MANILA, Philippines?The Catholic religion, to which majority of Filipinos belong, has always emphasized the divinity or divine origin of Jesus Christ. ?Jesus is our Lord and our God,? intone the faithful. And every Christian evangelist of every denomination has been harping on that same message since the time of Paul, the Apostle.

The divinity and godhead of Jesus has been so much ingrained in our collective psyches that we often forget and sometimes even comes as a shock to some of us, that Catholic dogma also says that he is truly man at the same time.

God cannot die, but as man, Jesus suffered and died. This is what Holy Week is all about, the remembrance of Jesus? suffering and passion. It is only at this time of the year in fact that the whole of Christendom remembers the humanness of Jesus.

And as a true human being, he must have also gotten hungry and ate like any other man. And like other human beings, he must have also urinated and moved his bowels. What?s wrong with that? Nothing! It?s just that we never think of Jesus as also human.

As a man, he must have fallen in love also. And there is sufficient evidence, particularly in the Nag Hammadi texts, which were discovered in 1945 in Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt, that he had some romantic relationship with Mary Magdalene. Some authors even go to the extent of asserting that the two got married and produced a child. But there is no evidence for this theory.

Reincarnations

Now, the next question is, if Jesus were truly man, did he also undergo a series of reincarnations on earth?

Yes, according to the American psychic and prophet, Edgar Cayce, who, while in a deep trance, revealed that Jesus had undergone some 30 previous incarnations before becoming the Christ.

It is a revelation that the awake Cayce could not accept. Being a very devout Christian lay preacher and Sunday school teacher, he could not believe what he himself had said while in a trance. He considered such a notion as heretical and that?s why for two long, agonizing months, he stopped all his trance readings until he could figure out and got convinced the message was not coming from the dark side or from the devil himself.

Who did the sleeping Cayce say Jesus were in his past lives? He mentioned only several of them. Jesus first came on earth as Amilius, an incarnation in spirit form only. Then he was Adam, the first physically created man, according to Genesis. Then he was Enoch, a man who ?walked with God,? according to the Bible. Then he was Melchizedeck, a priest and prophet at the time of Abraham. Then he was Joseph, a son of Jacob, who was sold in slavery by his brothers. Then he was Joshua, the successor to Moses who led the Israelites into Promised Land. Then he was Asaph, the chief musician and seer in King David?s court. Then he was Jeshua, a priest who helped re-establish the worship of God after the Israelites? return from captivity in Babylon. Then he was Zend, father of the religious leader, Zoroaster. Then he was Jesus, the Christ.

There were also trance readings of Cayce which hinted that Hermes, a god of Ancient Egypt, may also have been an early incarnation of Jesus, as well as Buddha, the Enlightened One. But these personalities were not explicitly identified by Cayce.

Puzzling statements

If it is true that Jesus underwent several previous incarnations, then it can help explain some puzzling statements made by Jesus as mentioned in the Christian Bible.

For example, consider the following passage from John (8:56-58):

?Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see the day of my coming; he saw it and was glad.? Then the Jews said to him, ?You are not even 50 years of age and you have seen Abraham??

?Jesus said to them, ?I am telling you the truth, before Abraham was, I am.??

Why did he say that before Abraham was even born he was already there?

If what Cayce said was correct, that Jesus was at one time Melchizadeck who lived during the time of Abraham, then what Jesus said makes sense. He was indeed already there even before Abraham was born. He must have known his past incarnation as Melchizadeck.

I realize that many people in this conservative Christian country do not accept the concept of reincarnation, much less apply it to Jesus Christ. For the word ?reincarnation? cannot be found in the Bible. But as Cayce clearly pointed out, ?One can read reincarnation in the Bible and another can read it out again.?

Note: The next Basic ESP & Intuition Development Seminar will be held April 26 to 27, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. at Rm. 308 Prince Plaza I, 106 Legaspi St., Greenbelt, Makati. Interested parties may call 8107245, 8926806, or fax 8159890. E-mail innerawareness_2005@yahoo.com.ph or visit www.jaimelicauco.com.