Vol. 55 No. 8 - Beloved Elizabeth Clare Prophet - April 15, 2012
Jesus’ Initiations Are for All His Disciples
Who Will Ask to Receive Them
The Gift of the Resurrection
O light that reigns in the hearts of men because he has come into the world, we salute thee in the spirit of the resurrection and in the very person of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. Angels of the throne of glory, descend in concentric rings of sacred fire. As the sacred fire lily of our hearts bursts forth in the light of the Mother and the Son, we gather to proclaim him King of kings and Lord of lords, victor over hell and death, our supreme master of life.
O Father in heaven, in his name, let the resurrection flame reign in every heart in this hour. In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, in the name of the Mother, Amen.
Next to the incarnation of the Saviour, the most glorious of all events is the celebration of his resurrection. When we come into the world vowing to “do thy will, O God,” as he did, we have no assurance that we will walk the path of initiation to the hour of our own individual resurrection—save the assurance and the promise of God that with him all things are possible1 and, by the endowment of the threefold flame of life, we can fulfill the original promise. And so when we behold our Master fulfill that promise, we have the comfort and the peace that we may follow in his footsteps.
At the Last Supper he gave us to drink of his cup—the full cup of his sorrow, the full cup of his joy. He said, “Drink ye all of it.”2 Thus, in giving to us the same cup that he drank, he shares with us the same initiations through which he passed. And if we would have our resurrection, we must realistically face our personal crucifixion, midst the crucifixion of our planet, our nation and the nations of the earth.
This most glorious event, Jesus’ resurrection, seems to come as though miraculously. And yet as we study the scriptures old and new, we see that every moment of his life leading to this sublime moment was carefully planned and carefully executed. And so Jesus—the great master alchemist, the great healer, the great physician—was moving according to the great divine plan moment by moment. He fully prepared us, and he gave to us words that we must consider because they tell us he is resurrected. It is recorded in the Book of Mark:
They were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him.
Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles:
And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.3
The Disciples’ Request for the Initiations of Jesus
At this very moment of the prophecy of the agony and the ecstasy, we find the disciples nearest Jesus questioning him. And their first questions are directed toward their own fate, their own chelaship.
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire.
And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you?
They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory.4
They knew of the positioning of the cherubim upon the ark of the covenant.5 They knew that the guarding of the flame was a sanctified office of the two highest initiates of the Master. They wanted to secure their position in heaven before he should remove himself from their sight.
But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?
And they said unto him, We can.6
Thus it has ever been that as the disciples look upon the mastery of their Lord, they do not perceive the elements of that mastery, the great light of that attainment. Nor do they understand the thousands upon thousands of years of the ingredients of the glory that so easily flowed from his garment, the light that transfigured him before their very eyes. They are so certain that they simply say, “We can.”
Perhaps it is a false sense of assurance. Perhaps it is a profound inner understanding of what he has already taught them. We cannot totally judge why they say what they say. We cannot see whether it is selfishness or the enlightenment of the Higher Self that understands that in following the Master one must ask for his mantle in order to receive it. One must ask for his initiations in order to receive them. Elisha asked his Guru for his mantle when he ascended.7 Thus we come to understand that even when we are so close to the ascended ones, without the prayer and the asking there cannot be the blessed conferment of the resurrection flame.
Jesus’ Promise—the Full Cup and the Baptism
Perhaps this Easter morning we ought to do as they did and demand, in the name of the I AM THAT I AM, that the full glory of Jesus’ resurrection descend upon us. Perhaps we can learn from the answer that he gave to them: “Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized.” This statement of Jesus is the unveiling of the mystery of the chalice of the Holy Grail. He is saying, “Indeed ye shall have what ye have asked for, for it is given to you to walk in my footsteps. And in so walking, ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of.”
In these very words, hardly veiled yet somehow veiled from the masses of Christians today, we discover that Jesus Christ proclaims his path to be the path of all of his disciples who will ask to receive it and that, in these words, he is actually choosing to make us his friends, even as he did with the disciples when he washed their feet.8 He makes us equal with him by giving to us the equal path of initiation. This is the great gift of the resurrection, that we as disciples may perhaps follow the impetuous James and John and ask for the cup and ask for the baptism—the baptism by water, the cleansing of the repentance, and the fiery baptism unto the drawing of the triangle of self to the higher triangle of Self.9
So we behold the mystery. He is saying, “Thy chalice is worthy, O James and John, my brothers, my disciples. You who would be the Christ when I am no longer visible, thy chalice is worthy. Thy cup shall be filled. Thou shalt drink. Thou shalt receive the fire of the Holy Ghost.” And then he says to them,
But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.10
Thus, it is prepared by Almighty God, and the preparation for our point of light in cosmos is sealed, even as the seat whereon you are seated this morning is reserved for you. It is a spiral of the ascension flame. It awaits your invocation.
