The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 123 -
The wisdom of Jarah.
Mathael says, "Oh, you little Jarah, you! Look, I would not have sought this wisdom in your flesh, by heaven! Very good, my dearest Genezarethine; but now I would like to hear from you how you actually pray!"
2
Jarah says, "I put myself with all my thoughts and feelings in the deepest depths of my heart, where the love for God dwells. Thereby this holy love is nourished, as if you lay a good, dry and very easily inflammable log on quiet embers that no longer flame up.
3
The wood will soon wake the quiet embers so that they begin to drive very small flames over themselves; these little flames will then soon seize the log and then the whole thing will transform into the brightest flames, and then it will become extremely light and completely warm in the heart. It is only then that the thereby awakened godlike Spirit in the heart speaks:
4
"Oh, You, my holy Father in heaven! Hallowed be Your name! Let Your fatherly love come to us poor sinners full of death and night! Your single, holy will be done here on this, Your Earth, as in all Your heavens! If we have sinned against Your eternal, holy order, forgive us our madness and have patience and leniency with us, as we will also have patience and leniency with those who have sinned against us! Do not allow us to be tempted in our fleshly weakness above our strength by the world and by the devil, but deliver us through Your great mercy, love and compassion from the thousand evils through which our love for You, oh holy, great, dear Father, could be dimmed and weakened! But when we hunger and thirst, spiritually and physically, then give us, good, dear Father, according to Your holy discretion, what we need daily! Alone to You all my love, all honor and all praise eternally, eternally!
5
You see, that is how I pray, but which praying before God obviously only counts for something if beforehand the love for God in the very depths of the heart has crossed over into the light and bright flames in the prescribed way through the union of all thoughts and feelings in the divine centre of the heart; if this prelude is missing, every prayer with simple words, no matter how beautiful they are, is an abomination before God and will not be accepted and listened to.
6
For God in Himself is a spirit and therefore must be prayed to in the spirit of love and in the most flaming bright light of truth. Do you understand now what the fullest truth about prayer means according to my mind and according to my understanding?"
7
Mathael says, "Oh, you most blessed girl! Who would then ever have sought such a depth of wisdom in you!? Truly, I could still very well be your disciple, and I am not in the least bit ashamed to admit such a thing here before everyone loudly and openly! Yes, only now I understand your unconquerable similarity to the Lord and vice versa, as the Romans say! You also seem to have been awakened by the Lord very recently, like me?!"
8
Jarah says, "Whoever loves the Lord God above all else, will soon and easily be awakened; but whoever seeks Him with the mind in order to love Him, when he has found Him very firmly with the mind, he has then taken on a great and vain task, with which he can never reach the desired goal on this world. Therefore you have quickly reached the intense light of mercy from God; for in the heart of your soul there always must have been a strong flame, although you were occupied in your body for a time by the worst spirits of hell!"
9
Mathael says, "Yes, divine child, there you must be very right! I loved God from my childhood above all, therefore my parents had me devoted to the temple, where my flesh was only turned into a true machine of hell, but my soul nonetheless remained as it had been since the original beginning of its existence. But no more word about this; for I do not like to remember it. And now tell me, my most beloved Helena, how this wise girl has pleased you! Is it not amazing how wise this child is?
10
Helena says, "Where are and who are her parents then?"
11
Mathael says, "Well, well, that is all common knowledge now, and you have already seen and spoken to her father Ebahl, the inn-keeper from Genezareth, also present here, in the evening in your three huts down below! Have you forgotten already? Rather tell me how you like the extremely pithy wisdom of this girl, and whether you do not feel the living desire along with me to be just as wise as her, this very dearest, blessed little one! Truly, I know a lot - but this child knows more! I see her in my mind, how her chaste bosom hides things about which we have not even the slightest idea. But she seems not to have a very special esteem for Raphael! How do you like all this, my most blessed spouse Helena?"
12
Helena says, very wistfully instead of cheerfully and happily, "Oh my Mathael, poor Helena will never get that far! It seems as if the heart of the All-mighty is directly within the heart of this maiden; for that is an experience in the sphere of the innermost life of God in a person, as one can only take from the mouth of the Creator! Then it is certainly understandable why she does not have a great opinion of the angel; for she must be as close to the true wisdom as he is, as one eye resembles the other. It cannot be doubted that the angel possesses an endless power and strength from the Lord; but I would doubt whether he is stronger than this maiden in the true wisdom in love for the Lord.
13
I would like to enter into some conversation with her, if I didn't have so much respect for her wisdom! For the like of us can only let out a foolish word to the girl and then you would receive a reprimand from her mouth so that one would not dare one's whole life long to let another word pass over the lips.
14
If the girl was poor, I would give her all my treasure that I have with me; but she seems by her quite expensive clothes to be a child of well-off parents, and a present from me would certainly not find a good response, particularly with her enormous depth of wisdom, which in any case despises all the worldly splendor even more than we do, and particularly I, who am not capable of giving her even the smallest drop of wisdom!
15
I am indescribably fond of the girl; but nevertheless in her vicinity I become positively fearful and afraid.
16
But for the information, how we should pray to God, I nonetheless owe her great thanks; but how will I be able to present this child with deserved thanks?"
17
Jarah, who in the meantime was discussing something with Raphael, says, "Most graceful, high queen, love me as I love you - anything else is unnecessary! You know in any case what I think of all the treasures of the world and you have just spoken very wisely; and if it really depended on us greeting each other with mutual coarse material treasures, I could certainly offer you more than you me. But what is all the splendor of the world in comparison with only a smallest spark of the true, living love for God in our hearts!? My friend, we must keep this jewel faithfully, protect it and look after it in our hearts, so that it does not become estranged to us! If we possess that in ever greater splendor, in purity as well as in the intensity of life, then we possess more than what all heaven can understand! Do you understand that?"