Saints and Demons :: Paul J. Dejillas

Homepage > Religion > Salvation > Saints and Demons

Saints and Demons

Will St. Joseph Intervene for the Workers this Labor Day?

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – June 12, 2022

Today is May 1, Labor Day and St. Joseph is the Patron Saint of the Workers. Yet, the workers across the globe are in great pandemonium. I can't wait to know how my esteemed Saint Joseph would react to the plight of his fellow workers if he is here with us today.

With lockdowns, curfews, no work, no pay, no stimulus, no other income, the world's labor sector is very restive, with no food to lay down on their tables, even as the rich continue to flaunt their wealth in public with no masks, heartily feasting and reaping on the extravagant smorgasbord of global pandemics through their shares, commissions, and wily maneuvers to empty the coffers of our national treasures.

Would St. Joseph recruit 12 apostles and establish an international labor union? Or, like his son Jesus, would he defy religious and non-profit institutions of Church-run establishments that continue to exploit, even enslave their workers?

Many did but ended up being bribed, selling their fellow workers, or silenced, accused as threats to the company's security, outrightly terminated with no retirement benefits and other job-related perks.

Would St. Joseph join the rich in eating the wide array of expensive smorgasbord of global pandemics? Or, would he just prefer to be quarantined so that he and his family would not get infected and contaminated by the deadly virus?

Would the low-born furniture trader, a saint at that, join street demonstrations bearing placards to stop lockdowns, open work establishments, and lambasts our political leaders and business conglomerates?

Would he go underground and play the role of an agent provocateur organizing rallies every now and then in order to create a national-security crisis (homeland securities be alerted) and risk being tear-gassed, water-cannoned, and arrested, incarcerated for life, or even salvaged and mutilated?

Would the industrious holy laborer be ready to stand out and shout that the workers and the poor of the world are worth dying for?

Or, would he just remain silent and simply mind his family-owned carpentry shop so he can ensure feeding his growing family and at the same time protect them from any pandemic?

Or, would the lowly carpenter just wait for all our leaders to be infected with the deadly coronavirus and pray that they all die because hospitals are full and front liners are disappearing, exhausted, sick, or also dying?

More pragmatic, would he just wait for the coming Messiahs to appear in this coming national elections, of which many are already queueing and lining-up, while busily cooking up campaign strategies, amassing themselves with stacks of gold for the coming nationwide campaign,?

What will St. Joseph’s father Laban and mother Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve members of the tribe of Israel, advice him?

Would they support and stay by his side to whatever he would be doing? In any scenario, would he be doing his father's will? Coincidentally, Laban means "fight" in the vernacular and a name of a still existing political party here now competing for the electoral race.

While it's the best time for the workers and people to unite and take action, would our beloved St. Joseph wait, stop, look, and listen, like Julius Caesar leading a huge army, before he leaped and crossed the Rubicon?

It's easy for the West to criticize and sing praises to their Third-World colonial and labor practices, justifying themselves by alleging that the wages they are paying in the least developed economies are substantially higher than our domestic wages.

But the truth is that their giant establishments aren't playing a vital role at all in the industrial development of poor countries. What they have done instead are demolishing small-scale and family-owned cottage industries, even grabbing lands of small farmers and landowners in the name of industrialization, and emptied our rich natural and human resources.

In the final analysis, each of us is left on our own to protect ourselves and our families. I'll be careful so that the global smorgasbord of pandemics will not spill over to inflict me and my family. Let's don on all our protective and safety gears.

I too am incapacitated and disabled because of my senior vulnerability. I can only shout out with others like a roaring lion patiently waiting for, I don't know what.

On hindsight, yes, St. Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, will not come on May 1. But, while we continue to celebrate him as our patron saint, many will come in his name, laying down free eat-all-you-can food on the world's smorgasboard table as an alternative to the luxurious array of pandemic foods of the rich and famous, to all the more heighten the confusion and militancy of the workers and the people worldwide against today's pandemics.

I wonder how labor leaders and their members celebrate Labor Day today. Will the elected labor leaders be the promised Messiah that could break the vicious cycle of wage increases and inflation?

What happens to the deceptive profit sharing promoted by DOLE and some giant multinational corporations? Total failure! A band-aid solution that all the more tie the workers to perpetual debt and slavery.

