JESUS THE CHRIST
THE AVATAR OF LOVE
"Then will the sons of men respond. Then will a newer light shine forth into the dismal, weary vale of earth. Then will new life course through the veins of men, and then will their vision compass all the ways of what may be.
"So peace will come again on earth, but a peace unlike aught known before. Then will the will-to-good flower forth as understanding, and understanding blossom as goodwill in men."
CHAPTER TWO - CHRIST'S
UNIQUE OCCASION
The World Today
In any acceptance of the teaching that Christ will come, one of the difficulties today is the feeling that the teaching has been given for many centuries and nothing has ever happened. That is a statement of fact, and here lies a great deal of our trouble. The expectancy of His coming is nothing new; in it lies nothing unique or different; those who still hold to the idea are regarded tolerantly, or with amusement or pity, as the case may be. A study of times and seasons, of significances, of divine intention or of the will of God, plus a consideration of the world situation, may lead us, however, to believe that the present time is unique in more ways than one, and that the Christ is confronted with a unique occasion. This unique opportunity with which He is presented is brought about by certain world conditions which themselves are unique; there are factors present in the world today, and happenings have taken place within the past century which have never before occurred; it might profit us if we considered these matters and so gained a better perspective. The world to which He will come is a new world, if not yet a better world; new ideas are occupying people's minds and new problems await solution. Let us look at this uniqueness and gain some knowledge of the situation into which the Christ will be precipitated. Let us be realistic in our approach to this theme and avoid mystical and vague thinking. If it is true that He plans to reappear, if it is a fact that He will bring His disciples, the Masters of the Wisdom, with Him, and if this coming is imminent, what are some of the factors which He and they must take into consideration?
First of all, He will come to a world which is essentially one world. His reappearance and his consequent work cannot be confined to one small locality or domain unheard of by the great majority, as was the case when He was here before. The radio, the press and the dissemination of news will make His coming different to that of any previous Messenger; the swift modes of transportation will make Him available to countless millions, and by boat, rail and plane they can reach Him, through television, His face can be made familiar to all, and verily "every eye shall see Him." Even if there is no general recognition of His spiritual status and His message, there must necessarily be a universal interest, for today even the many false Christs and Messengers are finding this universal curiosity and cannot be hidden. This creates a unique condition in which to work, and one which no salvaging, energizing Son of God has ever before had to face.
The sensitivity of the people of the world to what is new or needed is also uniquely different; man has progressed far in his reaction to both good and evil and possesses a far more sensitive response apparatus than did humanity in those earlier times. If there was a quick response to the Messenger when He came before, it will be more general and quicker now, both in rejection and in acceptance. Men are more enquiring, better educated, more intuitive and more expectant of the unusual and the unique than at any other time in history. Their intellectual perception is keener, their sense of values more acute, their ability to discriminate and choose is fast developing, and they penetrate more quickly into significances. These facts will condition the reappearance of the Christ and tend to a more rapid spreading of the news of His coming and the contents of His message.
Today, when He comes, He will find a world uniquely free from the grip and hold of ecclesiasticism; when He came before, Palestine was held in the vicious grasp of the Jewish religious leaders, and the Pharisees and the Sadducees were to the people of that land what the potentates of the church are to the people in the world today. But - there has been a useful and wholesome swing away from Churchianity and from orthodox religion during the past century, and this will present a unique opportunity for the restoration of true religion and the presentation of a simple return to the ways of spiritual living. The priests, the Levites, the Pharisees and the Sadducees were not the ones who recognized Him when He came before. They feared Him. And it is highly improbable that the reactionary churchmen will be the ones to recognize Him today. He may reappear in a totally unexpected guise; who is to say whether He will come as a politician, an economist, a leader of the people (arising from the midst of them), a scientist or an artist?
It is fallacy to believe, as some do, that the main trend of Christ's work will be through the medium of the churches or the world religions. He necessarily will work through them when conditions permit and there is a living nucleus of true spirituality within them, or when their invocative appeal is potent enough to reach Him. He will use all possible channels whereby the consciousness of man may be enlarged and right orientation be brought about. It is, however, truer to say that it is as World Teacher that He will consistently work, and that the churches are but one of the teaching avenues He will employ. All that enlightens the minds of men, all propaganda that tends to bring about right human relations, all modes of acquiring real knowledge, all methods of transmuting knowledge into wisdom and understanding, all that expands the consciousness of humanity and of all subhuman states of awareness and sensitivity, all that dispels glamour and illusion and that disrupts crystallization and disturbs static conditions will come under the realistic activities of the Hierarchy which He supervises. He will be limited by the quality and the caliber of the invocative appeal of humanity and that, in its turn, is conditioned by the attained point in evolution.
