The Household of God
Volume 2
Rise and spiritual prime of the first world empire Hanoch
- Chapter 152 -
ENOCH'S AMAZED RECOGNITION OF THE STRANGER'S WISE SPEECH. PARABLE OF THE TWO SATISFIED AND THE MANY HUNGRY ONES
When Enoch had heard this from the stranger he was amazed and asked him:
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"Listen, dear friend, if your great wisdom is human I am an unsolvable riddle to myself; for truly, your words silence my spirit!
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"You want me to make some objection so that thereby we may arrive at a general verdict; yet how can and shall I do this?
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"For your words have penetrated my whole being so convincingly that rather than making the least objection to your exceedingly wise and to the core true speech I should find it possible to prove to someone that I am not Enoch.
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"And so I tell you nothing else - and cannot tell you anything else -but only that your verdict is already utterly and completely my own.
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"However, should there still be some objection thinkable to my opinion, or maybe some question, you, dearest brother and friend, would have to do this yourself.
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"For, as I said, I find in no point whatsoever of this your speech anything to which I could object in the least or which I could question at all.
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"If it were only up to me, I would say: Brother, do rather talk of something else; for this speech is too sublimely whole and true so that it would be an eternal pity to obliterate and dissipate it as it were through all sorts of additional remarks - Do you not agree?"
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And the stranger replied: "Enoch, you do realize that it is so since your verdict agrees with mine in the spirit and all truth, but the matter will only be raised to a complete beneficial certainty once it becomes a general opinion.
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"Therefore, in my opinion it is not enough for a truth to become a unanimous opinion between two people, but what it is really meant to become it must become through a multiple, unanimous verdict.
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"For let us assume there were a crowd of hungry people somewhere in great distress, but two among them had enough bread for their own requirement, having eaten their fill.
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"If then the hungry ones stepped up to them asking: 'Brothers, how do you manage to look so merry and satisfied while we are ready to perish with hunger?'
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"And the two replied: 'Listen, we are eating bread and so are satisfied!',
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'Tell me, dear Enoch, will such an answer, though as such the most beautiful truth, satisfy the hungry ones?
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"Oh no, everyone must certainly admit that by the sole feeding of the two nobody else's hunger is appeased.
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"But soon the hungry will say to the well-fed ones: 'Of what benefit is this to us unless you make it accessible to all?
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"Let us also bite into your bread and then we shall learn whether and how it will satisfy us!'
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"Behold, dear Enoch, is not this a very valid objection? But how can it be solved?
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"Behold, here are several hungry ones; these shall also bite into our bread and deliver their verdict as to whether it satisfies them or not. If it suffices for all, no addition is necessary; if, however, it is not sufficient we must either procure more bread or show and reveal to them the great universal bread larder. What do you reckon: Is this not correct?"
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And Enoch, quite amazed at the great wisdom of the dweller in the evening, answered in the affirmative from the bottom of his heart and thereupon asked the wise stranger:
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"But dear brother, I beg of you for the sake of the spirit, do tell me before we let the others bite into our bread, from where did you receive such wisdom, seeing that you are a total stranger to me and as far as I know have never been present while the Most High was walking among us; and when did you receive it?"
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And the stranger replied: "Dearest Enoch, behold, here only one thing is necessary; so let us forget the How and When and instead at once allow the brothers to bite into the bread.
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"But many will be coming from the east and the west accusing many children of the light of the utmost darkness so that these will wail and lament.
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"But let us now leave this alone; for your wisdom will only be justified through your children. So let us look to the fathers lest the children perish.
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"Enoch, do you grasp also this? - So offer the bread to the fathers and brothers!"