Fifth Sunday in Lent – 18 March 2018

 “I thirst.” John 19:28

To thirst is a sign that the physical body has a demanding need. When we thirst we lose all freedom, thirst must be obeyed, it must be quenched.

“After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfil the scripture), “I thirst.” A bowl full of vinegar stood there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth.” John 19:28-29

The crucifixion is a Cosmic deed, not a deed of death but of birth. It is the birth of the Cosmic Christ into the body of Jesus. This act began with the baptism and progressed carefully over 3 years and some months. Only when Jesus fully vacated his body could the Cosmic Christ fully occupy it.

What would be the sign that this act was complete? What would the Cosmic Christ experience when he was fully within a physical body for the first time ever? Thirst!

“In respect of the earthly life of Christ, the Fifth Gospel reveals that this event was something like conception in the case of a human being. And we understand the life of Christ from then onwards until the Mystery of Golgotha when we compare it with the life of the human embryo within the body of the mother. From the Baptism by John until the Mystery of Golgotha, therefore, the Christ Being passes through a kind of embryonic existence. The Mystery of Golgotha itself is to be understood as the earthly birth — that is to say, the death of Jesus is to be understood as the earthly birth of the Christ.” October 03, 1913

Painting: I Thirst by James Tissot