I am the door

Whoever goes through the door, they say, becomes a shepherd of the sheep. The sentence they refuse to soften is the one from the Gospel: I am the door. Not a metaphor to step around. A way in.

They also read 144 as letters before it is a crowd. Aleph, Dalet, Dalet — one, four, four. Added, nine. Nine is Tet, the hidden good rising within. So the hundred and forty-four thousand in Revelation is approached through Hebrew number, and through a name written on the forehead, not as a tally to win from the outside.

You know the way to the place where I am going.

What he did not say matters as much. He did not say you are the way. He did not say you are the light. The creed is built on that refusal.