In the Middle Ages of history and earlier, it was the churches and the schools of philosophy which provided the major avenues for His subjective activity, but it will not be so when He is objectively and actually here. This is a point which the churches and organized religions would do well to remember. There is now a shift of His emphasis and attention into two new fields of endeavor; first, into the field of world-wide education and secondly, into the sphere of implementing intelligently those activities which come under the department of government in its three aspects of statesmanship, of politics and of legislation. The common people are today awakening to the importance and responsibility of government; it is, therefore, realized by the Hierarchy that before the cycle of true democracy (as it essentially exists and will eventually demonstrate) can come into being, the education of the masses in cooperative statesmanship, in economic stabilization through right sharing, and in clean, political interplay is imperatively necessary. The long divorce between religion and politics must be ended and this can now come about because of the high level of the human mass intelligence and the fact that science has made all men so close that what happens in some remote area of the earth's surface is a matter of general interest within a few minutes. This makes it uniquely possible for Him to work in the future.
The development of spiritual recognition is the great need today in preparation for His reappearance; no one knows in what nation He will come; He may appear as an Englishman, a Russian, a Negro, a Latin, a Turk, a Hindu, or any other nationality. Who can say which? He may be a Christian or a Hindu by faith, a Buddhist or of no particular faith at all; He will not come as the restorer of any of the ancient religions, including Christianity; but He will come to restore man's faith in the Father's love, in the fact of the livingness of the Christ and in the close, subjective and unbreakable relationship of all men everywhere. The facilities of the entire world of contact and relation will be at His disposal that will be part of the uniqueness of His opportunity and-for this He too must prepare.
Anther unique factor which will distinguish His coming will be not only the general expectancy but also the fact that much is today known and taught about the Kingdom of God, or the Spiritual Hierarchy of the planet. Everywhere, in all countries, there are thousands who are interested in the fact that Hierarchy, who believe in the Masters of the Wisdom, the disciples of the Christ, and who will not be surprised when this group of Sons of God, surrounding their great Leader, the Christ, makes its appearance on Earth. The churches in all countries have familiarized the public with the phrase "the Kingdom of God"; the esotericists and occultists everywhere have publicized the fact of the Hierarchy during the past century; the spiritualists have laid the emphasis upon the aliveness of those who have passed over into the hidden world of being, and their Guides have also borne testimony to the existence of an inner, spiritual world. All this creates a unique preparedness which presents the Christ with unique opportunities and unique problems. All these spiritual forces and many others, both within and without the world religions and the philosophical and humanitarian groups, are working at this time under direction, are closely related and their activities most intimately synchronized. They are all working together (even if this is not physically apparent) because in the human family there are those at every stage of responsiveness. The forces of regeneration, of reconstruction, of restoration and of resurrection are making their presence felt in all the many groups which are seeking to aid and lift humanity, to rebuild the world, to restore stability and the sense of security and thus (consciously or unconsciously) prepare the way for the coming of the Christ.
There is also a unique revival of the ancient teaching of the Buddha and it is penetrating into the Western countries and finding devoted adherents in every land. The Buddha is the symbol of enlightenment and there is everywhere today unique emphasis upon light. Countless millions down the ages have recognized the Buddha as the Light Bearer from on high. His Four Noble Truths exposed the causes of human trouble and pointed to the cure. He taught: Cease to identify yourselves with material things or with your desires; gain a proper sense of value; cease regarding possessions and earthly existence as of major importance; follow the Noble Eightfold Path which is the Path of right relations - right relations to God, and right relations to your fellowmen - and thus be happy. The steps on this Path are:
This message is uniquely needed today in a world in which most of these right steps to happiness have been consistently ignored. It is on the foundation of this teaching that Christ will raise the superstructure of the brotherhood of man, for right human relations are an expression of the love of God; they will constitute man's major and next demonstration of divinity. Today, in the midst of this devastated, chaotic and unhappy world, mankind has a fresh opportunity to reject selfish materialistic living and to begin to tread the Lighted Way. The moment that humanity shows its willingness to do this, then the Christ will come, and there is every evidence at this time that men are learning this lesson and making their first faltering steps along that Lighted Way of right relationships.
