THE RISEN ONE
Why do human beings get sick, grow old, and die? What is the meaning and origin of evil? These are questions which have occupied us ever since we began to think. Despite this however, no thinker or philosopher has ever satisfactorily answered these questions.
Jesus said to his followers that He would show them how to overcome death. However, He was crucified for this as well as His other strange, spiritually radical, and outspoken teachings. He was taken down dead from the Cross and laid in a tomb. But on Easter Sunday morning the tomb was found to be empty! Then, amazingly, Jesus started appearing to his followers! He seemed to them just as real as He had been in the flesh, and He even ate food! He appeared and disappeared regularly for forty days, and then 'was taken up to heaven in a cloud' with a promise that He would return.
After the descent of the Holy Spirit at the first Pentecost the Christians began to multiply. Saul of Tarsus was a fanatical Jew who hated the followers of Jesus. He persecuted them continually. Then on the road to Damascus Jesus appeared to him and asked him to work for Him, not against Him. Saul was utterly astounded and became totally convinced of the reality of the Risen One. Saul agreed to work for Him. Soon after this Saul changed his name to Paul. Since that time he has been known as the Apostle Paul.
St. Paul wrote many letters of spiritual guidance and instruction regarding the Risen One. Many of these were preserved and are included in the New Testament. In the odd place in these letters echoes of the old Saul still remain. However, overall they are full of the richest wisdom known to mankind. In one, (1 Corinthians: 40-58), Paul speaks of the resurrection body, which is available to all human beings now through the seed-blood of Christ which has fallen into the Earth.
Herein lies the secret of the Holy Grail.
This truth is more often than not denied by conventional Christianity. However, St. Paul stated the situation very clearly when he said that 'If Christ is not raised, your faith is in vain.' (1 Corinthians 15:17)
This complex doctrine was originally accepted on faith by Christians. Nowadays however, because knowledge has become as important as faith, the teaching about the Higher Being and the resurrection body is often denied, or at least embarrassingly put aside. It can however be understood, but only through the light of the Holy Grail.
The Wounded King of the Grail story overcomes death through the power of the sacred Vessel. An inner Being becomes master of the dying physical body and outlives it.
However, as the Grail story shows, the attaining of this communion of the Grail, or this arrival at the 'new Jerusalem' or the Grail Castle is a mysterious process which takes time and effort. It is a thorny path through a 'wasteland' . The 'wasteland' is a metaphor for the world as we known it normally. The word Grail is actually derived from 'gradalis' which is Latin and means a gradual or step-by-step ascent. The Grail path is a gradual one.
As St. Paul says, through prayer, meditation, faith, and the practise of virtue generally, we put on the new spiritual body or the 'heavenly clothes' and are once and for all freed from sickness, old age and death. The preparation is slow but the transformation comes like a lightening flash from heaven. Time and space are transformed and we become part of the ascended Being of the Risen One. Thus, it is a development of consciousness.
Human consciousness has never been static. It is always evolving and is meant to do that. This evolution however is 'speeded up' through inner work.
By undertaking virtuous work we gradually acquire a higher spiritual type of consciousness. In this way we become transformed in the way St. Paul writes about.
The Risen One is Love Incarnate. To know Him is to transform yourself through the power of chaste and selfless Love. The Grail contains the heavenly wine of this holy Power. It teaches, in a gradual, step-by-step manner, the mysterious and fascinating process of re-birth or spiritual initiation. Through meditation on the Four Hallows this initiation into the new Mysteries proceeds.
These are the Mysteries of the Risen One to whom all who want sustainable and holistic power on the Earth must now connect. For He is the Spirit of the Earth.