How about co-ownership of the company? Good luck, fellow workers of the world. You are the most divided sector of society. You’re in fact the root of the problem.

That’s why I’ll pray and plead to St Joseph:

"Blessed St. Joseph, patron of all working people, thank you for the opportunity to build up God’s kingdom through my labors. Help me to be conscientious in my work so that I may give as full a measure as I have received.

"May I do all things in a spirit of thankfulness and joy, ever mindful of the gifts I have received from God that enable me to perform these tasks. Permit me to work in peace, patience, and moderation, keeping in mind the account I must one day give of time lost, talents unused, good omitted, and vanity of success, so fatal to the work of God. Glorious St. Joseph, may my labors be all for Jesus, all through Mary, and all after your holy example in life and in death. Amen."

And then I sing:

"We shall not, we shall not be moved

We shall not, we shall not be moved

Just like a tree that's standing by the water

We shall not be moved."

Or perhaps the “Internationale”!

Anyway, let’s celebrate the Labor’s Day!

My Prayer to the Lord God Almighty…

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – May 17, 2022

Thank you, Oh Lord of the Most High, for sending me Your messenger of Light Michael the Archangel and the Seraphims and Cherubims, together with all the Hosts of Angels in Heaven.

I thank You also, Oh Lord, for sending me Your messengers of Darkness, Satan, Lucifer, the demons, and devils that have also been doing excellent works in bringing me back to Your fold.

After long reflection, I now come to realize that Lucifer and Satan are really helping me go to the Light, the Source of all Creation.

Thank you Lucifer and Satan because, by your relentless efforts to sow the seeds of darkness and your persistent attempts to tempt me to commit evil, many of which I have succumbed to, I have come to the realization that you were not really intending to bring me to Hell eternally, but only to give me a little taste and experience of sin, intense pain, and suffering so I can avoid the path that could lead me to everlasting Hell.

My great fear towards you has been transformed into one of deep love. After all, we all came from the same source of Light, Love, and Goodness.

Oh Lord of the Most High, the One and only True Almighty God, the Source of Life and Creation, and to which all creatures must go home, I earnestly pray that You bring Lucifer, Satan, and its hosts of Dark Angels, to Your fold before the Judgment Day comes.

I am mindful of what you said to your Prophet Isaiah (45:7): "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.”

Being Omnipotent, I know that, by Your will and action alone, nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37; Matthew 19:16-30).

In the end, all we, your creatures, human and subhuman species, animate and inanimate, visible and invisible, will once again be brought back to Your abode, which is our real home too, just as You welcomed the lost son in Your Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-42).

So be it.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Our Patron Saint

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. - March 11, 2022

If utilized to its maximum, the Catholic Church has a machinery that is much expansive and more powerful than that of Government.

At the lowest level, usually at the village level, it has a chapel (kapilya) frequented by a priest during Sundays and holidays. The biggest attraction is during the feast of the Patron Saint where celebration can last for days or weeks.

On ordinary days, the parishioners, especially those in the remotest areas, are left on their own without a priest or diocesan clergy. The Patron Saint is left practically alone in the dusty chapel, lighted only by a flickering candle, if at all.

The place becomes empty, people busy attending to their daily needs. Deserted and secluded, lucky is the chapel if it is used by animals and pets as a place of refuge at night and during inclement weather.

A very pathetic sight, but happening especially in the farthest areas of the archipelago. I know this because I grew up in a remote mining community where our only way of celebrating community life is during the feast of our Patron Saint.

We congregate around our chapel where improvised games, food stalls, and entertainment shows like fire eating, stand-up comedies, the arnis, made our days really festive and alive.

Devotees of all sorts, donning on their colorful uniforms, and lay people fill the pews, praying the rosaries, chanting songs, and performing their devotions or annual vows (panatas).

For us, it was some event we always looked forward to every year. But I remember we never had any parish-based activities to educate us about our Patron Saint.

There were no catechists, no legionnaires, no seminarians doing religious apostolates. Our public elementary school did not integrate religious education into its curriculum.

This is something we, Lay Societies and Associations, come in. We can spread our wings, inviting memberships to include those areas unreached by the continuing services of the Church.

Let’s not underestimate the power of our Patron Saint to intervene for its parishioners, especially during this period when we’re in the process of changing our guards to govern us for the next six years.