Right Values, Right Aspiration,
Right speech. Right Conduct.
Right Modes of Living. Right Effort.
Right Thinking. Right Rapture or Happiness
The present time is unique in that it is (as never before) a cycle or period of conferences - communal, national and international - and of men getting together. Clubs, forums, committees, conferences and leagues are forming everywhere for the discussion and study of human welfare and liberation; this phenomenon is one of the strongest indications that at the Christ is on His way. He is the embodiment of freedom, and the Messenger of Liberation. He stimulates the group spirit and the group consciousness, and His spiritual energy is the attractive force, binding men together for the common good. His reappearance will knit and bind together all men and women of goodwill throughout the world, irrespective of religion or nationality. His coming will evoke among men a widespread and mutual recognition of the good in all. This is part of the uniqueness of His coming and for it we are already preparing. A study of the daily press will prove this. It is stye invocative appeal of the many groups working on behalf of humanity (consciously or unconsciously made) which will bring Him forth. Those who carry out this great act of invocation are the spiritually minded people, the enlightened statesmen, the religious leaders and the men and women whose hearts are full of goodwill. They will evoke Him if they can stand with massed intent, with hope and with expectancy. This preparatory work must be focussed through and implemented by the world intelligentsia and leading lovers of humanity, by groups dedicated to human betterment and by representative unselfish people. The success of the effort now being planned by Christ and the spiritual Hierarchy is dependent upon the ability of mankind to use what light it already has in order to establish right relations in their families, their community, in their nation and in the world.
There is, therefore, this unique difference between the expected coming of the Christ and the time when He came before; the world is full of groups working for human welfare. This effort, in the light of past aeons of human history, is a relatively new thing and for it the Christ must prepare and with this trend He will have to work. The "cycle of conferences" which is now swinging into full tide is part of the unique condition with which the Christ is faced.
Before, however, Christ could come with His disciples, our present civilization had to die. During the coming century, we shall begin to learn the meaning of the word "resurrection," and the new age will begin to reveal its deep purpose and intention. The first step will be the emergence of humanity from the death of it civilization, of its old ideas and modes of living, the relinquishing of its materialistic goals and its damning selfishness, and its moving forward into the clear light of the resurrection. These are not symbolical or mystical words but part of the general setting which will surround the period of Christ's reappearance; it is a cycle as real as the cycle of conferences now so busily organizing. Christ taught us when he came before the true meaning of Renunciation or of the Crucifixion; this time His message will be concerned with the resurrection life. The present cycle of conferences is preparing men everywhere for relationships, even though today they may seem widely divergent in nature; the important factor is the general human interest and thought about establishing the need, the objectives involved, the means to be employed. The resurrection period which the Christ will inaugurate and which will constitute His unique work - within which all His other activities will be the outcome of the fermentation and germination going on in the world of men at this time, of which the many conferences are the outer evidence.
It was these various unique conditions which the Christ faced during the years of war when the need of humanity forced Him to decide to hasten His coming. The unhappy state of the world as the result of centuries of selfishness and of the world war, the unique sensitivity which men everywhere are showing (as a result of the evolutionary process), the unique spread of knowledge about the spiritual Hierarchy and the unique development of group consciousness, showing itself on every hand in the multiplicity of conferences, confronted Christ with His unique occasion and present Him with decision which He could not avoid.
Reverently we might say that in this "occasion" of the Christ's, two facts were involved and that both of them are difficult for man to understand.
The fact of the synchronization of His will with that of the Father - and -
The fact that this synchronization led to a basic decision, must be recognized by us.
It is not easy for the average Christian to realize that the Christ passes on steadily to increasingly potent experiences, and that in His divine experience is nothing static or permanent - except His unalterable love for humanity.
