Jesus merely nodded his acknowledgment.
"Let me begin by asking you what the experience of awakening suddenly in a strange time and a strange land was like for you."
The thick Hebrew accent that had once accompanied Jesus’ speech was almost totally absent as he spoke.
"Well, I can say it wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I said I would return,” he smiled. “But on the other hand, being cloned from my own DNA had the virtue of making my identity indisputable. I am told that for many centuries much debate has arisen around my earlier teachings and many people did not even believe I had ever lived. Had I arrived by some other less provable means, it is quite probable all of the religions of the world would still be squabbling over my authenticity."
"Let's examine that aspect a little, if we may,” Ray said. “There are still some today who question you are who you claim you are. How do you respond to them?"
Jesus shrugged his shoulders and said, “There are some who do not even know their own reflection in a mirror. In my own time, despite the legends to the contrary, my teachings were not widely believed. There were many who believed, do not misunderstand. But compared to the population of the region of Judea, few had the wisdom to understand me or the courage to follow me. The story of Peter's denial is true. However, he was not alone in making such denials. You must remember Rome ruled with an iron fist and fear was the constant companion of the Jews of Judea. It took a special type of courage to go against Rome in those days."
"It was a courage many seemed to find in the aftermath of your crucifixion,” Ray offered.
"Yes, that is true."
"Let me move to a slightly different subject. There are some religious leaders who are troubled by your associations with the political power of Washington. Others seem more troubled by your association with Armand Mathias, who is considered by many to be a charlatan. What does Jesus need with these worldly forms of power?"
"That is a reasonable question, and it is one I am happy to finally get the opportunity to respond to. As the Son of my Father, I walk the earth in corporeal form. I have a body, as do you. I have requirements for nourishment, as do you. This body requires rest and sleep, as does yours. Although my power comes from a higher source, it must still be manifested in a world that has physical laws. As you have no doubt observed, on certain occasions those physical laws can be bent to the will of higher laws, but only when there is a purpose in doing so. The Kingdom of my Father will be manifested at the physical level and in order for that to happen, I must make use of secular political constructs. In order to bring the world forward to the Golden Age, we must first synchronize with the world of today.
"As for Armand Mathias, he was my first real friend in your world. It was he who taught me your language. It was he who helped me acclimate to the times. President Crowley is a man of great vision and is working to create a one-world government of justice for all. I find that to be consistent with all I have taught, and if I can be of any assistance in the implementation of that goal, then I want to be."
"I'm sure you are aware, Jesus, President Crowley has been under investigation for a wide variety of alleged crimes and unethical dealings, almost since the moment he assumed office. Does it bother you that you are so closely associated with an administration many believe is corrupt?"
If the question irritated or disturbed Jesus, he did not show it.
"I am tempted to repeat my admonition, ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,’ here. All of mankind is flawed. I do not say that with criticism, but with love and understanding. I have found President Crowley to be a concerned and caring man and if he has done things in his past which were immoral or unethical, I am convinced the man I know would not commit such acts now. I also remind you, in my own time, I was criticized for associating with those considered to be great sinners by the elders of the synagogue."
Ray changed the subject yet again. “You are scheduled to address the United Nations next week. May we know what you intend to say to them?"
Jesus mulled that question over as if wishing to be careful about what he revealed before finally responding. The pause was for just a brief moment, but Ray's years of experience alerted him what was about to be said was not going to be the entire truth. Not that he expected a lie, but often leaders would say just as much as they could get away with saying. This was, more often than not, necessary in the world of international diplomacy. A misstated word at the wrong time could undo months, even years of careful negotiations. All politicians dealing with international issues tended to hold their cards close to the vest.
"Mr. Cutler, I have come to change the world. My mission has never been otherwise since my birth in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. The United Nations is a wonderful organization and presents the president and me with a tremendous opportunity to unite all people of the world. This was the intent of the organization when it was formed, was it not?” He smiled sweetly and said, “You will learn what I have to say along with everyone else, Mr. Cutler."
Ray played along and smiled back at him before continuing, again shifting subjects.
"What has been the most dramatic difference for you between the life you once knew and the modern world?"
"That's easy to answer,” Jesus smiled. “Communications. The rest of your world is remarkable, of course. Beautiful skyscrapers, transportation by air and automobile, a spectacular distribution system of goods and services. All of these things are tremendous advances over comparable things from my time. But modern instantaneous communication on a global scale is something men of my time could never have comprehended. You have these devices you call ‘computers’ that process information so fast and in such quantities people of my era would have considered it to be black magic. Yes, without a doubt, it is communications which is the biggest change and also the greatest boon to my mission on earth."
"I'd like to talk a little about your life two thousand years ago. It is well known our Bible, which is the sole source of knowledge of your life, was compiled centuries after your crucifixion. I trust you have had time to read it?” Ray asked.
"Yes, I have."
"Do you wish to set the record straight about anything we have come to believe about you?"
Jesus eyes twinkled as he smiled. “To be honest, the Bible has it more or less correct, with a few unimportant errors and some omissions which are really of no significance. Where errors have occurred, they have been in the interpretation of the things I taught, as a rule."
