THE CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE FIFTH GOSPEL

The Fifth Gospel, by the Apostle Thomas, discovered in Egypt in 1945, is not a biography of Jesus like the other Gospels. It refers only to 114 aphorisms, which are precepts or rules of procedure expressed in the form of a brief sentence and known as the maxims of Christ Jesus. Aphorisms that almost all refer to the central idea of God's Kingdom, which is in man and must manifest itself externally, in society and the whole world.

There are some so deeply mystical among these short chapters which cannot be analyzed intellectually but spiritually intuited. For example, aphorisms 13 and 13-A refer to the following:

“Jesus said to his disciples: Compare me and tell me who I look like.

And Simon Peter answered: You are like a righteous angel.

Said Matthew: You are like a wise and comprehensible man.

Thomas replied: Master, my mouth is incapable of telling who you are like.

Jesus replied: I am not your Master, because you have drunk from the bubbling fountain that I have given you, and in it you were intoxicated.

So, Jesus took Thomas aside and walked away, saying three words. And when Thomas returned to his companions, they asked what did Jesus say? And Thomas answered that if I spoke to you one of the words he told me, you would have stoned me, and fire would come out of the stones to set you afire”.

The deep meaning of these words cannot be spoken. And it is for this reason, Thomas preferred silence when Jesus asked for his opinion.

Thomas' profound silence is the most eloquent declaration of the unspeakable greatness of Christ, thus opening the channels for the inflow of spiritual intuition.

The ultimate truth about Christ cannot be said or thought. What can be thought is already adulterated; there is a second misrepresentation if the thought is spoken. If this thought and spoken is written down, the third falsity of the truth is completed.

The great truths can only be received in total silence, as they are messages from the very soul of the Universe. For this reason, Thomas chose to remain silent twice: he did not give his opinion or reveal to others what Jesus told him.

Whoever wants to know what Christ is must remain silent in profound receptivity that cosmo-fullness can fulfil the ego emptiness. Man can only spell the ABC of the Christ, but to know and taste what it is, he has to enter the Cosmic University of Silence.

The strangest thing about this passage are the words Jesus said to Thomas: “I am not your Master” because you have already surpassed the human Jesus and entered the vision of the divine Christ; you drank from the goblet of supreme wisdom, and for this, you chose to remain silent.

Afterwards, Jesus took Thomas aside and silently revealed the plenitude of Christ. A revelation so transcendent that Thomas did not dare communicate it to his colleagues, who would have thought him mad and stoned him as a blasphemer, but from the stones, a fire would have gone forth in the testimony of the truth.

This anonymous revelation, which cannot be expressed in words, is one of the highlights of the Gospel. The question “What do you think of Christ?” forces Thomas to be completely silent, which is the best answer.