When Bolivian President Evo Morales gave Pope Francis a crucifix atop a hammer and sickle, eyebrows were raised, including the pope’s.
But, as Morales explained, the cross was created by Jesuit Father Luis Espinal, who was assassinated in 1980 after being active in the country’s pro-democracy movement.Note: Pope Francis is a Jesuit.
The Dialog
About that hammer-and-sickle crucifix presented to Pope Francis in Bolivia
Cindy Wooden | Catholic News Service
ht Lambert Strether at Naked Capitalism
2 comments:
It symbolizes the view that the cross of Christ is meaningless but rather what matters is mankind's earthly labors...
The titular head of a human institution that fancies itself primarily a flesh and material support systems maintenance and repair facility should have no problem with a symbol like this...
In one view, the cross as symbol is inseparable from the point and the circle. … nihil fit ex nihilo - nothing comes from nothing. ”There is one Boundless Immutable Principle; one Absolute Reality which antecedes all manifested conditioned Being. It is beyond the range and reach of any human thought or expression. The manifested Universe is contained within this Absolute Reality, and is a conditioned symbol of it” …. so the story goes. Like the dawn, it is perhaps a little more gentler, auspicious arrival, than the 'big bang' of the cosmologists.
The circle represents that atomic 'portion' of the Infinite within which a Universe will be made manifest, the point the first emergence of true power, Will or Breath, horizontally dividing the 'circle' into two poles, spirit above and matter below. Once established a second wave of power (Father) descends to fertilise matter (Mother), giving birth to their reflection - consciousness (Son ~ Being) initiating its evolution, and return to its Source.
Hence the cross is the symbol of the material egg of the Universe, replete with power to create from itself, and evolve Consciousness. After fertilisation the cross begins to rotate, until the leading arms trail and the swastika is formed, aflame with Life. This is the symbol of creativity. The wrongful use of this symbol with the arms reversed, depicts power being used to imprison; and to prostitute, divert to material ends. Greece being crucified on the cross of the reversed swastika, rather than uplifted on the cross of matter.
The Master Jesus, crucified on this cross of matter is a symbol of the personality; humanity, bound to the lower pole until conciousness (Western labelled Christ principle, within each human) has ascended to the higher worlds. Evolution is therefore, forever revelation. A human being is a door. Obviously a Boundless Immutable Principle cannot evolve. But consciousness can. Doubt is not an issue – the mind stabilises. It is the heart (the consciousness principle) that 'knows'; mind in its lower and higher phases is just a reflector plate of what is below and what is above – can't be explained, has to be experienced. How well does a little light bulb of a heart know an Infinite Powerhouse and its networks? Not as well as a Sun. But then the more the heart expands the humbler it gets! In the old symbolic story, conciousness fades away and there follows a direct connection to Being.
Some people believe there is no antecedent Principle; some people believe there is. Some people believe it is all a matter of refined argument. Each are passionate believers. It is better to know.
So the cross was around long before any of the religions. Then some people turned it into a burden and guilt trip, forgetting its everyone nailed to the cross. Humans make the experience an unpleasant transition for themselves – our gift to ourselves. Maturity = responsibility.
People misuse power in all sorts of ways. Love-Wisdom is the consciousness of evolution and evolution of consciousness. Whatever holds back the human spirit is 'evil' but once a 'good' – that which helps the animal evolve holds back the human and that which helps the human evolve holds back the consciousness. Eventually the heart will be as much a part of the human constitution as is intellect is fast becoming today, as the control over the emotional body and its sensitivity increases. Then no-one will have to believe any more!
Well, that is one symbolic story of the whirling cross! All is Energy in motion.
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