THE FLOWER OF IMMORTALITY

You never know when a thought is going to creep up on you. You also never are quite sure whether it is a "thought" or a "memory."  This morning while on the streets, driving my way from errand to errand, listening to KUSC, classical music 24 hours @ day, the announcer introduced a piece from the ballet, "La Peri."  It is by the French composer Paul Dukas and consists of one act.  It is about the search for the Flower of Immortality taken from Persian mythology.  This ballet dates from around 1912 or so.  The story however is as old as human beings...or nearly.  That's why I am familiar with it.  I too have been around...a time or two, in fact.  I have to confess that the first time I heard it was in a seminary classroom.  Then again in the Philippines, on one Good Friday when a lay person was giving a 10 minute meditation on one of the "Seven Last Words."  He did not date the story, and he did situate it in North America, as part of the traditional practices of a nameless Indian Tribe.  I was in my early 30's.  I am now in 2.5x my early 30's and I still remember the way I heard the story from the pulpit on that historic Good Friday afternoon.  I will try to be brief.  It won't be easy, but I'll try.
It seems that the oldest recorded similarity to this story comes from the Epic of Gilgamesh [Babylonian mythology] which dates back to about 3,000 years before Christ. Gilgamesh, who is 2/3 god and 1/3 mortal, is told that the flower which bestows immortality grows in the depths of the ocean.  He goes down, finds it, brings it back up, lays it aside for a moment while he recovers from his efforts.  He naps, and while he is unaware, a snake eats the plant and Gilgamesh is forever more a mortal being.  >aside< Catholic seminarians study the Epic of Gilgamesh in the courses that make up the Introduction to Sacred Scripture.  I heard it there.
"The Peri" is a story from Persia that is similar.  The Peri (a kind of half evil/half good being) is in search of the Flower of Immortality and in fact, finds it.  It is a lotus, as the story goes.  The Peri's companion sees it, steals it while the Peri sleeps.  The Peri awakens, sees what is happening, claims it back and in the strife between the two, the lotus wilts and neither one benefits because of the influence of the immorality of mortal beings.
The version that I heard in church was a part of the meditation on the "word" of Jesus, "Father, why have you forsaken me?"  The narrator unfolded the story this way:  An ancient Indian tribe had an annual search for the first flower of Spring.  It had to be indisputably the very first flower of Spring.  The person who found it and could pluck it would be granted immortality.
One Spring, after many successive years of fruitless search, a young boy found the flower growing from the side of a steep precipice.  He stood guard over the flower while the tribe leaders conducted a search to ascertain the primacy of the blossom.  As it became clearer and clearer that this was indeed the One, more and more people gathered around to be a part of the plucking ceremony.  They fashioned a strong rope, braided from the finest deer leather.  They summoned the three strongest braves of the tribe who would be entrusted with the lowering and hoisting of the boy over the edge of the precipice.  All the while the boy kept asking for his father.  The leaders of the tribe tried to assure the boy that strong men would be needed for the task at hand.  Now the rope was ready, the men were ready but the boy was adamantly insisting that his father be the one to hold the rope.  Finally, the Chief sternly asked the boy if he was ready for the ceremony.  The boy bravely responded: "Only if my father is the one holding the rope.  He is the ONE I trust."
I never forgot that story.  I knew the Gilgamesh version from my Bible studies many years ago.  I was reminded of it one Good Friday in the Philippines.  This morning I was reminded of it when I heard the announcement of the music that was being cued up.  
Will I hear another version of this story before I die?  I suppose that chances are rather good that I will.  It is, after all, a good story, no matter what the setting.  It is an attention getting myth that tries to explain why we humans are not immortal.  We bring it upon ourselves.  This is a truth that was accepted even before it found its way into the Christian Bible with the story of Adam and Eve. [About 1,000 years before Christ]  
I guess this is more than a simple thought, or even just a simple memory.  It is a whole library of thoughts around one simple lesson, human beings are created good, but they sure have a hard time staying that way 100% of the time.  We know who the "Flower of Immortality" is and the good part is we don't have to keep Him to ourselves.  Check it out.  It's in the Bible too.