Our Patron Saint can intercede for us and it can work wonders and perform miracles. Lay Societies and Associations can be effective vehicles to inspire the people to be more active in their devotion to their Patron Saint.

Meanwhile, as the election nears, we can only encourage them to vote wisely. We can continue to circulate our standards and criteria for choosing today’s leaders.

Conducting zoom meetings are highly commendable. Lay Societies and Associations are not identified with the Church. They cannot be accused of meddling in politics.

Is the Vatican dancing with LUCIFER?

September 18, 2021

For outsiders would often ask why should your Vatican name a telescope after a devil? Are the two dancing to the same tune?

The answer....

Yes, the Vatican is known to have a telescope known as LUCIFER a cute monicker, some say. But LUCIFER is really an acronym for Large Binocular Telescope Near-infrared Spectroscopic Utility with Camera and Integral Field Unit for Extragalactic Research (LUCIFER). It used to be "LUCIFER in the Sky."

The Google dictionary says that in Greek, LUCIFER means phosphorus. In Chemistry, the chemical element of atomic number 15 is a poisonous, combustible nonmetal. It ignites spontaneously in the air and glows in the dark. As this happens, people sometimes see figures and attribute this as a ghost, similar to what we see in St. Elmo's fire.

But in classical mythology, LUCIFER is symbolized as the morning star, which is associated with the planet Venus at dawn and personified as a male figure bearing a torch whose fire (light) never ends.

The term LUCIFER, in fact, comes from two Latin words, namely:

1. lux, luc- (‘light’) and

2. -fer (‘bearing’)

In the Old English, they jointly mean "light-bringing, morning star" or shinning star, rather than a name, LUCIFER.

Yet, why do Christians continue to interpret LUCIFER as the Devil?

Christians believe that the devil was once a beautiful angel named LUCIFER who defied God and fell from grace. As Isaiah 14:12 says:

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations.”

But no further elucidation has been propounded since then. Thus, the dancing of Vatican and LUCIFER continues to this day. It remains stuck in the mindset of many people over the millennia.

Sadly, this dancing of good and evil is immortalized and staged right within us in our memories. And it will remain so for as long as we are here in our Earthly abode.

I am both good and evil. You are both good and evil. We can both dance together as good and evil.

See me as evil and I can dance with you as evil. See me as good and I can dance with you as good.

How to disentangle ourselves from this endless vicious dance with the good and evil is a challenge each one of us has to address.

But we know that in everything we want to do, we are always free to choose between the two opposing poles. We can always choose who or what we want to be.

Is Satan real?

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – December 17, 2021

Who or what is Satan? How can we bind it's hand and feet and cast it into the outer darkness and then throw it to hell?

In the Holy Scripture, there is this Parable of the Wedding Feast, where Jesus tells of a “wedding crasher” of sorts. Jesus says that the king, the master of the feast, issued a dire command concerning entering the wedding hall without authorization: “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12; 13:42; 13:50; 22:13; and 25:23).

Exegetes and other Bible scholars agree that the phrase “outer darkness” refers to hell or, more properly, the lake of fire. And the gate crusher? He/she can be the exact replica of Satan.

I take Satan, therefore, as an allegory. It represents the bad, the evil, the ugly, and the beast within each one of us in the same manner that angels, archangels, and cherubim also represent the good, the beauty, and the virtuous in us.

The former is our tendency and inclination to become imperfect and to become Satan and the devil itself, in the same manner that the latter represents our potentiality to become perfect as well as to become angels and saints.

I cannot imagine myself bound in hand and feet, like a criminal handcuffed by arresting officers, and dragged not to prison, but hell. Yet, this can indeed happen to me. Only, at this time, I'm on denial stage. This can't happen to me.

Yet, my thoughts and actions say otherwise. I have to confess that the tendency to become imperfect sometimes, if not most of the time, far outweighs the inner inclination to become perfect.

I know that one day, arresting officers may just come out of nowhere to take me. For evil is very real in the same manner that love is. For that matter, Satan is also very real and it's residing within me. In fact, I have become the embodiment of Satan.

What is horrifying is that arresting officers will drag me to hell, the only place where they will bring me to. Yes, hell is also very real. It would be an act of defiance and irresponsibility on my part if I resist the arresting officers. I deserve the consequences of my actions.

