Now Two Ghost Boys – Don Hanley’s blog #35

Every evening before I crawl into bed, I hope to have a vivid dream of Mary and her flowers. And this night, I do have one!

I’m standing in Mary’s flower garden and see her talking with a rather handsome fellow dressed in the dusty white robe common for both men and women in Galilee. Mary looks at me and says, “Oh, Don, so good to see you. I thought maybe you had forgotten me.”

She looked over at the fellow sitting in My chair. And I thought how presumptuous of me to call the chair mine, but I guess he did not see me for some reason, as Mary said, “Oh John, I guess you don’t see my other guest, Don, of the 21st Century. John, would you please take a chair out of my house and let him sit in that chair?”

Oh, so this is the apostle, John. I think there are three “Johns” in the New Testament. I hope he is the gospel writer and letters  that are written under his name. I want to talk to him about them. John went into the house and brought back a kitchen chair. I guess he saw me now, for he said, “Ah, you are the ghost fellow that Mary tells me you visit with her and tell outlandish historical stories about her and her son, Jesus.”

“I would like to believe they are outlandish stories, but they are true stories that I personally have heard. One in particular is that Jesus was, and is, the one and only Son of the true God. Mary tells me that Jesus never saw himself that way. There is a complete book, or I should say, a set of books believers call the New Testament of Sacred Scriptures or Bible. You, John, have one book, The Gospel of John, about Jesus. You say that Jesus is the Light of the World, and many things seem to support the idea that Jesus was and is one with God the Father. Did the printers or publishers get it wrong?”

Mary had put a hand over her mouth, and John looked a bit puzzled and, after a short pause, said, “What do you mean ‘printer’ and ‘publisher’? And you speak Aramaic very well. Do people in your time speak Aramaic?”

I chuckled and relaxed as I began to see how our language differences make understanding each other difficult, even if whatever angel translates my English into Aramaic and John and Mary’s Aramaic into English. Wanting to make contact, I said, “My country is called ‘the United States of America,’ and the language most of us speak is called English. I have no idea who or how my words are getting translated into Aramaic and yours into English, but I am very glad it is happening. Oh, and I enjoy the way you describe Jesus’s message of light, love, and hope, but I don’t personally believe Jesus is the one and only son of God. I believe He wants us to live our lives in such a way so that we are, or at least act like we are, all sons and daughters of God.” John smiled and nodded, and I continued, “On printers and publishers, I guess you would just say those who passed on your stories and that maybe, at times, they added some ideas or words to the stories when they told it, and those whom they told it to, do the same. Could that be true?” He nodded.

Mary took her hand away from her mouth and exhaled a sigh of relief.  I think Mary was afraid that I might offend John, so she said, “John, I’m sure Don would very much like to hear about your experiences with the adult Jesus – especially his journey to the East.  And I would like to hear more about that myself. You did accompany him there, did you not?”

“Yes, Mary, I did, but first, I want to answer Don’s question about whether Jesus was the only Son of Yahweh.” I was relieved that John seemed relaxed as he said, “Don, first, you need to remove the ‘only’ from what you say. Jesus also told us that we, too, are Sons of God." He looked over at Mary and added, "and daughters of God. I agree with what you just said about living like we are reflecting the power or force of God our Father – just as Jesus did when he was here with us physically. In telling my stories and experiences with Jesus, I should follow the ancient Jewish spiritual storytellers and enhance, and sometimes even exaggerate, what I say so that people will hear it and remember what I say. Jesus does not want us to be like him but to realize , deep down, that we too have the power and ability to be lovingly kind, enchanted, enlightened, and as connected with others as he is. He does not want us to mimic him but to be in touch with our true selves. And on my storytelling, I think if you were to tell the story of your dreams about meeting and talking with Mary, wouldn’t you tell it so that it would be exciting and memorable?“ I nodded and John continued, "I hope I will have time to tell you that Jesus thought that every person, even children, are having many free-floating thoughts about the universe and he thought that our Jewish religion put too much emphasis on just learning and repeating what Moses and other teachers believed, rather than learning  how to be with all creation." 

I was very interested in what he was saying but my dream ended and I disappeared, so...

Keep in touch with and nurture your heart, glance at the menu, and enjoy the banquet.