In this episode, stairway to heaven, and beyond, to the Vatican.

The Eternal Jew’s Tale Messiah Tractates, a Montage Shlomo Molkho’s Traum, 2

Just one more step and he will enter into the maw of the Vatican.

Thirty days of fasting and prayer at Ponte Sant’Angelo, and then he announces he is rising up to tell the pope the messiah is here. As he walks the Via della Conciliazione to Piazza San Pietro, tumult and crowds,

Jews, Roman soldiers and clerks, beggars and hawkers, mothers and children, shopkeepers, street cleaners, nobles and priests,

… curse and abuse, quip and cajole, hallelujahs and mock prophecy…

and like a flaming torch as he proceeds the crowd makes way for his stately pace. Even the soldiers with orders to kill stumble back in awe and let him pass. And there standing at his bronze door at the Apostle’s Palace, Clement himself waiting to bless this much awaited one.

Beyond fire and sword and noose, messiah has no fear of men. Not rope nor chain nor iron cleat can bind messiah in a prison cell. Not crucifix nor priest nor curse can harm Shlomo’s body and soul or end Shlomo’s eternal life.

When messiah knocks, can the pope say ‘no’?

The pope inquires most observantly:

“How did it come to pass that you were the one the Lor would elevate?”

“I know the future like you know the past. I know the fires burning in souls like you know bodies burnt on the stake. I declared, and you were amazed, that Rome would flood and Lisbon would shake til all its walls crumbled down. I know the future as you know the past.

“The generations drew me up the coiling vortex of The-Lor-Is-Breath into Adam when they were made, with urgings to rise to higher states. The urge is determined by your inner expanse and how well you can fulfill divine Will. For most, being a father fills the inner void in the Adam-Soul. Tho many feel they want to rise further, yet their will is weak or their inner expanse is limiting them. And so it goes, like a pyramid: to patriarch, then leader of a clan, then prince of clans who serves the king; and kings, tho much resistant, must serve Prophets, Voices out of the Lor; it is they who announce the One of the All, Messiah, Hem who is the Will of the Lor, whose inner voidness is most vast. And thus my call from long ago, waiting to find a messiah soul that could rise out of this dense earth, working its way thru Adam’s mass.”

Full of wonder, the pope responds:

“Our scripture doesn’t reveal a word of such mystic insights, and yet your vision fails to note the rung on which a pope resides. Above Prophet I would reckon.”

“Your Excellence, our mental eye, as well you know, has no inclination to see itself with accuracy. A pope is on the rung of a king, setting goals, enforcing laws, reining in the rebel horse, controlling hungry wolf and snake and those who seek to steal his crown. A Prophet supercedes the law and rules by spirit, not by sword.”

Sullenly, the pope stares. Yea, kings resent a Prophet’s voice; Clement* or Charles**? No difference there. Now, how many Prophets have been murdered by popes? More than by Ahabs,*** most probably. * Pope Clement VII; ** Holy Roman Emperor Charles V; *** 1 Kings 18:4

But comes the night, come the fears.

In the next episode, Shlomo turns to the Prophet Samuel for help.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)