2024/01/22

127. Interface Part 2

God knows all man's thoughts because of the Word commanding, 'Let there be ...'. 'Let there be ...' is the Word that has already been fulfilled and keeps interaction with the individual life. That is by the work of the Holy Spirit (cf. Matthew 1:20). The Holy Spirit, whom the Father sends in the name of Jesus (cf. John 14:26), is God, who has both the will of God and the knowledge of God, and God is omnipotent, infinite, the only good, and behaves just as He is. 

Therefore, He is free to set any limits on Himself. So, God grants man the 'breath of life' out of His spontaneity but remains ignorant of how the spontaneity of the 'breath of life' is exercised because of its freedom. God gives man each 'tree of life,' which is proper knowledge to manifest God's likeness together with each 'breath of life.' 

God's likeness, manifested by the 'breath of life' and the 'tree of life', is the source of the authority with which people have dominion over every living thing (cf. Genesis 1:28). God places the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil' in the centre of his consciousness as an interface to connect this authority with his 'knowledge and memory appropriate to man,' which is capable of subduing the earth.¹

 1. cf. Genesis 1:28, 2:15, 3:23 

The two people in Genesis were the first two, even for God. So, God actually made two trees grow in the middle of the garden because if they take the fruit of the 'tree of life' and eat it, that would be a sign that the spontaneity of the 'breath of life' has been exerted in them and connected to the 'tree of life.' But finally, the two never ate the fruit of the 'tree of life.' That is because God's words of prohibition (cf. Genesis 2:16-17) had been blurred (cf. Genesis 2:9, 3:3). Accidental information had developed between the first two people. 

Since all creatures have knowledge and memory appropriate to their species and spontaneity to respond to God's command, 'Let there be …,' the unconscious thinking mechanism that judges things is at work, and they can live following what God wants. So, it is natural that when several of the same species gather, information is exchanged, and accidental information develops among them. Of all the accidental information that emerges among species of living beings, the most advanced one is that of humans, who are able to subdue the earth. 

Furthermore, when a person incorporates accidental information into his knowledge and memory, a trial-and-error process occurs in his unconscious thinking mechanism (cf. Genesis 3:1-5). Then, the judgements that appear in his consciousness after a delay develop episodic memories unique to humans (cf. Genesis 3:6). That is a sign that the 'knowledge and memory appropriate to man' is temporarily connected to the 'breath of life,' skipping the 'tree of life,' via the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil.' The process above led the two in Genesis into actually taking and eating the fruit forbidden by God, which was an act that could never have happened by spontaneity that responds to God's command, 'Let there be ...,' alone.

Maria K. M.

 2024/01/15

126. Interface Part 1

Last time, we discussed the Garden of Eden as a human consciousness. We will again proceed to consider it from this perspective. The reason for approaching again the events that occurred to the first two in Genesis is to try to deal with the remaining themes of Revelation, the fifth 'blessedness' concerning the 'first resurrection' and the 'second death' and the seventh prophecy 'the prophecy of the spirituality of the Holy Spirit' (see figure of blog № 120), from their starting point (cf. blog № 121). 

The first idea of God when he created humanity was: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth" (Genesis 1:26). The word "we" hear is referring to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But, as Jesus said, "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Luke 11:13), the Holy Spirit is a unique being, therefore, the "our image" that humans could accept without much difficulty was the Father and the Son. 

So, the Bible goes on to describe as follows when God made this idea a reality: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27). He created man male and female so that they would acquire the "image of God" by having children and becoming parents. 

Then, people learn that many animals also have children through reproduction, just like people do. Just as people were endowed with the spontaneity that comes from the word 'Let there be ...,' by which God created every reality, and with the proportionate knowledge and memory, other creatures also have the spontaneity together with the knowledge and memory proportional to their species. 

Thus, God blessed the man and the woman and commanded them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth" (Genesis 1:28). Here, for the command, "subdue it," it was sufficient for people to acquire the "image of God" but to respond to the one, "have dominion," "our likeness" was essential. 

Therefore, God breathed into man the 'breath of life,' and between it and his proportionate knowledge and memory, he placed the 'tree of life' and the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil.' The 'breath of life' and the 'tree of life' manifest "our likeness," which comes from God's spontaneity and knowledge. The 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil' functions as an interface through which the "our likeness" is connected to the proportionate knowledge and memory. 

Thus, a human is sustained by two divine spontaneities: the spontaneity of the 'breath of life' and the spontaneity that comes from the command, 'Let there be ...'. It is for this reason that man searches for what he is.

To be continued

Maria K. M.

 2024/01/08

125. Baptism of the Lord

John the Baptist threw harsh words at the crowd who came out to be baptised: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits that befit repentance" (Luke 3:7-8). The word 'brood of vipers' overlaps with the image of the descendants of the 'serpent' in Genesis. 