But, in real life, while Satan is trying to lure me to go into the outer darkness, my guardian angel is also showing me where the right path is that can lead me to heaven and where I can be with my Lord God Almighty.

It's, after all, my choice in the final analysis. And I am responsible for whatever I choose daily from moment to moment. Whether my choice is the good or the bad, I must be glad and willing to accept the consequences of my choice, be it heaven or hell. This is the cosmic law of karma. For whatsoever I plant and tend in my garden, that I also reap.

And I know fully well that intentions can also blur my vision such that I can be deluded into seeing both heaven and hell paved with glittering gold and good intentions. As a result, I may no longer be able to discern exactly where my actions and choices will finally lead me to. May God forgive me of my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me.

I can only keep my ears open.

Good luck guys. Let's pray for one another and hope that we will see each other in that blissful place we've been longing for in life.

The Blessed Virgin Mary

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – September 8, 2021

Today, Catholics celebrate the feast of Blessed Mary as the Mother of God. Without her and her willingness to serve God, Catholics believe that salvation history would have taken a very different turn.

Her humble and silent consent to the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation may not be heard by the entire town of Nazareth, but continues and will continue to reverberate across the globe through the ages. In the Catholic calendar, the Marian feast is celebrated at least 20 times at various dates every year.

"Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” This is the famous Fiat for "fiat voluntas tua in omnibus" or "in all things, thy will be done."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in its paragraph 973, tells us that ‘by pronouncing her “fiat”, Mary was already collaborating with the whole work her Son was to accomplish. Mary became an active instrument of God, earning her the title, “Mother of God.”

Again, the same veneration was given to Mary as the Mother of God in ancient times. And this will continue for eternity.

As our tribute to Mary, let's join the entire humanity today in reciting or singing the Hail Mary here.

My Invisible Guardian

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – July 9, 2021

Here comes the saints, go marching in. If, in the most desperate moments of my life, I experience life-threatening situations, I feel there's always an invisible force sending someone to search and rescue me. This invisible force now forms an essential part of my life journey. Here are some brief snapshots of my brushes with death in the past that are unknown even to many of my closest friends.

My Guardian Angel

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – July 3, 2021

My interest to know the name of my guardian angel crossed my mind only when I was writing about St. Leopold from whom I got my name. For so long a time, I often have had brushes and encounters with my spirit guide and protector. But knowing its name did not come to my attention at all in the past. This time, I want to know eagerly and for good reasons.

My frequent encounters with my spirit guide gave me enough information about its behavior.

1. Naughty in a funny, entertaining, and passionate way. Playfully mischievous, frequently hiding my keys, watches, cell phones, money, wallet, shoes, and other valuable items, only to find them in another location after 3 or more days.

Did I not only unconsciously misplace these items? I must admit that on some occasions, I must have inadvertently misplaced them, especially when my mind was somewhere else.

But in general, no, for they have their own permanent places. All keys, for example, are hang on a rack. So, with all my shoes, clothes, and valuables. And it had already become my habit to place them back in their proper places after using them.

In the manner it behaves, I'm picking up a feminine energy. My guardian angel must be a "she". This is my strong gut-feeling. Maybe, the other reason is that I am a "he" and our Earthly existence requires that we experience life in polarities.

I often see her ethereal form passing before me, but disappearing after a few seconds, only to appear again a number of times during the day, at different times and circumstances.

Sometimes at night, I see its exquisite figure looking over me to ensure I'm safe and sound. I simply smile, give it a wink, say thank you, and go back to sleep, confident that my invisible guard is around. One thing I learned is that it respects my privacy.

Am I afraid? No. Whenever an item disappears, I just smile knowing that it will be back soon.

Do I grumble and grouch knowing the great inconvenience of having lost an item that had been my constant daily companion? No. I have learned to believe that its disappearance must have a reason. And, indeed, most of the time the reason would be revealed to me.

It happened many times in the past. I often saw an individual associated with an image. This extra-normal vision is different from aura reading in which diverse colors surround the individual.

In my experience, the image suddenly appears in my mind. It is closely associated with and related to the individual.

The image must have been attracted to the person or the person's vibration led to the formation of the image that they become closely partnered with each other as one entity. Their strong vibes with each other must have locked them together so tightly that its intensity has caught my radar's frequency.

The image I see could be a symbol or a human entity. But whenever I saw this in the past, I never told the individual(s) concerned. Yet, sometimes I would just find myself blurting it out freely for no reason at all.

