by Glenn Kleier
The new position worked perfectly, Hunter decided. He could hold Feldman full frame and then adroitly zoom in over his shoulder, directly into the stage and speaker.
“I don't like the looks of those clouds,” Feldman observed, casting his eyes on the sky. “You're target practice if a lightning storm kicks up suddenly, you know.”
“No problem. I'll skinny offa here slicker ‘n shit if I have to,” Hunter assured him. “Come on, give me a hand with the rest of the stuff.”
As the appointed hour for Jeza's appearance drew near, Feldman made one more attempt to reach Anke on his cellular phone. This time he got through, only to encounter the answering machine. He left a detailed message of where he was, phone numbers and how he might be reached later. He pleaded with Anke to contact him soon, given that he might be leaving for Switzerland tonight. Frustrated, he snapped shut the phone and returned it to his pocket.
And then, without warning, the two newsmen were suddenly alerted to Jeza's presence by the eruptive excitement of the crowd. From nowhere, it would seem, the prophetess had appeared on the platform, unannounced, and was taking her place on the stand behind an array of microphones. In a panic, Hunter scrambled up to his perch on the rooftop. Feldman, captivated by her arresting image once more, had to force himself to turn away from the vision and return to his work. He took his place below and well out in front of the cameraman.
“How's my audio?” Feldman called into his wireless lapel mike.
“Fine,” the word came back through his ear set. “Hold for a sec while I clear our signal.”
Feldman's ear set went quiet momentarily, and then Hunter's voice crackled back. “Okay, we've got a green light. Go ahead and do your intro and just ad-lib until she starts her speech.”
That could take a while, as the crowd showed no intention of diminishing the volume of its wild welcome. Feldman, his back reluctantly to the stage, brushed off his coat, cleared his throat and addressed the camera. He got a hand cue from Hunter and began.
“This is Jon Feldman reporting live for WNN from historic Wailing Wall Square in Jerusalem. As you can see from the masses of faithful celebrating behind us here, this is a major event in the continuing story of the young visionary who calls herself Jeza.”
As Feldman opened his mouth to take his next breath, a huge cry welled up from the crowd. He turned to see Jeza raising her hands behind the transparent blast shield in what he assumed was a greeting to the crowd, or perhaps a plea for quiet.
The roar for Jeza was deafening now. It rose up from within the square and set off a chain reaction along the encircling hills of Jerusalem, blackened with the presence of five million witnesses to this supreme event. Jeza stretched her arms out to the crowd and finally, like the aftermath of an explosion, the cacophony rumbled to absolute stillness.
At length she lowered her arms and spoke out in a loud, authoritative voice that projected from the loudspeakers and echoed across the landscape of the Holy Land.
“In the name of the Father, I come to you!” she began in her well-known entrée. The crowd erupted again, but she forged on, not encouraging their interruption. This time her speech was in English only, as if she had too much to say to belabor her delivery. The crowd immediately quieted again.
“I have spoken to you of the liberation of the soul,” she called out in a commanding voice. “I have spoken to you of the need to abolish your dependence on others for spiritual instruction that you may arrive at your own meaning of scripture. And I have warned you to leave your churches and temples and mosques and to abandon your religious leaders, as the direction they give you misleads you from God's truths.
“Today, I bring the Final Word that you might understand.” She paused and took a deep breath, as did the crowd.
“In the beginning, God prepared for you great blessedness,” she continued in her angelic voice. “A unity of heaven and earth and life eternal. It was God's plan, then, that all mankind should forever share in the glory and joys of paradise. But man was not ready for this great gift. In pride did mankind fail to recognize the sacredness of this unity. Of his own free will, man rejected God.
“And so came the fall from grace, when God divided life from death, and the earth from the heavens, and humanity from divinity. And man was banished to roam the wilderness, lost and alone.
