Getting to know bread and wine from the inside out

In <<Apocalypse Revealed>> we read, "they who are in evil are angry, and they who are in falsity are in wrath" (AR635). Here we see the customary association between good and truth or, as in this case, evil and falsity. As everyday life confirms, people do not simply get angry all by itself; rather, their anger exists alongside some target or other, someone or something upon which their anger so to speak condenses and with which their anger has a kind of marriage. We see a similar association when fantasy accompanies lust, and we may say in both cases that our anger or lust gets wallpapered over by the objects of our anger or lust.

In this regard, consider the following verses.

1 Peter 5:8 - King James Version <8> Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Galatians 5:15 - King James Version <15> But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.

Notice the usage of the word "devour", a word which does not refer at all to being torn apart from within but has a specific significance: breaking the commandment "Thou shalt not murder" in thought, not just in deed. Having placed these verses side by side we can see that, humanly speaking, some human like ourselves experiences a state of mind that may be compared to a lion looking for someone to blame for the troubles of the world; indeed, like the anger and lust mentioned above, someone in a state of prowling like a lion will not uncommonly find that their irritation restlessly chooses first one target than another. Notice something that James says:

James 1:14 - King James Version <14> But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

Look right there, "his own lust"! You have an "own lust" yourself, all of us do. All of us have our own share of hereditary evil, what the Old Church calls original sin. For instance, one personally has an anger management problem which has constantly to be mowed like the lawn; and having had the experience of watching God domesticate one's anger, at least to some degree, accounts for the conviction which accompanies everything written hitherto on this matter. One does not simply believe that falsity accompanies wrath because some theologian said so or based on blind faith, but because the relationship reliably occurs in real life.

Here is what happens when you turn the cross of bread and wine upside down:

Proverbs 4:17 - King James Version <17> For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.

This too is a reliable relationship! For to enjoy, to feed, to pour gasoline on the Hellish flames of wrath and hate, blame and accusation of the objects of that wrath involves precisely eating the bread of wickedness and drinking the wine of violence, or evil and falsity. We know from the Writings that those with a conscience and who watch their hearts even reprove their very thoughts; or as Paul says, "their thoughts meantime excuse or else accuse one another", a fork in the road that all of us see frequently. Notice the way that Paul explicitly references "thoughts" in relation to the "law"; if we hate someone, as 1 John 3:15 tells us, we are no less than spiritual murderers. Excuse everyone whom your heart accuses as occasion presents, and you will murder people neither in your thoughts nor with your actions, keeping the commandment of Jesus and thereby loving Him, and with your love of Jesus excusing humankind.

Romans 2:15 - King James Version <15> Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another; ) 1 John 3:15 - King James Version <15> Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

Let us then "put aside all malice and all wrath", learning in proportion as we do so the many grounds we have for excusing the behaviour of others, if we truly apply ourselves to this vital quest. Doubtless everyone here has had some experience with bullies and domineering people; some experience with liars and flatterers and various abusers of trust. The experience of evil has a way of jading those who encounter it. Jesus Himself notes, "Because iniquity will abound, the heart of many will wax cold."

In sum, many people actually are rather toxic and noxious. People who have been hurt by such they-walk-among-us types often and quite naturally harbour a certain skepticism concerning their own capacity to forgive their tormenters. Neighbours, this daunting task of forgiving those who have hurt us the most may at times be wrenching and excruciating; but know this of a surety, that any effort you make to forgive such people, to overcome the biggest chips on your shoulder, will cause all smaller chips to seem that much easier to overcome. Just as wrath marries falsity, so does calmly making excuses for others marry an abundance of forgiveness.

I hope, far from taking what one has said about good and truth on blind faith, that you will come to understand the reason why bread and wine have been associated so solemnly from the inside out! Whether in the relationship between good and truth or evil and falsity, we can rationally as well as spiritually come to grips with the X and Y of Jesus and His Creation.