The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 122 -
On the angels' nature.
Jarah says, "Oh, he surely could! If he receives a sign from the Lord in a way that is certainly invisible to us - otherwise he does nothing! He has been given to me as a teacher and protector; but if I say something to him that he should do this or that for me, that's when he does the least! And if I would like to learn something from him, not only does he say nothing, but he asks me then immediately about it and I am supposed to tell him just what I want to learn from him. Therefore it is a shame to waste words. I am truly very fond of him, but I would be a thousand times fonder of him - if he was only a little more obedient! He is always extremely friendly, it is true, but one cannot ask him for anything; for everything is a wasted effort."
2
Mathael says, "I wanted to see whether he could not be moved to at least protect some of the civil houses from the flames! I will call him over and see whether the most blessed Jarah is correct about everything!"
3
At this Mathael calls Raphael and says to him "Friend, look at the city! It seems to me that now even some poor huts are on fire; if it is so, couldn't you prevent this?"
4
The angel says, "In any case, if I were permitted to; but my will is now entirely the Lord's, and I can only want what He alone wants. If the Lord wants it, you cannot imagine a fast enough moment and I will be finished with the extinguishing of the fire! But without the will of the Lord I can do it just as little as you; for I have not carried out all the miracles I performed, but only the will of the Lord through me.
5
We angels are in our being nothing but the emanations of the divine will, or we are the will of the Lord personified and cannot do anything of ourselves, because we actually cannot be thought of as existing and living as independent beings devoid of the pure divine will, as you cannot think of any effective image of the sun in truth in a mirror before your eyes, if beforehand a beam of the true sun does not fall on the surface of the mirror.
6
But in order to understand my being even better, I will draw your attention to a type of concave mirror or burning glass, which the famous mechanic Archimedes from antiquity invented quite by accident. These mirrors have the very natural characteristic of concentrating a number of sunbeams falling on its surface into a point at a certain distance. These sunbeams concentrated into a point then have both in light as well as in heat an often greater power than the simple beam, as the focus, having in its greatest concentration hardly two thumbs? width in diameter, is taken from a square of the mirror's surface, which is often a man's height in diameter.
7
Such a focus then has certainly more than a thousand times greater strength, both in lighting as well as burning, than the natural simple beam of sunlight, but is unthinkable without the sun.
8
It, namely the mirror, only joins the beams of the sun into one powerful and fastacting focus; but without the sun it is devoid of every strength and effect and possesses only the characteristic of intensifying the beams of the sun when they fall on its surface; but without the sun the effect of the focus is nothing.
9
Thus we angels, as I said, are in ourselves only the focus to take in and intensify the divine will, and where we then act, we act through the focus of the divine will intensified in us, and you can then see nothing but wonder upon wonder. Do you understand that?"
10
Mathael says, "Oh, I now understand that extremely well, only I didn't know that Archimedes was the inventor of concave mirrors; for these were originally accredited to a certain Hamerod and then the famous Thales, who also is supposed to have created a lightning machine!"
11
Raphael says, "Quite right, but Archimedes was a wood-turner and discovered both the existence of the very useful concave mirror, the lightning generating cylinders and plates, as well as mainly the levering machines through a successful use of his own invented and well calculated screw, after which invention he said: "Give me a solid point outside the Earth and I will unhinge it for you!?["Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth? (Wikipedia)]
12
But from all this you can conclude that out of myself I cannot comply with your well meant wish. But if the Lord designates me for it, then everything will be promptly done. Therefore just turn to the Lord!"
13
Jarah says, "You cannot concern the Lord now; for He recommended us to rest or pray if we stay awake. And we should do that; for what He says has its reasons. What does it bother us if the whole city burns down?! The Lord has His reasons why He let this happen to the city, and the reason can be highly good and full of divine love and mercy. If we now want to change something, we would not make the situation any better, but only obviously worse; at the right time the Lord will do His will without our contribution. There is and remains nothing to be done about my Raphael; for without the will of the Lord he is an empty skin."