Like this one close friend of mine. I simply said "Gee, your guardian angel is a Native American Indian sporting two feathers on the left and right ears. This Indian smokes allot, exhaling clouds of tobacco smokes into the air, always alert of what's going around. Is it your protector?" I asked my friend.

And she blurted, laughing out uncontrollably, narrating about her brushes with her Indian angel. Also, she used to be a smoker as a guest attendant of a very famous resort hotel then.

Our dinner date became much of a conversation about guardian angels, ghosts, and paranormal phenomenon. We were supposed to discuss only about my new commissioned project with her new employer.

My Indian Connection...

Coincidentally, her superior was also an Indian, whom I've worked as a commissioned researcher for quiet a number of projects. That, in turn, led me to an Indian Guru and my long immersion with its Ashram and community that spans for more than 30 years.

Wow, I must be old. Yes, indeed and so is my soul, as my two regressionists told me. My existence, they say, dates back to the time of the Pharaohs. There's really no way for me to verify this, but knowing it helps explain why I am who and what I am today.

And having visited the Cairo pyramid and entering its narrow entrance as well as seeing the lion-human figure across, face-to-face, triggered In me some awesome feelings of power, respect, and prestige.

As a scientist, I am not so trustful of all these unverifiable phenomena. The reason why I've been ignoring this for so long. Yet, at the same time, I can't ignore my strong gut feeling.

My guardian angel must have known something about my Egyptian escapades thousands of years ago but preferred not to give me any information. This is understandable.

Jesus' life and ministry in Nazareth and Jerusalem is just about 400 kilometers from Egypt. He must have known about the pyramids and the Pharaohs. But he preferred not to give any account of this to his apostles and disciples.

Joseph and Mary must have known it too because they hurriedly fled and stayed in Egypt for three days when King Herod's soldiers came looking to slay the infant child Jesus, the future King of the Jews as the three kings told Herod.

Back to the present ...

Yes, "I want to know the name and background of my guardian angel." Could my guardian angel be an Indian too? Although it is always near me 24/7, I'm sending this message out there in the Cosmos.

The Sacred Heart and the Secular Heart are Two Different Things

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – June 14, 2021

The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the secular heart of men and women are two different things.

How do you know if you're speaking from your mind or from your heart? Knowing this is important since their difference has some significant effects on ourselves and our society.

Our brain is divided into two lobes, the left, also symbolized as the mind and the right, represented as the heart.

The left brain gives more value to reason, coherence, and logical. It is methodical, analytical, and more verbal. It's known for its masculinity, inhumanity, fierceness, and insensitivity on the plight of others.

The right brain is more artistic, stylish, creative, ingenious, compassionate, relying more on symbols, intuition, and gut feeling than reason. The heart knows what the mind does not understand.

Researches and scientific findings strongly indicate that men are more left-brained, while women are more right-brained.

The distinction between mind and heart appears inconsequential and insignificant since we don't have two brains, but only one brain inside our skull.

Yet, the vibrational manifestations of the left and right brain are not one and the same. In reality, we have two brains and their competing effects on our thoughts and actions are as real as night and day.

Even then, something is greatly wrong. For this could mean we have a split personality. Thoughts and feelings are supposed to complement each other. Blissful thoughts go with joyful and happy feelings, not sad ones.

Something is really wrong when feelings of love and compassion on an individual goes with hatred and anger on the same individual. Sadly, some even have multiple personalities.

If you're entangled with this type of mental dysfunction, there can never be inner peace and harmony. It's time to sit down and be equilibrated by the animating force of nothingness and emptiness.

We are one essentially undivided unity and in order to maintain this oneness in us, we need to balance our masculine and feminine energies and be aware of this equilibrium as we relate with others in our day-to-day life.

This oneness exists in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. How he achieved it, has been a great challenge for humanity through the millennia. A few were successful because they have applied what they discovered. Sadly, others failed because they want others first to follow the teachings and exemplary life of Jesus.

Fact Check....

Our society today is predominantly masculine, dominating our systems of education, leadership, governance, politics, economy, and even religion and culture. It's no coincidence that we witness around us so much violence, exploitation, deception, injustices, chaos and disorder.

We are in dire need of more feminine rather than masculine energy today, a ratio of 55:45 in favor of women to be voted or appointed to various public and private offices from the national down to the village level.