“Yet even after the fall, God prepared a plan of redemption so that one day you should again partake completely in the wonder of His divine perfection. This plan did God set before you in the visions of the prophets. And in the messages of the Messiahs did God further reveal His intent:
“That man should learn and grow in the ways of the Lord, and work toward the day of the Final Judgment when the worthy might again be allowed to experience the unity of God in life. God left man with the promise that, at the Judgment, He would come again to reign with the righteous on earth. Until that time, only through death would man be reunited with the Almighty.
“But man has been slow to prepare himself for Judgment. He has been wayward in his journey toward righteousness. He has misunderstood and ignored the messengers of God. He has foundered and struggled in his understanding of God's intent.
“Thus have I come to you to carry forward the Word so that you may at last find your way back to the Father. For only in knowing the Word shall you close the abyss which separates you still.
“In the Word shall you recognize the enduring disharmony that divides you from yourselves! Hear the Word and understand. For, behold, I am the Anointed Messenger. I am the New Meaning. I am the final chapter of the New Testament…
“I am the Book of the Apotheosis!”
With this ringing declaration, the turbulent, brooding clouds above the prophetess were rent by an enormous shear of lightning. The multitudes dropped to the ground in abject terror as the earth reverberated from the deafening, apocalyptic peal. But Jeza was unfazed and unblinking.
“I speak to you of the great iniquities that prolong your fall from grace,” she called out to them as the thunder faded and the cries of alarm escalated. “I speak of the ungodly separations of man from humanity!”
Collecting themselves and calming under the Messiah's continuing sermon, the masses regrouped and refocused.
“At the fall from grace,” she pressed on, “God ordained the separation between Himself and mankind. Yet, after the fall, man took it upon himself to create further divisions, unnatural and prideful in their conception, and blasphemous in the eyes of the Lord. In these unnatural divisions, man first chose to set himself above his mate, separating himself from woman, whom God had created as equal and counterpart.
“Over the millennia, man has sought to lend sanction to this wrongful division by corrupting the very Word of God. In the Book of Genesis, chapters two and three, woman is portrayed as secondary in creation; subservient to Adam; the perpetrator of original sin; the seductress who tempts Adam to taste of the forbidden fruit, thereby bringing about mankind's fall from grace.
“I say to you, the debased meaning of this book is the foremost of the many corruptions of the scriptures. These passages were first given to you as a holy message of the general and of the symbolic. Yet, has the true meaning been abandoned, reduced to the specific and the literal.
“Be it known to all that, in the true progression of life on this earth, it was the female form that came first. In the beginning, God created the primitive organisms. And in His design, He created them female one and all. Cell begetting cell, female begetting female. It is only later in time that maleness emerges, male issuing from female.
“And it is only later in time that man, as the hunter and protector, surpasses woman in strength and prowess. And then deigns to wield his powers to hold dominion over woman. Yet, when woman attempts to offset lesser strength with greater wit, she is condemned for her cunning.
“In the writings of the Bible and in all ancient scriptures, the symbol of woman suffers from the biased pen of man. Over the ages, these false meanin
gs have been used to sanctify the enslavement and abuse of woman. Throughout the millennia, man has denied woman access to her true spirituality and religious authority, holding her in spiritless submission out of arrogance and stubbornness and jealousy and insecurity.
“Look about you in your midst,” she called out, arcing a reproachful finger over the crowd. “See among you the many women still bound by doctrine to conceal themselves behind long veils, their value discounted, their presence and importance diminished.”
There was an uneasy stirring in the crowd as the reclusive female subjects of Jeza's observations were made conspicuous.
“Look to the hypocrisies of the Western religions,” she continued. “And look to the successor of the Apostle Peter of the Roman Church who refuses woman control of her body in propagation; restrains her status within her house of worship; denies her blessed fulfillment in the performance of the sacraments.
“Be it known that, through me, God shall deliver woman from her spiritual bonds. For now, through me, does God give to man a new law. A separate, new Commandment by which all men shall live.
