Then Jesus said: “Ere we leave this board let us rise and sing the joyous hymns of Galilee.”
And we rose and sang together, and His voice was above our voices, and there was a ringing in every word of His words.
And He looked at our faces, each and every one, and He said: “Now I bid you farewell. Let us go beyond these walls. Let us go unto Gethsemane.”
And John the Son of Zebedee said: “Master, why do you say farewell to us this night?”
And Jesus said: “Let not your heart be troubled. I only leave you to prepare a place for you in my Father’s house. But if you shall be in need of me, I will come back to you. Where you call me, there I shall hear you, and wherever your spirit shall seek me, there I will be.
“Forget not that thirst leads to the winepress, and hunger to the wedding-feast.
“It is in your longing that you shall find the Son of Man. For longing is the fountainhead of ecstasy, and it is the path to the Father.”
And John spoke again and said: “If you would indeed leave us, how shall we be of good cheer? And why speak you of separation?”
And Jesus said: “The hunted stag knows the arrow of the hunter before it feels it in his breast; and the river is aware of the sea ere it comes to her shore. And the Son of Man has travelled the ways of men.
“Before another almond tree renders her blossoms to the sun, my roots shall be reaching into the heart of another field.”
Then Simon Peter said: “Master, leave us not now, and deny us not the joy of your presence. Where you go we too will go; and wherever you abide there we will be also.”