An Easter Story

An Easter Story

Once, a long time ago, there lived a boy, a sad little boy who sat forlorn on the front steps of his home. Angels had come to him once before to instruct him on his new manner of being which would require only Love and Light to be the mainstays in his life.

Now our boy Maury was sad because he had accumulated much sorrow over his many lifetimes on Earth and he felt weighed down by this sorrow that lay like a stone on his heart. His heart could not speak any longer, because of this weight. So our little boy sat forlorn on the stoop in front of his home.

As the days sailed passed and the nights followed our boy Maury grew even more despairing.

“Why did I come here,” he would ask? “Why did I place myself back in this Earthly circumstance where I cannot move because of this weight on my heart.”

And his angel friends came to call. There were Michael and Anthony, Christopher and Lore. They were his closest allies and they had been friends over many lifetimes, each of them playing various roles with each other within those lifetimes. Sometimes lover! Sometimes enemy! Sometimes guide! Sometimes absent! But today all were present, there to greet Maury and advise him on what to do next. Lore spoke first:

“Maury, you know we love you and we are here to help you. But only you, dearest friend, can lift that stone from off your heart and be reborn again.”

“Yes, I know” Maury replied. “But I feel so heavy right now, so burdened and so tired. I fear I cannot lift a finger on my behalf.”

And Lore stepped back to allow Michael to come forward.

Michael, the Archangel, Guardian of the heavens, Father to all time, First born of Jesus, Master to this Earthly domain, began to speak:

“My dear Maury, are you so sad you cannot lift your own finger to help yourself? Are you so lonely, you cannot reach out to life for the love that exists there waiting? Are you prepared to stand still rather than take hold of your own healing?

“Yes, your healing my friend. This is why you are here. This is why these people are in your life. This is why all these circumstances swirl around you. Because, you need them. You need them to learn. Take a close look, Maury. These are, after all, your own creations.”

“I know,” Maury replied sadly. “I know, but I feel so heavy right now – so very heavy.”

And Michael stepped back to allow Maury’s good friend Christopher to come forward.

Christopher had played many roles in Maury’s lives and vice versa. They had helped each other through many difficult ti9mes, each agreeing to play whatever role the other needed at any given time. This time it was Christopher’s turn to provide the guidance.

“Oh Maury,” he began, “I beg of you, please wake up. Wake up! You are slipping into darkness here under the weight of your own sadness.”

“I know,” Maury replied, “I feel pinned to the wall. This omnipresent feeling just drives me backwards until I can no longer move.”

“But Maury,” Christopher shot back, “are you not that omnipresent force that is driving you back?”

“What do you mean,” Maury asked, somewhat bewildered.

“Is it not your sadness, your fear, your loneliness that presses itself upon you?”

“Yes,” Maury answered. “But this was the result of all the things that happened to me over my many lifetimes.”

“But did you not create those things, so that you could learn?”

“I did that,” Maury repeated, incredulously.

“I am reminding you,” Christopher went on. “Look back! Look hard! Did you not create this, with God’s permission, so that you could become an even more valued soldier in His mighty Army of Light?”

And Maury thought hard. In his mind, he reviewed and examined. He pondered and he wondered. He asked himself: “Did I do this? Did I?” He was unsure. But it did seem plausible. Was it he who created the circumstance where he lost loved ones on the Titanic? Was it he who participated in a variety of massacres all across the centuries? Was he one of the evil guards at Stalag 13 in WWII? Was he a victim of lust in the rain forests of Brazil? Was he the noble gentleman in the English court of Kind James? Was he the Christian soldier who was raped and killed by Herod’s Romans? Was he the architect of all these fortunes and misfortunes? Was he the instrument of his own undoing, so many times over, in so many lifetimes? And if so, then why?

The questions raced through him like an epitaph being read at a funeral. Why? His unconscious recoiled at the idea. His ego protested vociferously.

“No, no, no,” he would say. “It simply cannot be so. Why would I bring such suffering on myself? It is these various circumstances that are at work here.”

But his mind had grown weary of these excuses. The more he looked, the more he realized, it was he who created it all.

“Oh God,” he said to himself plaintively. “Why on earth would I do this?”

“To love yourself more,” came an echo from just beyond.

“Who said that?”

“Your Lord,” the Voice echoed again.

Maury twirled about looking for the source of this Voice while it asserted: “You are here, are you not?”

“Yes I am Lord,” Maury answered.

“You can hear Me clearly now, can’t you?”

“Yes, I can Lord.”

“Then what is the problem my dear friend? It is time for you to know the truth. It is time for you to awaken to your destiny which you helped create.”

