Monday, January 14, 2019

2019 EXPANDING OUR CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS

    Imagine what Jesus was conscious of when he looked around at the world.


   Being divine, he saw the world the way God sees it.  Being human, he saw the world the way we see it--or ought to see it.  He saw divinity present within everyone and everything.  Divinity-within-the-world is the Christ Reality, or the Christ.  So in a special way, Jesus, the Christ, saw himself.  And he saw everyone and everything as images of him.

    In the glow of the global Christ Reality, Jesus saw the world filled with creative, healing, and world-transforming, world-evolving love.  He saw love flowing into everyone in the form of  their vocations, i.e., in the form of their personal talents, opportunities and possibilities for moving the world forward toward becoming the Kingdom of God on earth.

   He saw wondrous possibilities in every child:  in their loving family, their good school, their job and career possibilities, their social possibilities, etc.  He saw the same possibilities in every adult.  Today, he looks at us and weeps for the way our possibilities are being curtailed or even destroyed by a disintegrating family life, poor education, dissipating social life, lack of  leadership, greedy handling of the economy, indifference toward climate change, etc.  He cries over those who have fallen into the despair of addiction and crime.  He sees in everyone and everything what could be if we cooperated with the grace he is giving us every moment, and the strength to act upon our grace.  The world can be changed, however little, for the better.  But God will not do it without us.    God will do it only with us.  

   In his life on earth, Jesus put his love-consciousness into action.  Everything he did--every lesson he taught, every blessing he gave, every person he fed, ever person he healed, every opportunity he had, big or small, he took advantage of.  All were acts of his overflowing love.

   What he did was his way of teaching us what we can and should do, in our own way, throughout our lives.  So now is a good time to resolve to work to develop ever more clearly the love-consciousness that we have from him.  We can resolve to relate to everyone we know and meet within our consciousness of love.

   With our Christ-consciousness, for example, we can figure out how to relate to family members with whom we disagree, to be calm and clear with our fellow citizens who strongly oppose us in today's dehumanized political swamp, and to treat with love all people who are poor, sick, vulnerable or outcast.  We must also do our part to understand those who want to harm us and our country.  In sum, we must put on the mind of Christ.  With Jesus as our guide, we must get actively engaged in our family and society to bring the creative, healing and world-transforming consciousness of love wherever we are able.

   Leadership, of course, is difficult.  Jesus suffered opposition from some of his own people and worst of all from the Romans, who crucified him for the political "crime" of being "King of the Jews."   Pilate in his spiritual blindness could not see that Jesus was King of All Kings.

   As I said above, the great problems of our day are at heart, spiritual problems, problems with our lack of Christ's love-consciousness.  So many of our leaders in politics, religion, business, education, science, entertainment, etc., are prone to shrink their consciousness from the bright fullness of order, peace, love and the true joy of life to the puny humanly destructive, dark emptiness of greed and uncaring.  In Christ we cannot permit our politics, education, corporations, etc., to be inhuman.  In Christ we can and must work to make the world more human                  

   The least we can do is to question our political, religious, education and professional leaders and ask them to explain what they are doing to help elevate our humanity and where necessary, humbly work to correct its faults through knowledge, peace and love.  Those of us who are qualified should offer insights as to how to expand the love-consciousness of those in the various fields, so they can bring greater understanding, order, peace and love to their fields.  Doctors treat people, not medical cases; politicians serve the people, not their own careers; teachers teach people, not math, science, etc., corporations serve the people while making a fair profit and protecting the environment, etc.  Those in charge may and often will resist.  We must call upon our strength in Christ and persevere in working to bring more order, truth, peace and love to our society.  In this way we build up the Kingdom of God on earth, which is within us now and needs to be nourished and constantly built up.    

   May 2019 be a year when we expand and clarify our own Christ-consciousness so we can bring ever more love-consciousness to our society and grow in love and charity that will be with us here and in eternity.

Comments:  massimini7@gmail.com









               

Thursday, November 29, 2018

CHRISTMAS 2018

   We often say that Christmas commemorates the birth of Christ.  That needs some clarification.  Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus.  Is there a the difference?

   Genesis 1 tells us that when God created the universe it was a wasteland.  Immediately a mighty wind blew over it.  That wind signifies that the Spirit of God was in the wasteland from the very beginning.  In the Hebrew mindset we could say that God "anointed" the newborn universe with the Spirit's presence.  From the beginning the universe was God's "Anointed One."

   Hebrew has a word for the Anointed One."  It is Messiah.  The English translation of Messiah is "The Christ Reality."  The Christ Reality, or Christ, for short, is the universe wondrously "anointed" with the presence of God.

   There is nowhere in the universe where God is not present as the Christ Reality.  Nowhere!  Since we tend to imagine God as a particular person, e.g., an old man flying in the sky, a shepherd, etc., it might be better instead of saying "God"  I say, "Divinity."  Divinity is present in the all the galaxies, in  all the galaxies and our sun and moon, in earth's soil, trees, rocks, plants, animals and of course in us.  Divinity is also present in the things we have made, e.g., tables and chairs, houses, schools, bridges, etc., etc.  Divinity is even present in the keyboard and monitor of your computer.  If Divinity was absent from someone or something, they would not exist.  All is Christ!

    Take a moment to imagine he whole universe, world and everything and everyone in it  aglow with the inner presence of Omnipresent Divinity.   This is the universal Christ Reality.

    An important note:  All this does not mean that the universe and we are God.  That is pantheism, which means God is all that exists.  No.  I'm saying that God is in all that exists.  That is called pan-en-theism.  Another way to see this is to say that all that exists is immersed in Divinity.  Theologian Teilhard de Chardin said we live in a "Divine Milieu," a divine atmosphere or ambiance.


   The Second Person of the Holy Trinity is Infinite and Eternal.  
The  Universal Christ Reality, Divinity in the Universe, was born 13.8 billion years ago.  
Jesus was born 2000 years ago.

   Jesus is Eternal-Infinite God, Who is present throughout the universe as the Christ Reality, born on earth in the form of a 1st century mid-eastern Jewish male.  No wonder the angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest!"  They were singing of the most wonderful event in the history of the world!

   From the first moment of his conception in Mary's womb, Jesus was aglow with Divine presence.  He is the Light of the World having come to live with us with the gift of God's eternal, overflowing Love.  He is the One who came to show us the Way, the Truth and the Life.  With him and in him, we walk the way of our life on earth toward eternal life.  We live in him and his teachings as the life-giving Truth; and we live in his life because he is the fullness of life.

   Jesus is all humanity's personal link to God.  Everyone comes to God through Jesus.  People of faith and also those who have not ever heard of Jesus can be saved.  Salvation is open to those who live a life of consistent good will and conscience in love. (1)  Jesus is truly God's greatest gift to the world.

   So on Christmas Day we celebrate the most glorious event in the world's history, the birth of the man who brought God's Infinite, Eternal, Overflowing Love to us as a special gift for our lives here on earth and into eternity.

    And we sing with the angels, "Joy to the world, the Lord has come!"
  

(1) Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Church, No. 15