"Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

"So feel life's sharp point, the jab of circumstance
at this one moment in time's harsh spotlight.
Whatever is extremely bad, take the extreme part
and use it to feel abundant, to make an inner leap,
to be transported by the free energy it provides.
These are your wages on the level of divine vibration,
the world in which light, sound, and name
mingle in the heart of the Holy One
before it gave birth to everything we see.
This fee, your reward, is in payment for
the job of living your true image and purpose,
the only work worth doing.
The prophets before you,
those who listened to the
voice always coming from within,
received the same fee from their ancestors,
who often confused their own
confused reflection of the divine knowing
with what they think they see in you.

Textual Notes

"The Aramaic word usually translated 'rejoice' is a form of hedi, which carries the images of being poked or pricked by something, or any extreme feeling. This word is also related to a sense of being led or guided somewhere. The words translated 'leap for joy' are from the Aramaic datz, which means to live in abundance, or to be transported with joy by abundant energy. The word for 'reward' is from the Aramaic agra which refers to wages, a fee for service or hire. Its roots show a movement that is continued, that brings a being back to itself. This presents a beautiful image of our real 'reward,' which is the knowledge and realization of our original divine image or reflection, created by the Holy One at the first Beginning described in Genesis (1:26).

"Living the creation story as one's own story was an important spiritual practice at the time of Jesus. One can find a great deal of evidence for Jesus' teaching of this practice in all of the canonical Gospels as well as the Gospel of Thomas, when viewed from the Aramaic or Semitic language perspective.

"The word for prophet in Aramaic (nabiya) does not mean one who foretells the future, but rather a person who listens to the divine voice within and acts upon it."