MDMD(8) Christ true Pity

[Sojourner]

ack! im my governmental haste, I neglected
to respond to all of this:

At 09:43 AM 9/15/97 -0800, Doug Millison wrote:

>On this same page (231), Pynchon mentions a "long sorry Silence"  -- which
>(in addition to the interpretation more closely focused on the Jesuits,
>which I suggested in a previous message) can also be interpreted as that
>period of time since (as Christians believe) Christ came to Earth and
>became a person to show us the extent of human potential and the depth of
>God's grace. In the presence of priests who have wouldn't know "a moment of
>Transcendence in his life, nor would re-cognize one did it walk up and bite
>yese in the Arse,

my aunt, an ordained Methodist minister, wrote a sermon
once which went along the lines of "If Jesus walked into
this very church, would you recognize Him?"

fantastic stuff..

--" humans can only "jump and whimper like Dogs".  Of
>course Catholics and other Christians believe they know exactly what Christ
>expects, based on scripture and the traditions that have come down. In this
>passage ("Christ's true Pity") I think Emerson expresses a cynical view
>both of priests and of the deeper Christian belief that through direct
>experience of Christ (in prayer, through direct revelation, Paul struck
>blind on the Damascus road, for example) we can "catch the Trick of it".

interesting.. every morning i watch a Christian religious program
(Joyce Meyer's In The Word for those interested) and recently she
used an interesting metaphor (from Paul's Epistle to the Romans
i think but do not quote me on it) on how disease is infectious,
how evil and maliciousness is infectious, but holyness is not, that
the Grace of God must be given, but cannot be absorbed through
osmosis.

The "trick of it" ala TRP I interpret personally to be more along
the classical Gnostic/Sufi tradition, where you jump as your
teacher tells you, until you have enough faith to let yourself
fly.


	"My eyes and your eyes
                  O those beautiful stones
                  mine was yours and yours was mine 
                  you know what I mean
                  long is since I saw him
                  truly fair he was
                  all that may adorn a man
                  most of the people carried him
                  you I long for most of all
                  heavy with the flood of tears
                  O that I never had seen you
                  dear beloved friend."

	     --Björk Gudmundsdöttir
	        (Visur Vatnsenda-Rósu)