Mysticism & Gospel of Thomas – No. 47 – Reflection On What Remains

Verse - Reflection On What Remains

Jesus said, "It is not possible for a man to ride two horses, nor can he bend two bows. And a slave cannot serve two masters, lest he worship the one and despise the other. No one drinks old wine and desires to drink new. And they do not pour new wine into old wineskins, lest they break; nor do they pour old wine into a new wineskins, lest they spoil it. Nor do they sew an old patch on a new garment, lest a tear appear."

Comment

This saying is also a call to concentrate on the essentials, which becomes all the more necessary the more the fleeting pleasures of the outside world give us the illusion of permanence and happiness, although they only leave us more unfulfilled and disappointed when they inevitably end. We always have the freedom to choose between the lesser or the greater - and we always reap the fruits of this decision. But we cannot have both at the same time: God and the world. We cannot ride two horses without running the risk of falling off both. We cannot draw two bows, only one.

Blessed are we when we grasp and draw the heavenly bow and aim the arrow of our longing and love at the heart of God! Blessed are we when we recognize that the school of life wants to educate us to reflect and concentrate on what is essential. On what is permanent, eternal, imperishable, which alone enables us to reveal the eternity of our being and to give meaning to our life.

Free Ourselves

Blessed are we when we free ourselves from the paralyzing delusion that our lives cannot be changed, and when we recognize that every being and every situation can be fundamentally changed at any time: from within, by changing our thinking and beliefs, by turning to our inner life and by becoming one with the spirit of life! Blessed are we when we often turn inward in stillness and silence with the request:

When we live, let us live searching - searching full of longing, God, for you! We do not want to creep along as dead people, alive on the outside, corpses on the inside, we want to live, surrendered to your being already on earth and be filled with fire by you while our bodies still surround us - until your will bursts it apart.