“But why would I do this, Lord? Why would I choose a path filled with such pain.”

“For your gain, my son, for your gain. You did not want so easy a circumstance with this lifetime. You did not want a gentle walk across the plains. You had all of that once before and you said you were bored with it. So you presented this plan to Me, detailing how you would come home via a shorter, albeit, more painful route. A route, you pointed out, that would take you across many a difficult circumstance. This route would weave its way throughout various periods of history and have you fall and rise up, as many times as you felt necessary.

“You wanted to be cleansed. You wanted to be healed. But first you had to be wounded, so you chose that as well. When Christ died on the cross, you died with him. When He rose again, you were there as well. When He determined to leave you said you’d stay on. There were more lessons that you wanted to experience. So you carried one, and you rose and you fell, and you rose again only to fall back down over and over until you’d had enough for that turn.

“Then you said to me, Lord, I’ve had enough of learning by pain. Can we change this program to Love, so I can once again come Home? And I would say, Yes of course, if that’s what you’re ready to do. Are you sure you are done for this round, I would ask? And you would nod in the affirmative and whisper softly that indeed it was so. So I would listen, and return to you that which you had asked for. And soon after, you would come Home again.”

Maury had grown weary at this point. Listening to God’s voice in his heart, he found taxing. Just then he realized he had not yet heard from his old angel friend Anthony whose turn it must now be. So Maury asked:

“Is Anthony still here? What can you tell me, old friend?”

“And Anthony replied: “My dear Maury, have you not been listening. It is I who has been addressing you all along.”

“How is that,” Maury asked?

“By answering all of your questions about life and love and suffering.”

“Oh, but that was the Lord,” Maury quickly corrected.

“I know,” replied Anthony, “but the Lord is all of us, and that includes me.”

“So you were talking to me as the Lord just then?”

“Yes, of course, because that was the Voice you were ready to hear.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Maury came back.

“When you are ready for the Lord, then all voices are His. From the tiniest whisper of a falling leaf, to the loud gutsy roar of an African lion, you hear the Lord in every waking turn. All names become ‘Me.’ All sounds are ‘I Am.’ And you, my dear Maury, are simply God talking to Him/Herself.”

“Why would I do that,” Maury asked?

“Because you wanted to grow. And you still want to grow.”

“Oh dear,” Maury went on, “I am the architect of my own misery. I am the knight who rides to the rescue. I am the hunter and hunted, the master and the slave, the lover and beloved, the batterer and battered. I am all of these and their circumstances. Then, I must be the stone upon my heart!”

“That is so, my dear Maury. That is so.”

So Maury decided to lift that stone by turning inward and owning it. “You are mine, dear stone. I created you. You have taught me well, about sadness and loss, about pain and sorrow, about grieving and healing, about becoming whole again. How do I do this?” he went on, “creating all these circumstances so that I can learn. How do I do this and forget that it is so?”

“By living your life to the fullest,” Anthony explained. “By turning yourself over to every circumstance that comes upon you and by suing them to learn all that you can.”

“Oh my,” Maury suddenly realized. “I have been busy. I’ll take this stone away now and stop all this suffering. It is time for love in my life, for resurrection and play. I have had enough of the hard way at life. I want to be in charge, and, I want to be in love.

And so it was that the stone was lifted from Maury’s heart. By his own word did he do so. Maury was indeed the architect of his destiny. He created every aspect of it. Nothing less, one might expect, from any God who decided She/He had lessons to learn. He/She divides themselves into pieces and sends them all away, to meet up with oneself later when He/Se is ready to begin the play.

The play lies in each life circumstance along with the roles one has put forth. There the characters and all of the subplots, are rolled into once action-packed adventure called life. “Roll the dice,” Maury might say. “Let’s see what I can learn on this day. But Love be the wild card this time. I’ve had enough of crucifixion and pain. I’ll the Peace Train this morning and see where that leads me.”

And up Maury rose off his stoop, setting aside the stone that had pressed so heavily on his heart. To be discarded now, like a worn out garment one no longer wanted to wear.

“Free at last,” he would be heard to say as he wandered off to who knows where. “Free at last from that burden of self-applied hell and damnation. No more fear for me. No more loneliness. God is my friend and companion. The doer of every deed. God is me and I choose to be Love today, because that is my lesson now. And let all who can hear me in their hearts know, that Love is here, within and forever. Just open yourself up and let it pour through you, just as you have with all the other circumstances in your life. Let Love be the lesson now. Love is after all, what I mean by Easter. And Love will reign in the hearts of those who are reborn on this day.”