My Prayer For Harmony and Peace to All

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – May 17, 2021

Thank you, Oh Lord of the Most High, for sending me Your messenger of Light Michael the Archangel and the Seraphims and Cherubims, together with all the Hosts of Angels in Heaven.

I thank You also, Oh Lord, for sending me Your messengers of Darkness, Satan, Lucifer, the demons, and devils that have also been doing excellent works in bringing me back to Your fold.

After long reflection, I now come to realize that Lucifer and Satan are really helping me go to the Light, the Source of all Creation.

My great fear towards you has been transformed into one of deep love. After all, we all came from the same source of Light, Love, and Goodness.

I am mindful of what you said to your Prophet Isaiah (45:7): "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.”

Being Omnipotent, I know that, by Your will and action alone, nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37; Matthew 19:16-30).

So be it.

The Gospel of Mary Magdalene: The Role of Women in the Early Church

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – January 3, 2021

Very little is known about Mary Magdalene. The New Testament mentions her just 12 times. But they're so central to the story of Jesus, and they've filled our imagination for centuries. Whatever little known about Mary speaks of her as:

1. The sinner who became the most devoted follower of Jesus. She followed Jesus all the way from Galilee to Jerusalem, all the way to the cross, when most of his apostles and followers fled away in hiding for fear that they might also be arrested and crucified with Jesus. Mary was a true follower, believer, and committed to Jesus.

2. One of the most compelling figures in the entire gospel, but the most misunderstood woman in the Bible. Known as the penitent prostitute. Yet there was another Mary in the life of Jesus who anointed him with oil.

3. The first witness to whom Jesus appeared after his crucifixion and resurrection, earning her the title as the truly follower of Jesus and the first Christian.

For many Christians today Mary Magdalene is revered for her compassionate love for Jesus. Jesus meant everything to Mary. But when it comes to the details of her life, the Bible says very little of her.

The most enduring one is that she was a fallen woman, a prostitute saved by Jesus from a life of sin. All four canonical gospels, Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John tell of a story in which a woman came to Jesus, and anoints his feet with expensive perfume.

But none of these gospels identified that woman as Mary Magdalene. Her anointing of his feet was a symbol of penitence and forgiveness. But she was wrongly described as the prostitute.

How then did Mary's name come to be wrongly associated?

The answer can be found six centuries later when Pope Gregory the Great gave a homily in which he equated Mary Magdalene with the sinful woman who anointed Jesus's feet. And since then Christians have thought that Mary Magdalene was indeed a prostitute.

Jesus performed his activities, miracles, teachings in the Sea of Galilee. One of the coastal villages is Magdala. Mary Magdalene means Mary of Magdala.

She was not a typical Jewish woman of her time. Most Jewish women in the Galilee would have been in some kind of a domestic setting as a daughter, a mother, or a wife. But to be out in the wilderness with an itinerant preacher, with a name that does not link her to any man, was unusual.

But in the case of Mary, it seems her role goes well beyond that of a simple spiritual follower. She was supporting Jesus. She must have been a business woman.

One of the things Mary brought to the Jesus movement was money. She had resources. She was one of several women who actually helped support Jesus, who provided for him during his mission.

Jesus was trying to reach out to women. So, he was naturally going to have been looking for influential women in the community who had that credibility and fame. This came only from the business sector.

Mary followed Jesus during many months that he preached in Galilee. Yet for all her central role, at the time of the resurrection, Mary disappeared from the story of the early church.

What happened to Mary Magdalene after the resurrection?

An astonishing discovery made in Egypt in 1945 points to one shocking answer. The discovery suggests that what we call Christianity is a really a small slice of what these traditions were. It was a much wider field in the beginning.

Though known as gospels, they were not in the bible. They were written by different authors not from the New Testament. They depict a growing tension between Mary Magdalene and Jesus's other followers.

This can be gleaned from the gospels of Thomas and Philip.

The gospel of Thomas suggests that Mary's role among the disciples was deeply resented by some of them, particularly Peter. Peter is described as irate and hot-headed, bad- tempered, and somebody that was a difficult person.

Peter vented his resentment against Mary. Peter said to Jesus: "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life! Because she's a woman, and not worthy of spiritual life.”

This is similar to the Jewish tradition that women aren't supposed to be taught the Torah.