“I say unto you, sons of Adam, hear and obey the Will of God:
“‘Thou shall honor woman as thy equal; and thou shall cherish her in unity with thy fellow man. (Apotheosis 25:15)
“Thus be the new Law of God to man in keeping with the others by which you are already bound.
“Therefore shall you return to the scriptures to right the inequities. Wherein you discover passages of abasement, do as I direct you: where you find male, write female; and where you find female, write male. And read again the Word in this New Way, woman learning confidence and man selflessness, in even measure.
“I command you, woman, throw off the spiritual shackles that encumber you. Put aside your veils and your false shame and rise up—not against man, but next to man, in balance.
“Yet I admonish you, woman, do not harbor in your heart bitterness nor resentment toward your counterpart. For these are empty passions that will divide you further. But rather, accept your partner and understand the forces of the ages within him, as he must strive to understand you. Together, work toward resolution and harmony whereby you and all your children may ascend toward godliness and the exaltation.”
As if exhaustion had overcome her, the Messiah seemed to wilt slightly, dropping her chin to her chest, placing her right fist against her heart, and lapsing into silence.
The masses took this opportunity to wonder and conjecture among themselves. Noting the absence of any referrals to an imminent call to Judgment, many of the faithful began to take heart in what they had just heard, hoping Jeza's message might conclude without incident.
But the prophetess was not quite through. Gathering her resolve once more, Jeza squared her shoulders, lifted her face, which appeared even paler than before, inhaled and began anew.
“Now I speak to you of the larger separation of God and man,” she cried out, jolting everyone to rapt attention once more. “I speak to you of the last and greatest separation which distances man from himself.”
Her small hands gripped the edge of the lectern and her brow knitted with the effort of her convictions. “In the Book of Genesis, chapter four,” she continued, “is this separation revealed. Yet again has the figurative been corrupted to the particular, and the rightful meaning lost.
“This passage of scripture is the telling of Cain and Abel, an allegory in which is hidden the larger meaning of man's most damning secession. It is the story of the self-betrayal. Of man turning against his fellow man; violating his own humanity; denying his brother sanctity and life in an act of ultimate disloyalty.
“So abhorrent is this sin that God marked Cain and his kind with a sign so that all might know and reject them. Yet have you also corrupted this meaning. You look to find the mark of Cain in the physical dissimilarities of those who differ from you.
“But you are mistaken. The mark by which you shall know Cain is not a physical sign. It is not in the color of his skin, nor in the features of his face, nor in a brand upon his body. The mark is in his actions. By his words and deeds shall you know him. Enmity is the mark of Cain. Hatred of fellow man. A mark that is to be found evident among all peoples, in all places. It is the enduring trait of evil that divides you most from yourselves. Until you remove this mark from you, you shall not achieve the unity to know God.
“For two millennia, have you had this clear and certain message from the prophets who preceded me. Yet still you continue to use your differences as justification for inflicting sorrow, suffering and death upon your brother. Still you divide yourselves by race, by creed, by color, by age, by station, by wealth, by possessions, by every and all differences you can distinguish among one another.”
Jeza pulled back and angled her head away slightly, biting her lower lip and glowering off to her side in building rage. Then she turned once more to her audience, unleashing her pent-up fury. “And now do you dare mock God's Word and debase His messenger by abusing and destroying each other in my name!”
Through his binoculars, Feldman could readily perceive tears filling her eyes. This was the same tortured face, the same unbridled passion Feldman recalled so indelibly from the Millennium Eve video of Jeza atop the ancient temple steps.
“Why do you not listen?” she cried, looked down, shook her head in dejection. “In this I give you no new Commandment. For one who came before me has already given it to you. It is the Perfect Law: I say unto you, ‘Love your neighbor as you do yourself; and unto others do as you would have them do unto you.’ In this law, therefore, are contained all the other Commandments governing man's conduct toward man. In this law is the Word to guide you back to the unity you have lost.”
