THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN
VOLUME 5
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus in the region of Caesarea Philippi. (cont.) Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 16
- Chapter 2 -
How miracles are performed.
When the meal is over, after about an hour, Mark again says to Raphael with regard to the explanation, "Well, heavenly friend, will you tell me something?!"
2
Raphael says, "Yes, friend, I will explain it to you; but despite all explanations the matter will still remain a miraculous one as long as you are not baptized with the Holy Spirit from Heaven! When God's Spirit will have arisen completely in your soul and will be one with it, you will clearly understand all this without any explanation; now, however, even the most logical explanation will give you awfully little enlightenment! For even the most perfect soul will never grasp what is purely spiritual; only the spirit in it can grasp that and the soul eventually through its spirit! But because you want to get a hint, look around you, and tell me what you see!"
3
Mark looks around astonished and sees at every table a slew of boys that resemble Raphael a lot, who attend on the many guests and constantly provide them with everything; more boys even get fresh fish from the sea, hurry with them to the kitchen and right away with prepared ones to the tables because the moors are very hungry; furthermore, the good taste of the food appealed to them.
4
Raphael asked Mark, "Do you understand now how it is possible, and even easy, for me to accomplish so much, so fast, particularly if you bear in mind that a spirit, as the penetrating principle of the innermost part of beings and things, can most effectively and at the same time most successfully control and use all matter as it wants and likes, and nothing can stop it?! Besides, as an archangel, I have an uncountable number of assistants who depend on my will in every moment. As soon as I want something from the Lord that will immediately fills countless servants subordinate to me, who start working at once and easily accomplish a requested action so fast you can hardly imagine! I myself do not do anything of course; but through my archangelic will eons are destined for action as their innermost existential reason and a requested action is thus easily accomplished very fast, and that is that much more certain because a long time ago everything was designed and prepared for some action by the Lord and then by us; should it be necessary for you, it can then be transferred into the visible act already completed a while ago.
5
You saw how a donkey came into existence up on the mountain; and look, everything comes into existence like that, when our will inspires primordial spirits originating in our thoughts to a certain action organized one way or another and coerces them to act! My friend, that alone should serve you as the explanation you wanted from me! I cannot tell you more, using the very limited words of this world and language! Also, do not ask again because until you become a spirit in your soul yourself, you will not understand more of all this than you do now! Because no creature can ever penetrate by itself into the knowledge and cognition of a pure spirit! "Do you understand a little more now?"
6
Mark, however, was satisfied with this explanation and said, "Thank you for this very good explanation; now, taking everything I saw and heard, I understand to my fullest satisfaction how you, dearest heavenly friend, perform your miracles, and especially the fastest execution of the feats you requested. And now I can make the assertion that something rather natural occurs during every miracle, and it always comes down to a union of powers if any feat has to be accomplished either very fast or in a periodical arrangement. Yes, I can now find a certain small similarity between your spiritual miracles and the magic of the earthly mages and that lies in what you called providence and preparation!
7
You know, my heavenly friend, I am just saying it forthright as I am thinking it! It might be hard for you to perform such a difficult miracle all of a sudden without any preparation and providence, as it would be for a mage without any preparation and any previous agreements with other people to aid him. Of course, none of the other people should know anything about it since it would ruin the magic! I come to this surely hardly refutable conclusion: All things are possible for the Lord and for you, however never unforeseen, but rather prepared for ages maybe and thus spiritually set a long time ago to be carried out periodically! What is performed as visible feat now, has been spiritually destined and prepared a long time ago!
8
That is why a world like ours cannot come into such perfect existence with a pure almighty 'FIAT'! ['Let it be done!'], but with time, following long prior preparations after which this present world, as it exists now, had to come into existence as an inevitable result. For the same reason, it is practically impossible for anything to come into perfect and durable existence all of a sudden. Whatever comes into existence fast, decays equally fast. Lightning, for example, forms fast, and vanishes equally fast. An opposite effect is the fact that for something once in durable existence it is practically impossible to decay all of a sudden, but rather gradually as it came into being. Something that has not been destined and prepared cannot ever be carried out even through a dictum supported by the strongest will, be it a case of evolution or a case of decomposition and decay. Thus everything is to be regarded only as a temporary miracle, and every event is a necessary result of many gradual processes!
9
You see, my friend from the heavens, praise the Lord; it seems to me that I understood your explanation more profoundly than you imagined in the beginning! Yes, my dear Raphael, the old Romans aren't quite such fools as one might imagine! Well, what do you think now, my friend? Did I understand you, or not?"