\u201cI\u2019ve been here through two plagues, fall of Rome, schism in the Church, fall of Constantinople, and I\u2019ve never seen such a cataclysm strike Heaven\u201d, Peter gestured in disbelief. \u201cThey are usually so collected, peaceful and confident, even when faced with dire adversity. I\u2019ve seen them overworked and tired to the point of dropping from their feet, and they still smiled and comforted people. But when Grace died, it felt as if their inner light died with her. They looked the way you\u2019d expect a child to look if it came home and found its parents murdered. I\u2019ve never seen anything like it, and I hope I never do. Was she so important?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, she was, but not necessarily in just one meaning of the word. She was probably the highest ranking angel at that point, and everybody who knows her says she\u2019s an absolutely wonderful person. Closest family to Azrael and Hypatia; they basically lived together for centuries, as parents and daughter. But the reason why everything broke was because of why she died. It was God\u2019s fault. She prayed to God, God set her on a path, and then, due to no fault of her own, her life was ruined and her heart broke. If God could do this to the best of us, what does it say about God\u2019s justice, righteousness, law? Is God merely a more powerful version of Satan, something the Muslims pray to \u2013 something that just proclaims laws out of his whims, and can do whatever he wants anyway, because his will is the supreme law, and if he wants to break the best and purest angel\u2019s heart, that\u2019s fine because he\u2019s God? People\u2019s lights went out because that\u2019s not the God they knew, loved and believed in. The most fundamental truth of everybody\u2019s life, that God is the greatest good and the highest virtue, broke. It\u2019s like, God forgive me, Lord Shiva deciding to rape Lady Lakshmi. If that happened, everybody would just die. It\u2019s completely inconceivable and impossible, though; thank God. But people also thought that the holiest of angels, sinless and perfect, dying because she did everything exactly as she was supposed to \u2013 prayed to God, performed her duties with highest honour, walked His path, had faith, chose highest love \u2013 that it was equally impossible. That just doesn\u2019t happen; and when it did, thank God it soon became obvious what God\u2019s plan was, and she and her husband were saved, because nobody was recovering from that. It was as if Heaven lost colour and everything turned gray, like a corpse. Time can now be marked in eras before the death of Grace, and after her resurrection, when everybody started living again\u201d, Paul explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cI met Grace when I came here; she brought coffee for Lord Buddha and myself as he judged me, because it took longer than usual, with him correcting my energetics and teaching me to meditate properly\u201d, Caterina was lost in thought. \u201cShe was wonderful. She just naturally put me at ease, explained everything, and she was so kind, intelligent and wise. May God forgive me, but when I heard of her death, my reaction was that I refused to believe in a God who would allow this. It\u2019s just such an inconceivably terrible thing\u201d, she shivered.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it was the Will of God for that to happen, I think, because He wanted to show us that we have good reason to have faith. Also, we saw that the world is in good hands, with what Azazel, Karuna and the primordials did together to save her. They didn\u2019t just shrug; they went beyond what everybody thought possible to fix this disaster and turn it into something good. And she was honoured by God later; her heart is now the seat of God\u2019s Will, because she\u2019s God\u2019s most trusted person, with what she did and how she reacted. I would say it is completely righteous\u201d, Peter concluded. \u201cGod didn\u2019t just play games with her life. It was a test of trust, and the fact that He gave her that test means He already held her in the most high regard, and when she passed, she was honoured in the highest possible way. I know I\u2019m an ass, Paul. I\u2019ve been envious, jealous, stubborn and foolish, and I treated women poorly, but that woman is my ideal. I\u2019ve never seen anyone display more faith in God, and more virtue and loyalty. I haven\u2019t even met her properly, and I can tell you, I love her more than I love my own life\u201d, he smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep that feeling present in your mind. Breathe it in\u201d, Paul told him with the most focused tone. \u201cSurrender to it without restraint\u201d.<\/p>\n
Peter\u2019s form was bliss, and the structure of his soul changed, as the final impurities left him and he crystallised into blue vajra<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I know how Christ felt about Magdalena, finally\u201d, he smiled. \u201cI was truly a beast of a hard neck and ill disposition, but I am finally tamed, by the Grace of God, for now I know what it means to worship God as a woman\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSame as Christ, only female?\u201d, Catherine scratched her face in confusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cTruly; same as Christ, only female\u201d, Peter confirmed. \u201cI don\u2019t know why I refused to accept it. There\u2019s something foolish in my upbringing that assumes that a woman must always be a step down from a man. It is only now that I allowed myself to accept that she can be on the same step. And it\u2019s so obvious \u2013 on every step where there\u2019s God, they are a man and a woman together. God refuses to be male on a step where she also isn\u2019t female, and God refuses to be female if there\u2019s no godly man beside her to worship. \u2018So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them\u2019<\/i>. It is so obvious in hindsight: when God manifests, when he chooses what is his image, it is both male and female, and he outright refuses it to be just one, because it isn\u2019t a complete image of God. That\u2019s what I was missing \u2013 the understanding that God needs to be a woman beside a man, in order to be fully God. I would have thought it a blasphemy, and I thus stagnated for almost two thousand years, the stubborn ox that I am\u201d, he waved his head in disbelief. \u201cI am going to talk to Magdalena now, and kiss her holy feet if she allows me, for there\u2019s an ancient wound that needs to heal\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI\u2019ve been here through two plagues, fall of Rome, schism in the Church, fall of Constantinople, and I\u2019ve never seen such a cataclysm strike Heaven\u201d, Peter gestured in disbelief. \u201cThey are usually so collected, peaceful and confident, even when faced … Continue reading