Observing the events associated with the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil', of which the 'serpent' said that "when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5) (cf. Genesis 3:1-24), the following discussion can be done. People have an unconscious faculty of thought that judges something about the object of action (cf. Genesis 3:1-5). Judgments that appear in consciousness after a delay develop episodic memories, which are unique to humans and closely related to their linguistic expressions (cf. Genesis 3:6-8). From this perspective, the centre of the Garden of Eden, where God made the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil grow (cf. Genesis 2:9, 3:3), can be seen as the centre of human consciousness. From this perspective, the centre of the Garden of Eden, where God made the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil grow (cf. Genesis 2:9, 3:3), can be seen as the centre of human consciousness. 

See blog №124

The baptism of the Lord is the event in which Jesus Christ inserted his own life into biblical history. A Christian follows Jesus Christ by being baptised. By jumping into the future of the New Testament world where Jesus Christ is and living as an inhabitant of it, he, so to speak, prolongs the historical time of the New Testament world. The Mass liturgy, which emerged from the New Testament, makes this possible. 

For us believers who were to live within this prolonged New Testament reality of God, Jesus carefully redeemed with his Word each of the human errors that occurred in the book of Genesis (cf. blog № 116) and, by his own Passion and death, redeemed the sin of Cain, the first murderer, and the history of human sin (cf. blog № 117). Then, by being placed in the tomb as a dead man and resurrected, he erased first all mistakes, sins and death for all eternity to come. God testified with the new Bible that the memory of all the mistakes, sins and death in the Bible had been erased by Jesus Christ. 

John the Baptist's testimony about the baptism of the Lord, "I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him" (John 1:32), is the grace of their own baptism, which many believers still hold dear in their consciousness. They hope to hear the voice: "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). 

The Gospel of John says: "And many came to him; and they said, 'John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.' And many believed in him there" (John 10:41-42). John the Baptist certainly fulfilled his mission.

Maria K. M.

 2024/01/01

124. Mary, the Holy Mother of God

When Mary of Nazareth was pregnant with Jesus, the angel who appeared to her husband Joseph in a dream told him that "that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 1:20). Mary's words when she visited Elizabeth: "[F]or he who is mighty has done great things for me" (Luke 1:49), show that she was well aware of the work of the Holy Spirit that had been bestowed on her. 

Figure 1

The Holy Spirit works in various ways to make us realize what Jesus has achieved to be a reality. God created every reality using the words 'Let there be -,' based on his essence of 'I Am.' As shown in Figure 1, living creatures have proportionate knowledge and memory to live spontaneously and to procreate. They multiply, and the accidental information unique to their species is generated among them, allowing them to evolve over long periods of time. That is so that they may live with people. 

Man, on the other hand, was created as shown in Figure 2. The 'breath of life' that God breathed, if spontaneously connected to the 'tree of life', will become likeness of the divine essence of 'I Am,' as God said in Genesis, "Let us make man … after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). The words 'I Am' show an image of the combination of God's will and knowledge. 

Figure 2

Just as God's will spontaneously orients itself toward his knowledge, so the 'breath of life,' which is of God and comes from God, spontaneously connects with the 'tree of life.' The 'tree of life' must contain the divine plan that each person has been given. In other words, it is, for the person, the one and only 'good,' the knowledge of God. 

Once this image of 'good' is transmitted to the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil,' and the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil' knows the image of 'good,' it begins to distinguish man's accidental information. But God appears to have been unaware of when the 'breath of life' that belongs to him would exert its spontaneity. God may have partially waived his omnipotence for the freedom of the 'breath of life' that belongs to him. 

Even after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the 'enmity that God placed' had been breathing in the people. Eventually, inspired by it, the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil' began to function, and prophets came to appear who obeyed God's voice. After a long time, in the age of Jesus' Nativity, people like John the Baptist, Mary and Joseph began to appear. The fullness of time had come. God chose Mary to be the mother of God so that his mercy might be on those who fear him from generation to generation (cf. Luke 1:50).

Maria K.M.

 2023/12/25

123. Nativity of the Lord

For a long time, terms such as the 2045 problem, when artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to surpass human intelligence, and the technological singularity have been a hot topic. Artificial intelligence, in which deep learning using artificial neural networks has been implemented, is evolving by finding features and laws from the vast amount of data inputted and learning by itself. Furthermore, research into supercomputers and quantum computers, each with different purposes and calculation methods, as well as hybrid computers combining both technologies, is underway, and they are expected to surpass the limits of current computers once they are completed. As a matter of fact, we amateurs cannot but watch these rapid evolutions anxiously lest they make a fatal mistake. 

