stay married to someone who isn't; that seems like hell, and I thank God for sparing me it.
This shouldn't be taken as any sort of elitism. I personally go out of my way, when I can, to make and remain friends with the kind of people that just want to have a beer and talk about football. I dislike elitists, and I like beer and football*. But somehow, by this and that coincidence, even when nothing very obvious intervenes, many of these friends fall away.
(*Or I did, before the NFL became a Woke-Nazi propaganda outfit.)
In these final Beatitudes, Jesus tells us to expect this. Follow his Path, and your soul will ascend upward into the Kingdom of Heaven-- which doesn't always make things easy, while your body still sojourns on the Earth. Does that mean you give in to despair, and say woe is me? No! Rejoice! The people who are persecuting you are the same as those who rejected the prophets, the same as those who put Socrates to death, and your reward will be great, as was theirs. Moreover, if we keep our eye fixed on the Spiritual World, it doesn't matter what people think-- we will, as Plato says, "keep our eye fixed" on the Eternal Light of the Spirit; when those whose business it is to stare at shadows reject us, we will give thanks, and pray for them.
Going Forward
In the next post I want to summarize the Beatitudes as a program of spiritual development, and then finish up the Fifth Chapter of this Gospel. See you then!
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
The Prince of this World
The theme of the final two Beatitudes is persecution. We are blessed when we are persecuted for the sake of "righteousness;" we are blessed when we are persecuted for Jesus's sake.
We first heard about Righteousness-- Dikaios, which we also translate as "Justice"-- in the Third Beatitude, where we were taught to direct our power of appetite toward it, rather than material wants. We have already been promised that if we direct our appetite toward Justice, we will be fulfilled. But now we learn something else: To reject the temptations of this world and the appetites of the body and to pursue Justice instead comes at a cost in this life. Very often, that cost is rejection and persecution by our fellows.
Remember that the Sermon on the Mount immediately follows Jesus's temptation in the wilderness. Turn stones into bread; use the power of God to satisfy your ego; worship the Devil and gain political power. All amounted to the satisfaction of the appetite. Like Jesus, we too are to reject Satan; but like Jesus, we will be reviled and persecuted by those who are still under the spell of material things. We can expect to be persecuted for the pursuit of Justice; we can expect to be persecuted for doing so in the Name of Jesus. Our reward is in Heaven, the spiritual world; the Kingdom of Heaven is not on the Earth.
What Makes Right, Callicles?
In the Gorgias, Plato portrays an argument between Socrates and a man named Callicles over the nature of Justice. For Callicles, Justice simply means the satisfaction, by the powerful, of their desires; and goodness consists in material pleasure, and nothing else. As he tells Socrates,
For on what principle of justice did Xerxes invade Hellas, or his father the Scythians? These are the men who act according to nature; yes, by Heaven, and according to the law of nature: not, perhaps, according to that artificial law, which we invent and impose upon our fellows, of whom we take the best and strongest from their youth upwards, and tame them like young lions,—charming them with the sound of the voice, and saying to them, that with equality they must be content, and that the equal is the honourable and the just. But if there were a man who had sufficient force, he would shake off and break through, and escape from all this; he would trample under foot all our formulas and spells and charms, and all our laws which are against nature: the slave would rise in rebellion and be lord over us, and the light of natural justice would shine forth. And this I take to be the sentiment of Pindar, when he says in his poem, that "Law is the king of all, of mortals as well as of immortals;" this, as he says, 'Makes might to be right, doing violence with highest hand; as I infer from the deeds of Heracles..." the meaning is, that without buying them, and without their being given to him, he carried off the oxen of Geryon, according to the law of natural right, and that the oxen and other possessions of the weaker and inferior properly belong to the stronger and superior.
The Law of Callicles is the law of this world, the law of the Devil, and those who would follow the Spiritual Path must expect the animosity of the Callicleses in their own lives.
Those Who Return to the Cave
Plato says as much elsewhere, in the Republic, when he discusses those who return to the cave, after having sojourned in the real world and seen the light.
Imagine once more, I said, such an one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness?
To be sure, he said.
And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable), would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.
The Way of the Lonely Ones
This is one of the great hardships of the Path. Manly P. Hall called esotericism "The Way of the Lonely Ones," and he wasn't kidding. Open persecution is one thing, but even if you manage to avoid it, the challenge is still there. The further along this road you go, the harder it becomes to have more-or-less ordinary friendships. The lucky among us marry someone who is on the same journey-- and actually I don't know how people who are involved in magic and the spiritual life can stay married to someone who isn't; that seems like hell, and I thank God for sparing me it.
This shouldn't be taken as any sort of elitism. I personally go out of my way, when I can, to make and remain friends with the kind of people that just want to have a beer and talk about football. I dislike elitists, and I like beer and football*. But somehow, by this and that coincidence, even when nothing very obvious intervenes, many of these friends fall away.
(*Or I did, before the NFL became a Woke-Nazi propaganda outfit.)
In these final Beatitudes, Jesus tells us to expect this. Follow his Path, and your soul will ascend upward into the Kingdom of Heaven-- which doesn't always make things easy, while your body still sojourns on the Earth. Does that mean you give in to despair, and say woe is me? No! Rejoice! The people who are persecuting you are the same as those who rejected the prophets, the same as those who put Socrates to death, and your reward will be great, as was theirs. Moreover, if we keep our eye fixed on the Spiritual World, it doesn't matter what people think-- we will, as Plato says, "keep our eye fixed" on the Eternal Light of the Spirit; when those whose business it is to stare at shadows reject us, we will give thanks, and pray for them.
Going Forward
In the next post I want to summarize the Beatitudes as a program of spiritual development, and then finish up the Fifth Chapter of this Gospel. See you then!
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Date: 2021-07-29 02:02 am (UTC)Tamanous
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Date: 2021-07-31 01:19 am (UTC)I think the alchemical imagery gets it exactly-- Solve et coagula. The way I learned it, alchemy can be broken down further into separation, putrefaction, purification, and finally cohabation. It's those two phases in the middle, when you're separated from your peers, breaking down the bonds that tied you unthinkingly to your culture, your karma, and your temporary identity, and purifying your soul of all the accumulated dross, that really hurt.