Uh oh

A new novel promises to guide us, yet again, past the petty dogmas of organized religion and show us the deepest truth hitherto hidden from our view.

Human beings seem to have an inexhaustible thirst for deep truths hidden from the masses. Christianity turns all this on its head by insisting that the deepest truths are as plain as the nose on your face and hidden in plain view. "I thank thee, O Father, that you have hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to children" says Jesus. "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father" "Many kings and prophets long to see what you see and did not see it."

The amazing thing about Christianity is that the esoteric is all public, open and obvious. Jesus kept the Messianic secret a secret until the Resurrection. Now it's all out in the open. What he whispered in the inner room has been proclaimed from the rooftops for 2000 years. The secret is that there is no secret. If you want to penetrate the inmost meaning of the deepest, most astonishing secrets of the very heart of God himself, just pick up Bible, go to Mass, or help a little old lady cross the street. You don't have memorize the Seven Crystalline Formulae for Bliss or undergo a long process of Sweat Lodge purification or hold your jaw right or take a long and expensive trek to a Himalayan redoubt and join your consciousness with the droning of a group of Buddhist monks. The secret is that there is no secret. Jesus is present and available and speaking at the Catholic parish down the street. His word to us is not "Perform the labors of Hercules" or "Master the complexities of the Secret Wisdom" but "Believe and obey me."