A close study of the Gospel story, unimpeded by orthodox interpretations, reveals certain things. The usual interpretations, if men would but recognize them in their true meaning, are simply some man's understanding of a series of Aramaic, Greek or Latin words. The fact that a majority of accepted commentators lived many hundreds of years ago seems to have given such words a totally unwarranted value. The words of a commentator or of an interpreter today are apparently of no value in comparison with those of ancient date; yet the modern commentator is probably more intelligent and better educated than the ancient one had, also, the benefit of the many recognized translations and a precise science. we are suffering theologically from the ignorance of the past, it is a peculiar thing that an ancient commentator is supposed to carry greater weight than the modern, more educated and intelligent man. If The New Testament is true in its presentation of the Christ, if it is also true in its repetition of His words, that we can do "greater things" than He did, and if it is true in that He told us to "be perfect even as our Father in Heaven is perfect," what is there wrong in our recognizing the capacity of a human being to keep pace with the mind of Christ and to know what He intends us to know? Christ said that "if any man will do the will of God, he shall know"; that was how the Christ Himself learnt and that is the mode He assures us will be successful for each of us.
It was the dawning of this significance of the will of God upon the consciousness of the Christ which led Him to certain great decisions, and which forced Him to cry out: "Father, not my will but Thine be done." These words definitely indicate conflict and do not indicate the synchronization of the two wills; they indicate the determination on the part of the Christ that there should be no opposition between His will and that of God. Suddenly, He received a vision of the emerging, divine intention for humanity and - through humanity - for the planet as a whole. At the particular stage of spiritual development which Christ had then attained and which had made Him the Head of the spiritual Hierarchy, the One who engineered the emergence of the Kingdom of God and established Him as the Master of all the Masters and the Teacher of angels and of men, His consciousness was absolutely at one with the divine Plan; its application on Earth and its goal of establishing the Kingdom of God and the appearance of the fifth kingdom in nature was simply for Him the fulfilling of the law and to that fulfillment His entire life was and had been geared.
The Plan, its goal, its techniques and its laws, its energy (that of love) and the close and growing relation between the spiritual Hierarchy and humanity were known to him, and fully understood. At the highest point of this consummated knowledge and at the moment of His complete surrender to the necessary sacrifice of His life to the fulfilling of this Plan, suddenly a great expansion of consciousness took place. The significance, the intention, the purpose of it all, and the comprehensive divine Idea (as it existed in the mind of the Father) dawned upon His soul - not on His mind, for the revelation was far greater than that. He saw still further into the meaning of divinity than had ever before seemed possible; the world of meaning and the world of phenomena faded out and -esoterically speaking - He lost His all. For the time being, neither the energy of the creative mind nor the energy of love were left to Him. He was bereft of all that had made life bearable and full of meaning. A new type of energy became available - the energy of life itself, imbued with purpose and actuated by intention. But it was new and unknown and hitherto unrealized. For the first time, the relation of the will which had hitherto expressed itself in his life through love and the creative work of inaugurating the new dispensation became clear to Him. At this point, He passed through the gethsemane of renunciation. The greater, the larger and the more inclusive was revealed to Him and all that hitherto seemed so vital and important was lost to sight in the greater vision. It is this living realization of Being and of identification with the divine intention of God Himself, the Father, the Lord of the World upon levels of awareness of which we know nothing ( as yet) which constituted the unfolding awareness of the Christ upon the Way of the Higher Evolution. This Way He treads today and He began to tread it in Palestine two thousand years ago. He knew, in a sense hitherto unknown to Him, what God intended and what human destiny meant, and the part that He had to play in the working out of that destiny. We have paid little attention down the centuries of human thinking to Christ's reaction to His own destiny, as it affected the human. We have paid small attention to the aspect of His reaction to knowledge, as it unfolded itself to Him. We have been selfish and grasping in our reaction to His work and sacrifice.
The words to "know" (in relation to the initiate-consciousness of the Christ and of still lesser initiates) concerns the certainty of the knowledge the initiate has gained through experiment, experience and expression. The first faint tremor of reaction of monadic "destiny" and to the widespread universal influence a Son of God can exert makes itself felt in the consciousness of all those who obey His injunction and arrive at the perfection which He pointed out as possible. The highest divine quality or aspect now makes itself felt in the life of the progressing Son of God; He knows the meaning of intelligence; He realizes the significance of love and its attractive quality. Now-because of these two recognitions - He becomes aware of the potency of will and of the reality of the divine intention which that will must (at any cost) implement. This was the major crisis of the Christ.