"Can you give us a specific example?” Ray asked
"I'd prefer not to at this time. What is important now is not so much what my message for my previous life was. What is important is my message for the people of the twentieth century."
"And that is..."
"That you are entitled to prosperity ... that everyone is entitled to an equal distribution of the wealth of its society ... that those who are able must serve those who are in need ... that your life does not belong to you alone, but to the community first."
Ray sat in stunned silence. Was Jesus saying what he thought he was saying? His mind was racing but not going anywhere. The floor directors began to squirm as his silence continued longer than was comfortable for those who have been trained to fill air time with something ... anything rather than silence. The director in the control booth spoke to him in his earpiece. He was aware of the voice, but seemed unable to react to it.
Jesus’ eyes bore in on him with an intensity that unsettled him. As he stared back into the face of the Messiah, his face began to contort into a mask of malevolence. Get a hold of yourself, Ray. He felt as if he were falling over a precipice into a bottomless void of darkness. He fought to retain his equilibrium. He was dizzy, as if somehow being controlled by the mind power of the man who sat before him.
"Ray,” the stage director called into his earpiece. “Ray. Are you OK?"
Ray, by the sheer power of his own will, managed to regain his composure. The face of Jesus r
eturned to normal, the hammering in his head subsided, and his head cleared once again.
He said, “Jesus, you are talking about...” He was going to say “communism,” but Jesus finished his sentence for him.
"...A New World Order, yes. Heaven on earth. I have come to remove all suffering, disease, and poverty from your world ... to bring a Paradise to the world of Man."
"I understand,” Ray said automatically, knowing he did not understand at all. The only thing Jesus had not said was “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” the centerpiece of communism. Could Jesus be serious? Did he really envision the abject slavery of the masses as the key to the Kingdom of Heaven?
Ray had intended to uncover the plan of Jesus, but he never expected him to be so straightforwardly honest about it. Nor had he expected the new message of Jesus to be the rehashing of a political doctrine most people had long ago abandoned as unworkable and oppressive to the cause of liberty.
Ray swallowed hard, took a sip of water from the glass sitting on the table between he and Jesus, and finally said, “Let's move on to the subject of wealth."
* * * *
CLAUDE CHAMBLEAU PACED back and forth in his small living area as he recounted his story to Arnold Wills.
"The story of the Holy Grail has its beginning with Joseph of Aramathea, a wealthy and well respected Jew who lived at the time of Christ. The grail, as you know, is said to be the chalice from which Jesus Himself drank at the last supper.
"Joseph of Aramathea was entrusted with the grail and the legend says he brought it to the west himself, to the city of Glastonbury. After that, the story gets confused and muddled. Some versions have the grail as the source of the quest of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Other versions hold that the grail was the reason for the formation of the Knights Templar, who were charged with its protection. In all traditions, the grail was said to be lost.
"Many believe the St. Clair family of Scotland were the last to possess the grail, along with other holy relics such as the Spear of Longinus, said to be the very spear which pierced the side of Jesus as he hung from the cross, and a piece of the original cross itself. Some call the Spear of Longinus the Spear of Destiny. Hitler himself is said to have possessed it. Legend says he who possessed the spear would be given great earthly powers. The grail was rumored to have been enclosed within what is called the Apprentice Pillar within the Rosslyn Chapel, itself modeled upon the great Temple of Solomon. Indeed, the Knights Templar themselves derive their name from ‘The Knights of the Order of the Temple of Solomon',” which was abbreviated to “Knights Templar” over time.
"The legend of the grail says he who shall seek and find the grail will possess the very essence of Christ.
"Now, there are also many who believe the grail legend is an allegory representing the quest of the individual for the Divine spark within himself, and the grail itself never was a real relic that could be touched or held in one's hands.
"Both stories are wrong, Monsieur Wills,” Claude said, in a tone which sounded like a pronouncement.
"So the grail does not exist?"
"Monsieur, I said the legends are wrong, but the Grail itself, indeed exists."
"I don't understand."
"Let me show you, Monsieur."
Claude sat down at his table and produced a pile of ancient-looking parchment documents. Arnold thought that some historian or museum would love to get its hands on these papers.
"Please sit, Monsieur Wills. You are about to learn the secret of the Holy Grail. I only hope you do not regret it."
"I'll take my chances,” Arnold responded. His curiosity was too engaged for him to let it go at this point.
"These scrolls date back to the fifth century A.D."
"Are you kidding?"
"It is true, monsieur. They are written in a very early form of French. In addition, much of them is written in a primitive code. Deciphering these documents has taken me over twenty years of nearly constant effort. Only recently have I been able to translate these documents and crack the code."
Arnold leaned forward with interest.
"The first thing you must understand is that no punctuation or spaces were used in these days. This has often made translation of documents quite difficult, often impossible. Now, take a look at these eight letters."
Claude pointed to the letters “sangreal."
"They break down into the two words San and Gr'eal ... ‘Holy Grail.' Indeed, that is how those two words have been translated for centuries. But I decoded the rest of these documents, and do you know what they contained, Monsieur Wills?"
