Return of the Divine Sophia by Tricia McCannon

Author:Tricia McCannon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spirituality/New Age
Publisher: Bear & Company
Published: 2015-02-07T16:00:00+00:00

SELF-ENLIGHTENMENT

This ability to connect with God directly is something we all have. Once we make that connection with Spirit, we can tune in for ourselves. We do not need religious intermediaries to talk to God for us. The implications of this teaching are enormous. From the point of view of any organized religion, this means that the priest or imam or rabbi is not a mouthpiece or intermediary for God, even if these clergy are kind, well-meaning individuals whose insights might be helpful. Each of us has the power to speak with God directly and to get answers for ourselves. This is part of the core message of the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary. In addition, while religious leaders might remind us of a path of wisdom, their influence on us should always be optional, not mandatory. We do not have to submit to punishment according to their pronouncements.

This awareness also means that the church cannot excommunicate people from God’s grace. While we may indeed suffer the karmic consequences of living an immoral life, it is we who will ultimately pay the price in being waylaid from our happiness. We do not have to be damned by a religious institution. Finally, this means that we are not obligated to pay tithes unless we choose to. We may want to support a spiritual community or temple, of course, or seek the counsel of a rabbi or minister in times of distress, but this is a choice, not an obligation forced on us by threats. Rather, this decision comes through the transformation of the heart as we decide to join together with other people who also wish to effect a true change in spiritual consciousness and make a difference in the world.

This one aspect of Jesus’s teachings had the potential to dissolve centuries of religious control by empowering each individual to create his or her own direct relationship with God, instead of bowing to the fear, blame, and guilt preached by religious authorities. This does not mean that we cannot seek spiritual guidance from teachers, priests, therapists, counselors, or healers. People who are consciously aligned with the light are always a treasure in a troubled world, and I am sure that there have been many spiritual leaders who have genuinely helped their flocks to live more peaceful and satisfying lives. What Jesus taught was that we each have the ability to connect to the Divine ourselves, simply by going within. This is profoundly empowering, for it reminds us that the divine spark lives within us all. This one teaching alone was enough to get Jesus killed in a patriarchical society that demanded unquestioning obedience to religious authorities.

Furthermore Jesus’s wisdom clearly puts the responsibility for our actions back on us. “Impose no law other than that which I have witnessed. Do not add more laws to those given in the Torah, lest you become bound by them.”26 This means that all the religious rules and regulations promulgated since then are not in accord with Jesus’s teachings.

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