There are in the Gospel story (as testimony to this divinely progressing unfoldment) four recorded moments where this universal or monadic realization showed itself. Let us look at each one of them for a moment:
1. There is, first of all, His statement to His parents in the Temple, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"
We should note here that He was twelve (12) years old at the time and, therefore, the work with which He had been occupied (as a Soul) was finished; twelve is the number of completed work as witness the twelve labors of Hercules, another Son of God (Elohim of the First Ray - mf) The symbolism of His twelve years is now replaced by that of the twelve apostles, the symbol of service and sacrifice. (The number 12 is also the number of crucifixion and sacrifice - mf) He was also in the Temple of Solomon, which is the symbol of the perfect life of the soul, just as the Tabernacle in the wilderness is the symbol of the imperfect ephemeral life of the transient personality; Christ was, therefore, speaking on soul levels and not only as the spiritual man on Earth. He was also serving, when He spoke these words, as a working member of the Spiritual Hierarchy, for He was found by His parents teaching the priests, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These points all indicate His recognition of His work, as a World Teacher, becoming conscious, for the first time in His physical brain, of divine intention or of the divine will.
2. Next come His statement to His disciples" "I must go up to Jerusalem," after which we read that He "steadfastly set His face to go" to that city. This was the intimation to them that He now had a new objective. The only place of complete "peace" (which is the meaning of the name "Jerusalem") is the "center where the will of God is known." The spiritual Hierarchy of our planet (the invisible Church of Christ) is not a center of peace but a very VORTEX of loving activity, the meeting place of energies coming from the center of the divine will, and from humanity, the center of divine intelligence. Christ had oriented Himself to that divine center which has, in the ancient Scriptures, been called the "place of serene determination and of poised, quiescent will." This statement marked a point of crisis and of determination in the life of Christ, and proved His progress towards divine fulfillment.
3. Then in the Garden of Gethsemane He said "Father, not My will but Thine be done," thus indicating His realization of divine destiny. The meaning of these words is not (as is so often stated by christian theologians) a statement of acceptance of pain and of an unpleasant future and of death. It was an exclamation, evoked surely by His realization of the universal implications of His mission and the intense focussing of His life in a universal sense. The Gethsemane experience was an experience uniquely possible only to those Sons of God Who have reached His rare point in evolution; it had no real relation to the Crucifixion episode, as the orthodox commentators emphasize.
4. The final words of the Christ to His apostles were,"Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the age" or cycle "sun-teleia," which means the end of the time period, with another immediately following after (what would be called the end of a cycle). In Greek the final end is another word "telos." In Matt.24.6, "but the end is not yet," the other word telos is used for it means "the end of the first period has not yet been reached." here He was speaking as the Head of the spiritual Hierarchy and expressing His divine will (at-one now with the will of God) to inform and pervade continuously the world of men with His overshadowing consciousness. It was a tremendous affirmation, sent forth upon the energy of His developed will, His all-inclusive love and His intelligent mind. This affirmation has made all things possible.
It was also to the magnetic power of the will that Christ referred when He said, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." This had no reference to the crucifixion but to the magnetic will of the Christ to draw all men, through the life of the indwelling Christ in every heart, out of the world of material values into the world of spiritual recognition.. It did no relate to death but to life; it had no reference to the cross but to the resurrection. In the past, the keynote of the Christian religion has been death, symbolized for us in the death of Christ and much distorted by St. Paul in his effort to blend the new religion which Christ brought with the old blood religion of the Jews. In the cycle which Christ will inaugurate after His reappearance, the goal of all the religious teaching in the world will be the resurrection of the spirit in mankind; the emphasis will be upon the livingness of the Christ nature in every human being and upon the use of the will in bringing about this living transfiguration of the lower nature. The proof of it will be the risen Christ. This "Way of Resurrection" is the radiant Way, the lighted Way which leads from one great expression of divinity in man to another; it is the way which expresses the light of the intelligence, the radiant substance of true love, and the inflexible will which permits of no defeat or withdrawal. These are the characteristic which will be declarative of the Kingdom of God.