She paused again to stare deeply, intently into the crowd. And even at this distance, Feldman thought he could detect a glimmer of hope restoring some of the resplendency to her anguished face.
“I look into your individual souls,” she spoke in a virtual whisper, “and I see the remnants of the sweet innocence bequeathed each of you by God at your birth; a most perfect and precious treasure that now lies lost and forgotten, concealed beneath the sediments of injury and suspicion. Where once you looked with wonder and excitement upon the world about you and filled your hearts with hopefulness and elation, now you withdraw to build walls about you and gird your defenses, distancing yourselves from your neighbors, removing yourselves from contact and understanding and commitment.
“But I say to you, you must reclaim the vision of your youth. You must each see again through the eyes of a child so that you may recognize in the face of your enemy the child that also lies beneath. You must learn again to see all men as God sees them. Even your enemy must you love and safeguard as if he were your cherished flesh and blood, for surely he is that to the Father.
“Do this in your own way, of your own free will. Do this with utter faith and trust, and with absolute love. Do this without resentment or regard for sacrifice or cost. Abandon your concerns to the Father and know that the Father, in turn, will nurture your souls and release unto you the bounties of heaven that He has long promised to bestow. This you can and must do, for even as you evolve in body, so also must you evolve in mind and soul to attain the balance that is unity.
“I say again, the great separation of man from God is the greater separation of man from himself. Therefore, you shall not be worthy of unity with God until you achieve the unity of your own spirit. Thus is the way by which you may lift yourselves up. Through God, you can yourselves become as God—the ultimate expression of your evolution. And only in this way shall you come to know God and achieve His final perfection: the Apotheosis!”
She paused again and the raging, roiling sky hesitated with her, holding its gusty winds in abeyance momentarily as she raised a warning finger.
“Heed my words, O Children of Israel!” she cried, her face assuming a more solemn countenance. “For God's displeasure with you is great and His anger just. Even no
w the Great Trial is upon you, and none can halt what is to be: the Tribulation comes, and the dark hour of your Dissolution is at hand!”
“Dammit!” Feldman heard Hunter curse through his headset.
Feldman, who'd taken a seat atop an air vent out of Hunter's camera range, lowered his field glasses and glanced back over his shoulder at his partner.
Hunter was pointing out in the direction of the stage, irate. “There's some late-arriving ass setting up his video equipment right in my line of sight! Look!”
Sure enough, about four buildings up, directly in their visual path, a cameraman was belatedly, hurriedly piecing together a tripod and video camera. Feldman trained his field glasses on him.
“Hell!” he called up to Hunter. “He's one of ours! Look at his jacket!”
On the back of the interloper's coat was a bold WNN emblem.
“Can't you shoot over him?” Feldman suggested, hopefully.
“Barely. I can get a shot, but he's definitely in the foreground. I'm calling Bollinger to see if they can shut him down. Sullivan must've gotten additional clearance, but a hell of a lot of good it does us now.”
While Hunter attempted unsuccessfully to reach the field crew, Feldman retrained his binoculars on the fiery orator. She looked as if she were drawing to a close now. And the audience was getting increasingly edgy and uncomfortable with this awareness.
The unrest was greatly exacerbated by a steady ingathering of low-hanging, green-black storm clouds undulating tempestuously overhead. Feldman was surprised there'd been only limited lightning so far, but an outburst would appear imminent. This ugly, celestial display was more than ample evidence to all gathered that the fulfillment of the Apocalypse was at hand.
Jeza raised a palm to silence the crowd, and then sweeping her arm across the entire gathering in a giant benediction, she cried out in a loud voice, “It is finished!”
The Messiah stepped down and away from the podium and held there, her head bowed solemnly, her arms held straight at her sides, her fists clenched as if she were summoning her resolve. After a lengthy pause, she then raised her forlorn eyes and moved out from behind the shield, walking very slowly and deliberately in a direct line toward the front of the platform. As she cleared the shield, the wind, coming at her back, caught her hair and garments, billowing them out around her in a wild display.