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Feature Articles (Archived) - Christ and Christmas |
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CHRISTMAS: BIRTH OF THE SAVIOR by Paul Hourihan, edited by Anna Hourihan
Christmas—a
supernatural event, the birth of the Mystic-Savior … that is, more than a
man:
the Divine principle embodied in the birth. Born into matter, into
“darkness,” which is this life, and
Parents, representing the earth that provides the womb for Its advent, do not understand It. “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” That is, Woman of flesh and blood, of Nature—I belong to another realm. What have I to do with thee?—So as we become spiritual we wish to have spiritual relationships. Christ's life is the life of the Divine incarnate, the Spirit’s journey to Self-realization, self-conquest, and world-conquest. It is the career of the Divine unfolding its natural sovereignty over Nature, over men, over time, over all things. He is the Way-Shower. Christ is the Soul … the Divine come to Earth to show man what man’s higher nature is like!—Not like the beasts—but like the gods: more, he is a God … nay, God himself. “He that has seen me has seen the Father.” Jesus embodies the common life we share with Him and with God. All life is one … the life of God—of which Jesus was a dramatic manifestation, full of Truth … of which we are still unsatisfactory specimens. So let us not forget that the hero that was in Christ is in us; the God that was in Him is in us too— and it is the same God. His greatness is innate in us as well. We must accustom ourselves to thinking like heroes, to being heroes. The idealistic life, the mystical path, is for heroes and heroes only.
"Know ye not that ye are Gods, children of the most high?" See also CHRISTMAS REFLECTIONS, CHRIST AND VEDANTA, THE LIVING WATER and Words of Wisdom: Christ, Mysticism.
Suggested
Readings:
Excerpt from a lecture on Christ by Paul Hourihan, edited by Anna Hourihan The Divine is the impulse and motivation at Christmas—exercising Itself, honoring one of its special sons. Humanity easily cooperates because the folk aspect of the season is mixed with the religious. So the spirit of Christmas has effectively joined itself with the end-of-the-year Winter Solstice, touching a deep folk chord in humanity while celebrating the birth of a God-Man. Christmas—the birth of more than a man—a savior, a Divine Principle is embodied in the birth of Jesus Christ. It is the Soul... the Divine come to earth to show man what man is like!
During
ordinary, crowded hours
we are
not able to contemplate such
As we meditate upon this mysterious existence, we may gradually find ourselves meditating upon the mystery of our own. Wrapped in deepest mystery, indeed, is our own existence—as is the recollection of it as we reminisce, ponder, trace over the strange patterns we have woven together to make up the design of what we call our life. Odd, that in thinking so intensely with such powerful intuitions filling our consciousness, during the stillness of Christmas Eve, of Christ’s appearance, we may find ourselves thinking of our own lives as well, as though the life we have lived is somehow related to the archetypal life that began in Bethlehem, is a part of the same continuing greater life of the Divine in the world of manifested things. According to Vedanta philosophy, Thou art the Soul in all souls. The heart of Christ is yours, not in a figurative sense but in an actual sense. He belongs to us. He is us. This Vedantic view is supported by Christ’s own sayings: He that hath seen me hath seen the Father … Know ye not that ye are Gods, children of the most high… Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect … The Kingdom of Heaven is within you. Christ has been called the Savior, but each of us may be one—prophets, all. Burden-bearers. World-supporters. On a smaller scale than his, no doubt, but in principle there is no essential difference. He but does on a world scale what spiritual aspirants are all doing, each in his or her own way, on the little stage of our individual lives, burdened as we are with so many trials, sufferings, tediums, miseries. Each of us is the savior of our family, children, parents, relatives, close friends, who have not yet begun to lead the life of the Spirit as we have. They are always looking, watching, waiting. They depend on our dedication, endurance, perseverance, faith, spiritual practices―our willingness to tread the heroic path to the end. For them we play the role that Christ played for the world—the principle is the same. The same life is in us as in him, only less intensified, less powerful in its vibrations, less commanding in its effect. But not essentially different. We see, then, that with an act of spiritual imagination we may be able this Christmas to bring Christ closer to us than ever before, make him part of us and we part of him—part of his life, his high destiny—as we realize, in that act of creative imagination, the implications of the ultimate truth of the Upanishads: Thou Art That. See also: CHRIST AND VEDANTA, CHRISTMAS, BIRTH OF THE SAVIOR and Words of Wisdom: Christ.
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therefore, not wanted here, forced to be born furtively and then compelled
to flee for Its life. The Soul
is being born here, into the bondage of the body, among other beings who
think of themselves as bodies. Hence, its homelessness, alienation… a
pilgrim and stranger in the earth.