But in the early-Christian communities, for the most part, the missionaries were missionary couples. So it makes sense that Jesus himself could have been part of a missionary couple. As a first-century Jewish man, it would have been incredibly likely that Jesus would have been married during his lifetime.

And there's one page in particular that excites researchers. There are two moments in the gospel of Philip that really say something interesting about their relationship.

One is that Jesus referred to Mary Magdalene as his companion, or consort. It says explicitly that Jesus loved Mary Magdalene more than the other disciples.

And there's another moment where Jesus kissed her. So if Jesus, the son of God, was married, maybe he had children. That means there might be people wandering around today with royal blood in them from Jesus.

Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code quote this passage from the gospel of Philip, saying that Jesus loved Mary Magdalene more than the other disciples, and used to kiss her often on the mouth or on the lips.

But we don't know where he kissed Mary Magdalene because of the missing lines in the gospel.

In 1896 a German scholar purchased an ancient book, languishing in the Egyptian museum in Berlin until it was finally published in 1955. It revealed to be the gospel of Mary.

Could this extraordinary lost gospel throw light on the mystery of Mary's disappearance after the resurrection?

The gospel picks up Mary Magdalene's story right after Jesus has risen from the dead.

"I have seen the Lord", she said, to which Peter answered: "Tell us the words of the saviour which you remember. What we know, but we do not, nor have we heard them."

Mary answered: "What is hidden from you, I will proclaim to you."

The key point is that Mary was the instructor. She was the teacher and the revealer to the apostles and other disciples. She was somebody with authority, so much so that it troubles the male disciples.

Mary Magdalene admonished the Apostles: "Do not weep, nor grieve nor be irresolute, for His grace will protect you, and will entirely be with you for he has ...." and so on.

Once Mary finished instructing, a full-scale argument breaks out between Mary and Peter. Did Jesus prefer her to us?

Peter resented Mary giving the instructions. "What do you think?", asked Mary. "That I made this up in my heart, or that I am lying about the savior?"

This is clearly a fight between the disciples for supremacy, for who is going to be the chief disciple, and who properly carries on Jesus' teachings and mission.

Peter might have felt that it was his rightful role to be the leader, and it might very well had to do more so with the fact that he was a man than any other factor.

The conclusion of this gospel is that Mary was the primary disciple, more than Peter, and that she should be teaching the message, she should be preaching, like the men.

And at the end of the gospel of Mary, she goes out and preaches with the rest of them.

The gospel of Mary Magdalene is the only known gospel that depicts Mary Magdalene as a leader in the early Church.

But how seriously should we take this as a record of actual events?

Mary Magdalene did not write this gospel. It can be gleaned from the style of the text, from the language and vocabulary that was used. It dates to the middle of the second century, and by that time the historical Mary Magdalene was long gone.

But even if this can't be taken as a serious historical record, it points at something else: a possible dispute over the role of women in the early church, particularly the tension between male and female leaders in the church.

The gospel of Mary shows that early-Christians were trying to hash out what really the role of women was in the church, what the role of the Apostles were, whether the Jesus' movement should only be men.

Over time, what we see is women being pushed from a very central role in church organization and leadership to a sort of marginal figures on the side lines.

--------------------

Notes: Men, you have a lot of explanations to do. This is why there's so much masculine energy running our world. You need to give way to balance masculinity and feminity.

How? Well start with your family and it will create a butterfly effect on society.

There are no saints in heaven so we produced them here.

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – June 1, 2021

Then, we built a place called heaven and populated it with saints. If only I have the power to canonize, I would immediately declare the following scientists saints: Newton, Einstein, Tesla, David Bohm, Madame Curie, Carl Sagan, Joseph Campbell, Gary Zukav, and Eckhart Tolle. Heaven is not an exclusive place. In our Lord's house, there are many mansions.

From the proponents of String Theory, I will add the following as saints:

John Hagelin, Leonard Susskind, John Schwarz, Ronald L. Mallette (Time Travel), Claud Lovelace, Lee Smolin, Edward Witten, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Fritzof Capra, who started it all.

From the Federation of Free Workers (FFW):

Fidel Daleno, Juan C. Tan, Rosalino M. Martin, Rustico de Jesus, Hermenegildo Regala, Pat Jimenez Cabalo , Boy Sortido Tony Asper. Lorenzo Leones . Sony Matula, Melba Matula. Clarita Cortez .