End of Lesson 3- Chapter Two-The Reappearance of the Christ - 3/15/2015
This message is uniquely needed today in a world in which most of these right steps to happiness have been consistently ignored. It is on the foundation of this teaching that Christ will raise the superstructure of the brotherhood of man, for right human relations are an expression of the love of God; they will constitute man's major and next demonstration of divinity. Today, in the midst of this devastated, chaotic and unhappy world, mankind has a fresh opportunity to reject selfish materialistic living and to begin to tread the Lighted Way. The moment that humanity shows its willingness to do this, then the Christ will come, and there is every evidence at this time that men are learning this lesson and making their first faltering steps along that Lighted Way of right relationships.
Right Values, Right Aspiration,
Right speech. Right Conduct.
Right Modes of Living. Right Effort.
Right Thinking. Right Rapture or Happiness
The present time is unique in that it is (as never before) a cycle or period of conferences - communal, national and international - and of men getting together. Clubs, forums, committees, conferences and leagues are forming everywhere for the discussion and study of human welfare and liberation; this phenomenon is one of the strongest indications that at the Christ is on His way. He is the embodiment of freedom, and the Messenger of Liberation. He stimulates the group spirit and the group consciousness, and His spiritual energy is the attractive force, binding men together for the common good. His reappearance will knit and bind together all men and women of goodwill throughout the world, irrespective of religion or nationality. His coming will evoke among men a widespread and mutual recognition of the good in all. This is part of the uniqueness of His coming and for it we are already preparing. A study of the daily press will prove this. It is stye invocative appeal of the many groups working on behalf of humanity (consciously or unconsciously made) which will bring Him forth. Those who carry out this great act of invocation are the spiritually minded people, the enlightened statesmen, the religious leaders and the men and women whose hearts are full of goodwill. They will evoke Him if they can stand with massed intent, with hope and with expectancy. This preparatory work must be focussed through and implemented by the world intelligentsia and leading lovers of humanity, by groups dedicated to human betterment and by representative unselfish people. The success of the effort now being planned by Christ and the spiritual Hierarchy is dependent upon the ability of mankind to use what light it already has in order to establish right relations in their families, their community, in their nation and in the world.
There is, therefore, this unique difference between the expected coming of the Christ and the time when He came before; the world is full of groups working for human welfare. This effort, in the light of past aeons of human history, is a relatively new thing and for it the Christ must prepare and with this trend He will have to work. The "cycle of conferences" which is now swinging into full tide is part of the unique condition with which the Christ is faced.
Before, however, Christ could come with His disciples, our present civilization had to die. During the coming century, we shall begin to learn the meaning of the word "resurrection," and the new age will begin to reveal its deep purpose and intention. The first step will be the emergence of humanity from the death of it civilization, of its old ideas and modes of living, the relinquishing of its materialistic goals and its damning selfishness, and its moving forward into the clear light of the resurrection. These are not symbolical or mystical words but part of the general setting which will surround the period of Christ's reappearance; it is a cycle as real as the cycle of conferences now so busily organizing. Christ taught us when he came before the true meaning of Renunciation or of the Crucifixion; this time His message will be concerned with the resurrection life. The present cycle of conferences is preparing men everywhere for relationships, even though today they may seem widely divergent in nature; the important factor is the general human interest and thought about establishing the need, the objectives involved, the means to be employed. The resurrection period which the Christ will inaugurate and which will constitute His unique work - within which all His other activities will be the outcome of the fermentation and germination going on in the world of men at this time, of which the many conferences are the outer evidence.
It was these various unique conditions which the Christ faced during the years of war when the need of humanity forced Him to decide to hasten His coming. The unhappy state of the world as the result of centuries of selfishness and of the world war, the unique sensitivity which men everywhere are showing (as a result of the evolutionary process), the unique spread of knowledge about the spiritual Hierarchy and the unique development of group consciousness, showing itself on every hand in the multiplicity of conferences, confronted Christ with His unique occasion and present Him with decision which He could not avoid.
Reverently we might say that in this "occasion" of the Christ's, two facts were involved and that both of them are difficult for man to understand.
The fact of the synchronization of His will with that of the Father - and -
The fact that this synchronization led to a basic decision, must be recognized by us.
It is not easy for the average Christian to realize that the Christ passes on steadily to increasingly potent experiences, and that in His divine experience is nothing static or permanent - except His unalterable love for humanity.
