What really is the Christ?

Easter morning, by Edward Burne-Jones

 

 

For a long time now, I have sought to understand more fully the nature of the Christ, and his relationship with humankind. My readings - and my spiritual mentor, Ted - have been of immense help so far, yet I know that there is so much more to this great Mystery of the Christ than I have yet understood.

Sometimes, in the midst of my contemplations or meditations, I seem to touch on those depths and am suddenly transported, surrounded with pure radiance, and in ways that I cannot describe, feel Christ consciousness around me. Then it passes, and even as I continue to resonate with the beauty of those experiences, I feel the extent of my ignorance. All I can do is ask, as I do, 'What was that? What IS that?'

It feels like being on the edge of a precipice, wanting to know what lies below because it pulls at me, it calls to me to let go and fall. Yet I have already let go. I have let myself fall, not once but over and again, and yet here I still am, willing to surrender, to trust and fall again, but with the persistent feeling that I must first understand something, that if I fall again without that understanding, I will find myself on yet another cliff edge.

How can I know what i do not know? While my life has been radically transformed over the years of seeking, this question - Who is the Christ, really? - keeps prodding me. If it were simply the mind's desire to understand, its confusion in the face of Mystery, I would happily let go of it, yet this desire, this longing to know is not intellectual. As one who has lived so much of life largely in her head, I know the taste of intellect, and this is not it. It is the taste of heart.

Perhaps my heart is not yet open enough. Heaven knows it took me years to get it out from the tight control of mind, for I had, since childhood, believed that intellect was the way to truth and enlightenment, and only when it failed me, completely let me down in a time of intense spiritual crisis in my late 40's did I realise that it was simply inadequate to the task.

 

Reading John this morning, I could not move past the first few lines. This happens every time I read John: I get caught there, reading it over and over, feeling that there is something in those lines that I need to understand.

..."without him not one thing came about. What came about in him was life, and the life was the light of humankind."

So it is not a matter of faith, is it, or of belief? Christ is the Lord of humankind, Lord of the earth, and has been from our very beginning, whether one believes in him or not? The Alpha and the Omega of earth and all life on it? Is this how we are to understand him as the Son of God, not as a person conceived but as part of, an aspect of the Creator Itself? I owe my very life to him then, as does every living thing on earth? I owe every blessed opportunity that has been given me on this earth to learn, to awaken, and to realise my own divinity to him? Whether I love him (as I do) or not?

If this is true, then all that is said about him - more radiant than the sun, creator of infinite blessings, waters of life ... none of that can even begin to touch on his glorious being, such astounding munificence and goodwill towards us very flawed human beings. As St John Chrystosome said, what else can we ever say but Thank You?

 

From Ted, beloved spiritual mentor:

Christ and Divinity youtu.be Reflections on the Teaching of "Truly Human, Truly Divine," so foundational to original Christianity and so difficult for modern people.

https://youtu.be/loiXUXI1PxI

 

I am reminded:  "God became human so that humans could become God-like." How deep that is! How full of significance for each one who seeks to follow the Way of the Christ. What a glorious promise it holds for us. Truly humbling.