Pentacost (June 8)

Blessed Feast of Pentacost! Have you ever felt, even for a moment, the ineffable joy and unbounded relaxation that happens when you relinquish judgment? All at once, let go the whole mass of judgment, even judgment of yourself? Not just a few pennies of judgment about little things, while you hang on to precious deep judgments about "the really important stuff," but let go of ALL judgment, offering a sacrifice of judgment itself?

That is the Last Judgment, when Christ appears like dawn in your chest, like sunrise in the core of your body. Jesus does not return to judge the world at the end of time. The end of time happens now, with the end of judgment. Jesus is real again. But he does not "come back," because he never really left. He was just buried inside, wrapped in the shroud of our judgments.

Now the fiery grace of a New Creation pours from your hridaya chakra, the radiance of the substance of glory, shining in the face of Christ. This glory is a fire more solid that the world. The glory ("Doxa" in Greek) surrounding Jesus at the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, the glory ("Kavoth" in Hebrew) which Moses beheld on Mount Sinai; this is the light of non-judgment, the fire of forgiveness. This glory does not flow down from above, but outward, released from the depths of your heart. And your own breath is the Holy Spirit.

Illustration by William Blake, "Reunion of the Soul and the Body"