JESUSCHRIST SUPERSTAR

[Giselle Maja]

Divine? Mortal? The son of God? The son of Mary and Joseph? Part of a lineage that originated the legend of the Holly Grail? Much has been said about the historical and the mythical Jesus. But who is him for people like me, living in the era of the Internet and of extraordinary technology? I already live in Hell, I don’t need Jesus o a furious Father to condemn me. Those who still await for the Apocalypse and the Final Judgment to arrive, take a look to the hunger in Africa, to the war in Middle East, to the poverty in Latin America. Just take a look. Satan doesn’t scare me. Real people and real life are worse.

If I live in such a world, must I believe in Jesus’ miracles, when I witness tragedies everyday in the news? Must I believe that the real value of the Christ is to turn water into wine, just after I saw a wonderful magician in a TV show doing exactly the same thing? Must I believe his true message is that I will have eternal life only if I adore him and give money to his Church? Paris Hilton promises me popularity and beauty here and now, not in the Afterlife, only if I buy her perfume.

If the Christ is my savior, can he save such a planet? What is he going to do? Is he going to feed the children in Africa, or is he going to call Rudolph the Reindeer and give them the money they need to get a proper education? Has his religion really saved anyone? What about the persons that live with less than a dollar a day? Many of them are Christians and they are unhappy. Oh, of course, you can tell me that’s God’s will, that he loves me so much that he will just let me starve and let everyone else walk over me. So, I will go to Hell if I don’t believe in him. But I am in Hell if I believe in him. Excuse me, but it doesn’t make sense. Religious promises don’t make sense.

No, Jesus is not a magician; his tricks are great, but there must be something else. Jesus is not merchandise, so I don’t care about the material or moral benefits of adoring him. He is not a trademark, so I don’t have to label myself as a Christian to be a good person. He is not a Church, so I don’t have to believe there’s only one truth, the Christian truth, and the rest is crap. He cannot save me from the Devil, because I am the Devil and I can save myself.

Why is he important for somebody like me? What is the meaning of his so called “sacrifice”? The word sacrifice comes from an etymological root that means “to make sacred”. While ancient religions demanded men to sacrifice himself or animals to feed the Gods, it was Jesus the one who sacrificed himself for us. Self-sacrifice: that’s the key.

What is self-sacrifice? It doesn’t mean just to believe, but to practice and experience that I believe. It means to be able to be like the Christ, to sacrifice my own life and my blood, everything I am, to achieve something. In means to accept my mistakes, and stop blaming the Devil. It means to accept I’m only a human, to embrace my beautiful mortality, and at the same time, kill the obstacles and look for something better. Not necessarily something “divine” (who can reach Heaven in a lifetime?). Simply better. My goal is not to be a saint or to get things through my spirituality; God is not Santa Claus. I just want to be able to be stronger and wiser, to understand good, evil, abundance and poverty are a part of my life. I just want to learn to create what I need in my life, to be responsible of my own life.

And this is the true value of self-sacrifice: I want to kill a part of myself not because God can send me to Hell or because the Judgment Day is coming. I want to do it because I want to do it, because I must follow my nature.

As I walk away from the biblical clouds, the guilt and religious promises, I realize Jesus’ sacrifice was something so simple, so human, and at the same time, so hard and so extraordinary…He teaches Love can overcome even the darkest evil and the greatest suffering. He teaches me that the difference between those who believe in the Crucifixion and those who experience the Crucifixion is the will to accept a little bit or a lot of pain, the will to accept responsibility and the will to work hard…HERE ON EARTH, HERE IN EVERYDAY LIFE, not in a Heaven that nobody has ever seen.

The Passion of the Christ…each one of us carries a Cross every day of our lives. Heaven and Hell are here and now, I don’t need to die to reach them. So, I no longer need an external Jesus to save me and do amazing tricks. I can do my own tricks and save myself.

So, what is the essential message of the Christ for me? That I can also be the Christ, that I can decide to be a better person and sacrifice what’s old to be born anew. This is a beautiful message, a real promise of hope and happiness, because it depends completely on me. This is the Christ I embrace with all my heart, and one of the reasons that I love and admire loving being called Yeshua of Nazareth.

[Maia Christianne Mallika]

"So, what is the essential message of the Christ for me? That I can also be the Christ, that I can decide to be a better person and sacrifice what’s old to be born anew. This is a beautiful message, a real promise of hope and happiness, because it depends completely on me. This is the Christ I embrace with all my heart, and one of the reasons that I love and admire loving being called Yeshua of Nazareth."

DEEP thoughts - powerful words!

You might care to read on Spirit Mythos:

http://www.spiritmythos.org/holy/2roads.htm