A close study of the Gospel story, unimpeded by orthodox interpretations, reveals certain things. The usual interpretations, if men would but recognize them in their true meaning, are simply some man's understanding of a series of Aramaic, Greek or Latin words. The fact that a majority of accepted commentators lived many hundreds of years ago seems to have given such words a totally unwarranted value. The words of a commentator or of an interpreter today are apparently of no value in comparison with those of ancient date; yet the modern commentator is probably more intelligent and better educated than the ancient one had, also, the benefit of the many recognized translations and a precise science. we are suffering theologically from the ignorance of the past, it is a peculiar thing that an ancient commentator is supposed to carry greater weight than the modern, more educated and intelligent man. If The New Testament is true in its presentation of the Christ, if it is also true in its repetition of His words, that we can do "greater things" than He did, and if it is true in that He told us to "be perfect even as our Father in Heaven is perfect," what is there wrong in our recognizing the capacity of a human being to keep pace with the mind of Christ and to know what He intends us to know? Christ said that "if any man will do the will of God, he shall know"; that was how the Christ Himself learnt and that is the mode He assures us will be successful for each of us.
It was the dawning of this significance of the will of God upon the consciousness of the Christ which led Him to certain great decisions, and which forced Him to cry out: "Father, not my will but Thine be done." These words definitely indicate conflict and do not indicate the synchronization of the two wills; they indicate the determination on the part of the Christ that there should be no opposition between His will and that of God. Suddenly, He received a vision of the emerging, divine intention for humanity and - through humanity - for the planet as a whole. At the particular stage of spiritual development which Christ had then attained and which had made Him the Head of the spiritual Hierarchy, the One who engineered the emergence of the Kingdom of God and established Him as the Master of all the Masters and the Teacher of angels and of men, His consciousness was absolutely at one with the divine Plan; its application on Earth and its goal of establishing the Kingdom of God and the appearance of the fifth kingdom in nature was simply for Him the fulfilling of the law and to that fulfillment His entire life was and had been geared.
The Plan, its goal, its techniques and its laws, its energy (that of love) and the close and growing relation between the spiritual Hierarchy and humanity were known to him, and fully understood. At the highest point of this consummated knowledge and at the moment of His complete surrender to the necessary sacrifice of His life to the fulfilling of this Plan, suddenly a great expansion of consciousness took place. The significance, the intention, the purpose of it all, and the comprehensive divine Idea (as it existed in the mind of the Father) dawned upon His soul - not on His mind, for the revelation was far greater than that. He saw still further into the meaning of divinity than had ever before seemed possible; the world of meaning and the world of phenomena faded out and -esoterically speaking - He lost His all. For the time being, neither the energy of the creative mind nor the energy of love were left to Him. He was bereft of all that had made life bearable and full of meaning. A new type of energy became available - the energy of life itself, imbued with purpose and actuated by intention. But it was new and unknown and hitherto unrealized. For the first time, the relation of the will which had hitherto expressed itself in his life through love and the creative work of inaugurating the new dispensation became clear to Him. At this point, He passed through the gethsemane of renunciation. The greater, the larger and the more inclusive was revealed to Him and all that hitherto seemed so vital and important was lost to sight in the greater vision. It is this living realization of Being and of identification with the divine intention of God Himself, the Father, the Lord of the World upon levels of awareness of which we know nothing ( as yet) which constituted the unfolding awareness of the Christ upon the Way of the Higher Evolution. This Way He treads today and He began to tread it in Palestine two thousand years ago. He knew, in a sense hitherto unknown to Him, what God intended and what human destiny meant, and the part that He had to play in the working out of that destiny. We have paid little attention down the centuries of human thinking to Christ's reaction to His own destiny, as it affected the human. We have paid small attention to the aspect of His reaction to knowledge, as it unfolded itself to Him. We have been selfish and grasping in our reaction to His work and sacrifice.
The words to "know" (in relation to the initiate-consciousness of the Christ and of still lesser initiates) concerns the certainty of the knowledge the initiate has gained through experiment, experience and expression. The first faint tremor of reaction of monadic "destiny" and to the widespread universal influence a Son of God can exert makes itself felt in the consciousness of all those who obey His injunction and arrive at the perfection which He pointed out as possible. The highest divine quality or aspect now makes itself felt in the life of the progressing Son of God; He knows the meaning of intelligence; He realizes the significance of love and its attractive quality. Now-because of these two recognitions - He becomes aware of the potency of will and of the reality of the divine intention which that will must (at any cost) implement. This was the major crisis of the Christ.