Arnold shook his head.
"The decoded part of the documents were a genealogy of some royal family. A few names jumped out at me as familiar, but for the most part, the names were unknown to me. I did some digging and after much frustration and difficulty, I was finally able to establish the lineage of this family tree ... the family from which this lineage descended."
He stopped for a moment, much to Arnold's annoyance.
"Well?” he said, with some irritation.
"Monsieur Wills, within these documents is the secret the Council has worked to keep from the world for two thousand years. This is the lineage of Jesus."
"What?"
"Oui. The family of Yoshua ben Yoseff, Jesus of Nazareth, lives today. Look at these two words, San Gr'eal again. Remember, the spacing by necessity has been arbitrary since no spaces or punctuation were used in the original documents. Now, when you move the spacing by just one letter, you get the two words, sang re'al. That translates to blood royal ... Royal Blood! The secret of the Holy Grail, Monsieur, is not a missing chalice, but the missing bloodline of Jesus, himself.
"The Council of Most Highs has known of this since the beginning. What the Council never learned was who these descendants were. The reason the early conflicts between the Roman Catholic Church and the Celtic Gnostics of Europe occurred was because of the concerted effort by the Council, with the church as its agent, to wipe out any knowledge of this royal bloodline and to destroy the bloodline itself. This, too, was the true reason behind the Crusades. Both of these conflicts were waged with ruthlessness by the Church. Do you remember your Bible, Monsieur Wills?"
"I remember a little."
"You remember the story of Herod and the slaughter of the innocents? In that story, when the prophecy is made that a King of the Jews had been born among the Jews, he ordered the slaughter of all male children throughout the kingdom, to ensure this king would never grow up to threaten his reign. Mary and Joseph escaped the slaughter, and Jesus grew up to be that very King."
"Yes, I remember that."
"In fact, those events happened, but not by Herod and not in Judea. The biblical story recounts what the church did among the Celts and the Druids in the first two centuries after the crucifixion. Wanton infanticide was employed to ensure the descendants of Jesus would not survive. Despite the wide-scale slaughter, the early predecessors of the Knights Templar protected the bloodline, and by stealth, removed them first to Scotland and then, during the Crusades when the threat was once again renewed, to France. Their official name is lost to us, but many believe it was they who became known as the Knights of the Round Table. You see, Monsieur Wills, how many familiar legends overlap."
Arnold sat back in his chair and whistled, “Whew. That's an amazing story, Claude. It's hard to believe."
Claude leaned toward him and said passionately, “You must believe it, Monsieur Wills. Every word of it is true."
"Even if it is true, Claude, what does it have to do with me? Why tell me all of this?"
"I have no one else to tell, Monsieur. You were available and I knew why you were here. I had to tell someone. If the Council ever learned what I know, I would never get the chance to do so. I would end up very, very dead."
"How much of this does the Council know?"
"They know the true meaning of the Grail, that it is the bloodline of
Jesus. They of course know of their own efforts to exterminate the bloodline, and they know they did not succeed. They pretty much know everything I know ... except this."
He flipped through the pile of documents, finally locating the one he was looking for.
"The lineage of Jesus was lost somewhere around the time the Sshroud came into possession of the de Charny family. The Council has been searching to find its modern descendants since then, without any success, fortunately."
He slid the paper in front of Arnold.
"I have located the bloodline of Jesus,” he said triumphantly, pointing to a name on the document in front of Arnold. “I think you will recognize the name."
Arnold gasped loudly. “You mean...?"
"Yes, Monsieur, my information is unquestionable."
"My god,” Arnold gasped, in disbelief.
"So you see, Monsieur Wills, you must put aside your quest for vengeance, and return to America immediately to protect the progeny of Jesus. If you should fail, all will be lost."
"Claude, you must return with me. No one will believe this. I need your documents and papers to prove this to others."
"Sadly, Monsieur, I cannot do that. You are free to take these documents with you, but guard them with your life. They are originals, not copies. I must stay here. My work leads me in another direction."
Arnold started to protest, but Claude stopped him. “No, Monsieur, you must trust I will serve you better here. Now, go. Hurry. And please be careful. You carry one of Mankind's greatest secrets in your hands. All of Mankind is depending on you."
Claude ushered Arnold to the door, opened it and stuck his head out to make sure no one was in the hallway. “God go with you, Monsieur Wills. I will hold you in my prayers."
* * * *
RAY CUTLER SAT alone in the darkness of his office. The broadcast had ended hours ago and Marge and the rest of his staff had long since left for the day. He felt as if he was the only one who had truly grasped the import of what Jesus had just revealed. Was he letting his own political indoctrination blind him to a deeper truth about a collective lifestyle which Jesus understood better than he ever could? The words that he had put to it echoed through his mind over and over again like a dull mantra ... “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” All his life he had taken it for granted such a philosophy could only lead to an oppressive tyranny in which society became driven, not by the intent and desires of its best and brightest, but by the needs of its weak and slothful. How could you avoid having your society degenerate into one in which the productive and the strong became the virtual slaves of those whose only claim on their goods and services was that someone needed them.
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