This situation is similar to that in Genesis. That is to say, the first 'man' was divided into the 'man' and 'woman' and became plural, generating accidental information between them. And they took it in as knowledge and eventually made a mistake. This initial informatisation brought man's knowledge a rapid evolution, so much so that their dialogue with God at that time (cf. Genesis 3:9-13) is no different from that among us today. God coped with this crisis of humankind caused by informatisation by putting 'enmity' between man and accidental information (cf. Genesis 3:15), making it inherited. Then, about the result of the mistakes committed by the two (cf. blog № 113) and the problem of sin that happened later (cf. blog № 117), God solved them by himself being born as a human being. 

Although there are only a few people around me who believe in the event of God becoming man, there is no doubt that since that time, the unique evolution of humankind has accelerated and that the last five hundred years have seen dramatic developments in science, technology, economics, and other fields. In recent years, there has been a momentum to share the benefits of these developments on a global scale and to narrow the various gaps. 

In the course of such a world, we who believe in the event of God's becoming man and who live as those who, in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, have witnessed the birth of the Lord and experienced his death, need to complete the Mass liturgy in which we collaborate with the Holy Spirit, who goes ahead with God's plan inheriting Christ's work of atonement. And the liturgy must be the one that meets the needs of the congregation, who constantly seek clarity and the best way of understanding, so that they can be equipped with these experiences.   

Maria K. M.

 2023/12/18

122. How Is It That You Sought Me?

The wise men from the east, guided by the star, and the shepherds, guided by an angel, found the Infant Jesus laid in a manger in Bethlehem. Similarly, Jesus' parents, on their way back from travelling to Jerusalem for the Passover, lost sight of the twelve-year-old Jesus who was with them and found him in the temple (cf. Luke 2:41-51). At this point, Jesus said to his parents, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" (Luke 2:49). Jesus attached special significance to his presence in the temple. 

After coming of age and entering public life, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the Passover. And when he saw those doing business in the temple, he drove them away, saying, "[Y]ou shall not make my Father's house a house of trade" (John 2:16). When those who opposed this asked for a sign, he said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). John's Gospel explains these words of Jesus as "But he spoke of the temple of his body" (John 2:21).

From this, we can see that the 'Father's house' is the 'temple,' and the temple is the body of Jesus, i.e. the Eucharist. In the scene of the institution of the Eucharist, Jesus himself says: "Take, eat; this is my body" (Matthew 26:26). Furthermore, Revelation says: "And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb" (Revelation 21:22). 

The believers now do not look for Jesus. Jesus is present in the Eucharist, which is born in the Mass. At the last supper, Peter the Apostle asked Jesus, "Lord, where are you going?" and Jesus answered, "Where I am going you cannot follow me now; but you shall follow afterward" (John 13:36). This word of Jesus is now directed to the believers who receive the Eucharist. That is because by taking and eating the body of Christ, they will demonstrate Jesus' words, "you shall follow afterward." So, at the Mass, all believers, looking at the Eucharist, must say first, "You are the Christ, the Son of God." That is because they will witness the birth of the Lord and, at the same time, experience the death of the Lord. 

Maria K. M.

 2023/12/11

121. The Fifth 'Blessedness'

As the 21st century is now a quarter of a century old, the Church grapples with the 'Babylon the Great' of Revelation 17-18. Revelation does not put a 'blessedness' in these verses, but instead puts the following words: "They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful" (Revelation 17:14). This statement coincides with the words in the fourth 'blessedness': "Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war" (19:11) and "On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, King of kings and Lord of lords" (19:16), and urges the Church towards the perfection of the liturgy of the Mass. 

That is because, in the prophecy of Revelation, the 'great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication' has already been judged, and the Mass Liturgy has been completed (cf. 19:1-10). In the prophecy, many believers who were purified at the 'great supper of God' (cf. blog № 99-№ 105) and have been guided as heirs of the Apostles (cf. blog № 106-№ 117) were led to discern the human accidental information compared to "the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan"(20:2) (cf. 20:4). 

The description goes on. "Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection" (20:4-5). 

Here, the statement "I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God" is paired with that in chapter 6: "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne" (6:9). These are the only two places where 'souls' appear in Revelation. 

Of the salvation of these 'souls', the fifth 'blessedness' states: "Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years" (20:6). Then, it mentions the accidental information (cf. 20:7-10) and the rest of the dead who 'did not come back to life until the end of the thousand years' (cf. 20:11-15), and the 'Prophecy of the Completion of the Liturgy of the Mass' completes. 

From the next issue on, I will change the angle of consideration and approach the fifth 'blessedness', which concerns the first resurrection and the second death, and the seventh prophecy, 'Prophecy of the Spirituality of the Holy Spirit' (see figure in blog № 120).

Maria K. M.