Page 113 - Gnosis volume 2

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from the tares so that, purified, his Personality may unite with the divine spark which

will bestow its resplendent beauty on him.
On the eve of Christ's Advent, the elite of the chosen people were placed in corpore

in front of the second Threshold. Their position may be compared with that of the

isolated case to which we have just referred.

The coming of the Forerunner and Christ's Advent forced the chosen people, who
were responsible for the whole of humanity, to come face to face with themselves, and

to see themselves in their true light, such as they had become at that period as a result

of all their exploits, their sins and their errors. They should have faced the facts

courageously, swallowed their false pride, repented humbly, listened to the Voice that
was crying in the wilderness, and boldly followed the Saviour's precepts.

The chosen people did not triumph in this trial. They proved to be far too weak to

admit their weaknesses and to overcome them. They preferred to suppress the

evidence and the signs from on high. For the price of a dance, King Herod had the
Forerunner beheaded, and the first High Priest Caïphas, after having tried to exploit

Jesus for political ends, pronounced the fatal sentence: consider that it is expedient for

14
us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not .

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14
John, XI, 50-51; also XVIII, 14.