It is the very person of the living Christ who awaits your summoning and your deep desiring, saying unto him, “Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire.” And so we remember his promise, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.”11 Let us pray.
Our Father who art in heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ, we speak thy name I AM THAT I AM. Om, Father. Abba, Father.
Now therefore, O living sacred fire, in the name of thy Son Jesus Christ, in the name of the Cosmic Christ, whose presence he has brought to our hearts, in the name of the great quickening fire and the opening of the door to our own Christ Self, we ask this day that the children of God upon earth and the sons and daughters of God might be drawn in to the great congruency of thy throne.
Let thy Three-in-One, O God, descend now! Let it be for the healing of hearts, the purifying of hearts, the opening of the path of initiation according to thy light.
Our heavenly Father, in his name, in the name of the great Spirit of the Resurrection, in the name of his Mother, Mary, in the name of his Father, Joseph, we implore intercession upon the earth. We implore the manifestation of the Comforter, that the truth of thy salvation might be made known, that the presence of the holy saints within the Holy Church might be seen as the great cloud of witness, as the fiery cloud and the fiery pillar.
O God, our Father, thou who dost walk within our midst as the personal presence of the Comforter unto us, walk in the midst of thy people Israel. Draw them together. Gather them together, O God, for the witness of the age, for thy victorious light.
Set the nations free! Set the people free! Set the captives free, O God! This is our prayer. This is our dynamic decree. This is our desiring to be in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and, in that heart, to ask of him whatsoever is the desire of the will of God. Amen.
The Great Opening of the Temple Door
And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.
And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him:
Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children.12
First we hear Jesus’ promise—the full cup and the baptism. Now in the actual event of the hour of the crucifixion, the veil of the temple is rent in twain from the top to the bottom. This is the great opening of the temple door. This is the liberation of the children of God to worship at the feet of their own Christ Self and their own Holy of Holies. Until this hour, none could pass the veil save the high priests.
Jesus Christ came to deliver unto the people the name of God I AM THAT I AM, to return to them the power, to reacquaint them with the personal God of Israel—the Father and the Son. And he gave the promise of the very personal interchange with the person and the sacred fire of the Holy Ghost. This occurred in the moment of the crucifixion—the lightning, the earthquake, and the veil was rent in twain.
And, behold, even the centurion now stands face-to-face with the Shekhinah glory of the Son. And he beholds him, the Son of God, even as every child of light who believes on his name becomes the joint heir of that personal experience with the living God.
Let us contemplate this moment, the moment of our own convergence with Christ at the nexus of the cross. We have passed through the Passion Week, through the fourteen stations, through the hours on the cross. We have heard his last words, “It is finished,” and he gave up the ghost.13 That ultimate sacrifice, being the ultimate reunion with the will of God, produces the opening of the door on behalf of all life upon earth. This, this is our great joy!
O beloved Jesus, let us now understand the deeper mysteries of drinking thy full cup and remaining steadfast to thy fiery essence, infused thereby within our temple—infused because thou art the fullness unto us forevermore of the transfiguration, the crucifixion, the resurrection and the ascension.
We will tarry here as thou wilt, O living Son of God. We ask only that thou shalt take up thy abode within our heart and live in this temple, that we might be with thee alive forevermore. We claim thy resurrection in the full understanding that God has ordained it unto us through thy blessed name and his own, I AM THAT I AM.
O living Word of God, place thy mantle upon us now. For we are determined to go forth as thou would have us, with purse, with script, with sword, to defend truth and righteousness, freedom and thy glory. We will walk with thee all the way to the heart of the last sheep, lost on the hillsides of the world. And with that sheep in our arms, we will come home safely unto thee, our Lord.
In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and the Mother, we thank thee for thy presence now.
“The Summit Lighthouse Sheds Its Radiance o’er All the World to Manifest as Pearls of Wisdom.”
This Pearl of Wisdom is an excerpt from a sermon delivered by the Messenger of the Great White Brotherhood Elizabeth Clare Prophet on Easter Sunday, April 15, 1979, during the Quest for the Resurrection conference, held at Camelot, Los Angeles County, California.
1. Matt. 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 1:37; 18:27.
2. Matt. 26:27.
3. Mark 10:32-34.
4. Mark 10:35-37.
5. Exod. 25:17-22; 37:6-9.
6. Mark 10:38, 39.
7. II Kings 2:9-15.
8. John 13:1-14.
9. The soul and the Holy Christ Self (Higher Self) can be represented by two triangles. Mother Mary explained that when “the triangle of the lower self merges with the triangle of the Higher Self... a star is born—the star of your own victory and of the immortality of the divine design within you.” See Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Mary’s Message for a New Day, p. 246.
10. Mark 10:40.
11. John 14:13.
12. Matt. 27:51-56.
13. John 19:30.
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