The Radical Sayings of Jesus

I grew up a Catholic. I had sixteen years of Catholic education. For four years I lived in a Benedictine monastery. I lapsed in my faith for about twenty years but came back for about thirty and now am once again disengaged. What all this means is that I have spent a lot of my life as a Catholic Christian, a lot of time reading the words of Jesus.

Shortly after that twenty-year lapse – I think it was sometime in 1992 – I came upon a pocket red-letter edition of the New Testament, red letter meaning the actual words of Jesus were printed in red ink, the rest of the text in black. I don’t remember exactly how I came into possession of the book. It was used, dog eared in fact. Through the years, I had read the Bible a lot, always particularly drawn to the four gospels. But this time I read it differently. I read only the red print...the actual record of what Jesus had said. That starkness made an impact. I found the words quite radical and, in fact, began to refer to them as The Radical Sayings of Jesus.

My upbringing, my education, and living as a Catholic Christian have been primary influences in my life. As have Buddhism and Taoism. I don’t refer to myself or think of myself as a Christian. Nor as a Buddhist or Taoist. I have learned from what the Buddha said, from what Lao-tzu said, and from what Jesus said. They speak the same truths to me.

The haiku I wrote based on Buddhist writings and on the Tao Te Ching were actually more or less a rephrasing of the writings themselves, a restructuring of them to fit into haiku of 5-7-5. This is not the case with The Radical Sayings of Jesus. Today, when I read these words, I do not do so with the hope or intent of living in conformity with them; rather I read them to find how they relate to what I now believe and how I now live. Not an acceptable approach to religionists, I suppose. Ah well, we aren’t that important to each other anyway.

Of this I am sure: I am more attuned today to The Radical Sayings of Jesus than I have ever been and, for this, I am grateful.

 

NOTE: The text for these sayings of Jesus are from the English Edition, Completely revised on the basis of The Greek Text of Nestle-Aland 26th Edition and Greek New Testament 3rd Edition. The Text is the Second Edition of the Revised Standard Version.