El Perico 12/12/85 - page 2 - second and third columns

THE UNFORTUNATE CLARISA

TO HER SISTER CELESTINA NIETO1


Have ye forced me, my sister, as a public speaker recently said, to take my toledan2 pain, and dip it in sweet orange blossom syrup, and gently refute the erroneous echoes your lost brain. Maybe some unconscious lapse during your lunar indisposition, or given the pleasures of long tablecloth, or other mischief of your sex, would be the a priori or a posteriori causes to explain the form of mental alienation to which you are indeed a victim my dear dove.

Could it be possible that in such a robust and bulky frame, adorned with such a beautiful belly there could be enclosed a brain so small?
Incomprehensible phenomenon, looming through the dark chaos of mystery!

Why turn away your eyes from the truth, and seek to misrepresent the word of the Divine Master, and convert the pure spirit, the holy essence of Christianity into pestilential marsh lust?
Have you forgotten the words of Saint John? "Love not the world or the things that are in the world." "Everything that is in the world is lust of the flesh..."3

Sacrilegious witch! Pardon the hard epithet that I use - drawn out by my fervent enthusiasm. Would you attempt to mix the august religion of Him who consummated his work of philanthropy on Calvary with abominable politics, Pandora's box: ...the religion of truth which is all love and meekness with that politics which breathes hatred, dissimulation, revenge and other passions which debase?

Perhaps you can serve two masters?
If Jesus commanded you to leave even your father and mother in order to follow him, could it be possible that he would permit you to occupy yourselves with issues such as politics which can engage the human intellect to the point of snatching away discernment and converting man into a bloodthirsty beast?

On the contrary, certainly far from being persecuted, you would be the persecutor, and meek little lambs though you should be, immitating the spotless lamb, you would be predatory wolves thirsty for blood and revenge. Flee then, dearest one, the abhorrent politics which takes us to hell.

Could it be that the religion of Him who can do everything needs the crutch of ridiculous worldly power?
And if not needed, why is it that the drive to interpret those words so clear, in a manner so twisted, is only for the desire to thrive?
Cleverly you have cited in support of your colossal blunder the last words of John 18:36 and plainly you show your skill in the art necromancy. You are the most skilled witch, who has ever dressed a skirt!

Although a sufficiently impartial reading of the Gospels or the knowledge of the spirit of Christianity could however adduce a thousand reasons and straight arguments without story, to prove to you the crookedness of your interpretation of that clear statement. So in conclusion: permit me dear sister without committing the outrageous crime of interpreting this sentence, clear as the water of a pure sweet murmuring stream running through green grass ...and if it appears dark to you it is because you look through your dark goggles and it is transmitted darker still through your black retina and into the dark chaos of your brain: excuse me but as I have told you, in conclusion I have transcribed the ENTIRE text of the aforementioned verse and the corresponding note, which comes as a stone thrown into the eye of a witch with green glasses from one of the translators of the Bible, Torres Amat4, whose opinion YOU ARE DUTY-BOUND to respect: -here it comes! verse 36 - "Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingeom were of this world it is clear that my servants would have defended me so that I would not have fallen into the hands of the Jews; BUT MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF HERE."

NOTE: Some proponents of the idea of the temporal kingdom of Christ on earth will find the version of these words to be inexact due to the omission of the particle "now" and perhaps they would prefer to see the text translated as: "but my kingdom right now isn't here"; that it is like the understanding of contemporaries blinded by the system of the temporal reign of Jesus Christ. Actually anyone who merely looks at the Latin expression from the Vulgate5 and considers it in isolation, without considering ( as Celestina has parsed it ) the words that precede it in the same verse 36, would be translated: "...for now My kingdom is not of here". But it can never be translated "but now not for now" which has meaning. And anyone who reads the answer given by Jesus to Pilate, will see clearly that it has this same meaning, "now is my kingdom not of here" and again "my kingdom is not of here; with the only difference that the latter translation is more clear or explains more clearly the response of Jesus Christ to Pilate. Moreover,


(...continued on page 4)


1."Nieto" is a Spanish surname. Celestina Nieto is the metaphorical individual created on page 1. ↑
2. "toledan" appears to be a reference to Toledo (a city in Spain) but it's not clear what this refers to. It could have been an expression common in Spanish at that time. ↑
3. This is undoubtedly a reference to 1. John 2:16-17↑
4. Felix Torres Amat was a Catholic Bishop of Astorga, Spain who did a Spanish translation of the Bible from the latin Vulgate (completed by 1825). This was only the second Catholic Translation of the Bible into Spanish; the first had been in 1791. In the centuries before that time there had been no way for Spanish-speaking Catholics to read the Bible due to the Church's prohibition on translating the Bible. ↑
5. The Vulgate is the Latin Translation of the Bible made in the 4th Century C.E. by Jerome. For centuries it was the only translation of the Bible text (ie from the original Hebrew/Aramaic/Greek) authorized by the Catholic Church and individuals who attempted to make translations into the "vulgar tongues" (ie: English, Spanish, etc.) could be put to death (and some were). Dr. Martinez here is talking about the translation direct from the Catholic-authorized Vulgate, thus showing both his familiarity not only with a key Biblical text highly influential in Church History but showing also his ability to translate from Latin to Spanish. ↑