JOYFUL PIECE #151
Passover to Pentecost: Resistance and Liberation
Hebrew tradition holds that Passover celebrates, commemorates, the freeing of the Hebrews from the Pharaonic regime that enslaved them.
When I deep-dive into the metaphor, I perceive the meaning as liberation from attachment to the culture of power, overconsumption, and exploitation of humanity and nature.
Our world economy relies on a consumptive and extractive system. It chains humanity in a squirrel cage where our lives are doomed to endless labor enabling the forces that enslave us, power and greed, to persist.
Pentecost Sunday commemorated the coming together of the followers of Jesus to celebrate Shavuot, the end of the wheat harvest. It is said that they were enveloped in a recognition/manifestation of the Holy Spirit that the Acts of the Apostles is hard pressed to describe. Did this grieving group recognize the ultimate reality?
In these times of war, bloodshed, and suffering in the Middle East, home to Bahá’i, Christianity, Druidism, Islam, Judaism, Mandeism, Samaritanism, Yazidism, Zoroastrianism, and other traditions, the significance of Passover and Shavuot has crystallized for me.
Can we see the perennial struggle to control rather than to share the riches that the planet freely offers us?
Are our spiritual ears, clogged by the wax of distractions, failing to hear, to fit the mystical pieces?
Perhaps we should turn our attention to the joy that ancient Hebrews and Christians experienced at Passover when they felt the Pharaonic enslavement lifted, and at Shavuot/Pentecost, as they recognized the freely given bounty from Divine Providence that they received and for which they gave thanks.
We have everything we need to experience the joy that we already possess.
Resist the siren call of a system that enslaves us.
⛓️💥
The Old Testament prohibits usury too (charging interest to the poor). Great reminders of basic decency, thanks Manuel.
Thoughtful piece, Manuel.