In the darkest night of your soul…

In the dim desolation of your Gethsemane.
When all of your disciples still sleep.
When your God is deaf to your cry
to remove the cup.
When your final desperate demand
to know “why God has forsaken you”
echoes across an empty Universe –

Then the time of your awakening is at hand.

You are constructing in your individual passion the drama of resurrection.
Ah! But now with a difference.
This time you’re the central character.
This time at last you play the leading part.
Fulfilling the law as you go,
marking each milestone
with your healing grace,
you walk the seven miles
from Bethlehem to Jerusalem
and are met at the place of the skull.

You know the script well for you‘ve
rehearsed every character.
You’ve been the soldier that rolled the dice and the one with the spear that pierced.
In one scene you’ve shouted “Hosanna, Hosanna” and called “Barabbas,
save Barabbas” in the next.
You’ve denied with Peter,
connived as Judas, and doubted as Thomas.
As a blind man you’ve seen,
as a cripple you’ve walked.
As a leper your sores have been healed.
You’ve puzzled as Nicodemus,
pretended as Pilate and as Lazarus
come forth at His call.

And now getting closer,
you’ve played the dear virgin
and pondered His birth in your heart.

At last are you shorn of
– in one terrible moment –
the last vestige of armor from Truth.
Now call out to God, now call out at last,
the victorious shout of surrender…

Father, into Thy Hands
I command my whole self.
It is finished. It is finished forever.

Up up you arise from the tomb that is earth,
impregnant with light of fulfillment.
Now the veil of your temple is rent
and the dazzling beauty of your sonship
is revealed in full array.
And now the most exciting glorious stupendous surprise there could ever be in all of time:
You’re still you.

All that has happened is that you
have awakened from your fearful dream
of destruction and death.
The earth is over, gone and never was.
You’re home in the heaven you never left.
And every loving thought you ever had
while dreaming is with you still
along with all your other eternal creations.

-Master Teacher
from “The Spiritual Teachers Notebook”
Available at: www.themasterteacher.tv