To you it may seem foolish that we celebrate the risen Christ by partaking of wine and bread as a token of his blood and flesh. To me, it is honoring Christ's life and resurrection.
Not at all . By all means celebrate and honor your teacher
with as many lovely rituals , fasts, pilgrimages as you
like . Every morning, noon and night would be fine.
They celebrate God in Hinduism everyday like this ...usually
by lighting candles , burning incense , offering up prayers
flowers and things sweet and beautiful. Every morning, noon and night .
But you know I was only responding to your former statement of the many superstitions of all these other false religions you've studied , and only responded with the "eating of the flesh and drinking the blood"
as a gentle reminder that one looking from without Christianity just might get the wrong impression.<g>
It is not as though , through the many Centuries , Christianity has not had it's share of beliefs in demons, witches , devils , satans , angels and assorted what-nots.
To think that Christianity has been without these fables
and terribly fantasic stories, is to remain blind .
To me the greatest teacher has been experience. Saying that, I understand the meaning of Matthew 10. There are those of the world, even in our own households, who will deny Christ.
Well , you know what I think already of that simple scribe Mathew..
More appropriately , Santiago , it is in the 4 natural cycles of our lives ...from birth/childhood and first nurturing , then older as a youth & student , and later as a householder and participant in the community , and later still as hopefully an older wiser person completing the tasks of living and fulfilling enough of mortal curiosity , naturally we are drawn to God , give up the attachments of the world and become a little more renunciate...and look deeper behind the veils.
To understand Jesus , you must understand that he was a
renunciate/ascetic most probably . One who spent much time
fasting & self-denial...and meditating in caves and seclusion. This is made obvious by the many statements Jesus made regarding his views on finding perfection while living :
' If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that which thou hast, and give to the poor. "
Which is a very good maxim , if not very much practiced in
today's world . But if God did make one commandment to men
it would prolly be along the lines of living slightly more
practically and simply, tolerantly & treasure life , not waste resources or be overly indulgent ,and other deeper observances and reverant ways of living ... JMO.
regards
Mars
PS: Yet if one has been drawn to the " calling " , I doubt whether bringing the sword of Jesus down on one's family
members is really a good option....Mathew was such a simpleton. |