Federation of Free Farmers (FFF):

Jeremias Montemayor, Leon Montemayor, Charlie Avila , Ed de Torre.

aul Manglapus, Tom Concepcion. Danny Coronacion. Manny. Bobby Brilliantes, Charlie Serapio, Ruben Espigol

They are all saints. Some are even martyrs, sacrificing their education and wealth for the sake of the cause.

From the underground movement:

Crispin Beltran, Douglas, Salvador del Mundo, Troi Clutario.

From my SVD mentors and Gurus

Fr. Mike Cinches, Fr., Alphonse Mildner, Fr. Benito Limsuan, Fr. San Juan, Fr. Alvin Toefler, Fr. John Vogelgesang, Fr. Georg Heinemann, Fr. Van Kwik, Fr. Floresca, Fr. Joseph Watzlawik, Fr. Paul Scholl, the wine lover Fr. Paul Cassidy, the exorcist from China, I forgot the name, Fr. Anton (?) Postma.

Stabat Mater Dolorosa!

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – April 3, 2021

Mary allows us to internalize her Divine feminity in us. Now, we are all reminded of the masculinity and feminity that is in us. The challenge is how to balance these two elements, symbolized by the mind and the heart. Unbalanced, one tends to dominate the other.

The Cosmic Jesus, Mary, and Joseph

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. – December 24, 2020

The Holy Family is comprised of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. The Feast of the Holy Family is a liturgical celebration in the Catholic Church and some Anglican Churches, the primary purpose of which is to present the Holy Family as a model for Christian family living.

There's a lot to learn from Joseph as the Father, Mary as the Mother, and Jesus as the Child of the family. Their individual traits is something worthwhile pondering, internalizing, and emulating in our ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

As we are nearing midnight, spend some moments to reflect on this in silence and solitude. Even in the small things that we do daily, we can be great. Mother Mary's mission was primarily to raise the child Jesus.

Joseph was an ordinary laborer, a carpenter, working silently in his small shop at home trading his goods in Galilee to sustain his growing family.

The child Jesus was so raised that he did not only love his mother so much until his last breath on the cross but give her as the mother to humanity.

A Cosmic Event!

The birth of our Lord in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not only a monopoly of the Christians. It is a universal event that happened in several places across the globe at different temporal pages of our history.

Until today, the Christmas season is revered not only by Orthodox and Unorthodox Christians, but also by the Sumerians, Hindi, Egyptians, Jews, Islam, and several Indigenous Peoples around the world.

The Cosmic Man!

"In Jungian theory, the Cosmic Man is an archetypal figure that appears in creation myths of a wide variety of mythology. ... Generally, he is described as helpful or positive, and serves as a seed for the creation of the world, such that after death, parts of his body became physical parts of the universe."

The Cosmic Christ!

The cosmic Christ is a worldview that emphasises the extent of Jesus Christ's concern for the cosmos. Wikipedia

The Cosmic Mary!

The Cosmic Mary allows us to explore and internalize the Divine Feminity in Mary. It opens us to another way to honor her. We have all these masculinity and feminity in us. The challenge is how to balance these two elements in us, symbolized by the mind and the heart.

The Cosmic Joseph!

The Cosmic Joseph is the least known figure in the Holy Family, only cited as the earthly father of Jesus and the husband of the Virgin Mary. But his humility and uncomplaining attitude as the Father of Jesus is unparalleled through the ages.

We Too Are Cosmic Beings!

Even more inspiring is that each of us is a cosmic being, not destined for this world. This is something worthwhile to be always conscious of every moment of the day in our life.

In every step we take, we are bidding adieu to our Mother Earth, known extraterrestrially as the world of sorrows and sufferings, to journey forward into the future that is beyond our physical realm.

December marks the end of the four seasons this year. We will have a new cycle, a new life, next year, and every year thereafter until we reach our final destiny.

God or Devil?

Paul J. Dejillas, Ph.D. - December 5, 2020

A God that always leads us into temptation is "god-disguised-as-the-Devil" or "a lion clothed in a sheep's clothing". In this troubled world where the distinction between God and Satan is getting blurred and less and less distinct, our alignment to God's frequency becomes erratic. Can we still trust the God we worship and honor? More importantly, can the God of religion trust us?