There are in the Gospel story (as testimony to this divinely progressing unfoldment) four recorded moments where this universal or monadic realization showed itself. Let us look at each one of them for a moment:
1. There is, first of all, His statement to His parents in the Temple, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"
We should note here that He was twelve (12) years old at the time and, therefore, the work with which He had been occupied (as a Soul) was finished; twelve is the number of completed work as witness the twelve labors of Hercules, another Son of God (Elohim of the First Ray - mf) The symbolism of His twelve years is now replaced by that of the twelve apostles, the symbol of service and sacrifice. (The number 12 is also the number of crucifixion and sacrifice - mf) He was also in the Temple of Solomon, which is the symbol of the perfect life of the soul, just as the Tabernacle in the wilderness is the symbol of the imperfect ephemeral life of the transient personality; Christ was, therefore, speaking on soul levels and not only as the spiritual man on Earth. He was also serving, when He spoke these words, as a working member of the Spiritual Hierarchy, for He was found by His parents teaching the priests, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. These points all indicate His recognition of His work, as a World Teacher, becoming conscious, for the first time in His physical brain, of divine intention or of the divine will.
2. Next come His statement to His disciples" "I must go up to Jerusalem," after which we read that He "steadfastly set His face to go" to that city. This was the intimation to them that He now had a new objective. The only place of complete "peace" (which is the meaning of the name "Jerusalem") is the "center where the will of God is known." The spiritual Hierarchy of our planet (the invisible Church of Christ) is not a center of peace but a very VORTEX of loving activity, the meeting place of energies coming from the center of the divine will, and from humanity, the center of divine intelligence. Christ had oriented Himself to that divine center which has, in the ancient Scriptures, been called the "place of serene determination and of poised, quiescent will." This statement marked a point of crisis and of determination in the life of Christ, and proved His progress towards divine fulfillment.
3. Then in the Garden of Gethsemane He said "Father, not My will but Thine be done," thus indicating His realization of divine destiny. The meaning of these words is not (as is so often stated by christian theologians) a statement of acceptance of pain and of an unpleasant future and of death. It was an exclamation, evoked surely by His realization of the universal implications of His mission and the intense focussing of His life in a universal sense. The Gethsemane experience was an experience uniquely possible only to those Sons of God Who have reached His rare point in evolution; it had no real relation to the Crucifixion episode, as the orthodox commentators emphasize.
4. The final words of the Christ to His apostles were,"Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the age" or cycle "sun-teleia," which means the end of the time period, with another immediately following after (what would be called the end of a cycle). In Greek the final end is another word "telos." In Matt.24.6, "but the end is not yet," the other word telos is used for it means "the end of the first period has not yet been reached." here He was speaking as the Head of the spiritual Hierarchy and expressing His divine will (at-one now with the will of God) to inform and pervade continuously the world of men with His overshadowing consciousness. It was a tremendous affirmation, sent forth upon the energy of His developed will, His all-inclusive love and His intelligent mind. This affirmation has made all things possible.
It was also to the magnetic power of the will that Christ referred when He said, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." This had no reference to the crucifixion but to the magnetic will of the Christ to draw all men, through the life of the indwelling Christ in every heart, out of the world of material values into the world of spiritual recognition.. It did no relate to death but to life; it had no reference to the cross but to the resurrection. In the past, the keynote of the Christian religion has been death, symbolized for us in the death of Christ and much distorted by St. Paul in his effort to blend the new religion which Christ brought with the old blood religion of the Jews. In the cycle which Christ will inaugurate after His reappearance, the goal of all the religious teaching in the world will be the resurrection of the spirit in mankind; the emphasis will be upon the livingness of the Christ nature in every human being and upon the use of the will in bringing about this living transfiguration of the lower nature. The proof of it will be the risen Christ. This "Way of Resurrection" is the radiant Way, the lighted Way which leads from one great expression of divinity in man to another; it is the way which expresses the light of the intelligence, the radiant substance of true love, and the inflexible will which permits of no defeat or withdrawal. These are the characteristic which will be declarative of the Kingdom of God.
End of Lesson 3- Chapter Two-The Reappearance of the Christ - 3/15/2015
