What is Christ?

. . . and why wait to remember what you know?

It is hard to have a non-discursive relationship with Jesus. We tend to contextualize him in very concrete ways - a man who lived this way in this time and place, who died this way in this time and place, whose followers canonized that life and death in scripture and ritual. Theology arises from history and text, which together arise from the body of Christ, which was Jesus.

I am not saying that is wrong. I am saying it is one way and that there are others.

A Course in Miracles makes a nontrivial claim to be a contemporary teaching given by Jesus to Helen Schucman, in relationship with Bill Thetford and Ken Wapnick, and subsequently extended publicly to us.

Take this characterization or leave it! Either way, the Course does not emphasize a relationship with Jesus that is constrained by time and space, much less by actual bodies.

Instead, it offers us a collaborative relationship with the Spirit that was in Jesus, which transformed him in ways that transcend the limitations of time and space and bodies.

I have assured you that the Mind that decided for me is also in you, and that you can let it change you just as it changed me. This Mind is unequivocal because it hears only one Voice and answers in only one way (T-5.II.10:1-2).

Notice here that Jesus did not decide - the Mind did. And notice too that the positive change he references comes as an effect of "letting" the Mind change us. We are not in charge of salvation which, as the Manual for Teachers makes clear, is hard for us to contemplate, let alone accept (M-9.2:4).

The world's training is directed towards achieving a goal in direct opposition to that of our curriculum. The world trains for reliance on one's judgment as the criterion for maturity and strength. Our curriculum trains for the relinquishment of judgment as the necessary condition of salvation (M-9.2:5-7).

We trust ourselves. We take our thoughts seriously. We find our judgment persuasive. We tell the neighbor to turn the music down, we tell the co-worker they need to deal with their anger issues, we turn away from our family of origin. What do we know really?

The point is not that we are wrong; the point is that we do not know. We do not know but we think we do. And we act accordingly.

If we look at our behavior - if we look at the world our behavior brings forth - it is clear that our self-confidence is misplaced. It is clear that our judgment is not the reliable narrator we pretend it is.

It is clear that we need another way.

One of the suggestions I make - and I make it gently because it's an intution, not an argument - is that Jesus, however you define or relate to him, looking around and looked within and also came to the realization that another way was needed.

And that other way was given.

If we track A Course in Miracles as our spiritual path and practice, then the other way is forgiveness. But not forgiveness as a practice of correction or updating. Not forgiveness as rising above the other's apparent malfeasance or being the bigger person or whatever.

Rather, a practice of forgetting grievances altogether. The mind that forgives, ACIM-style, does not hold onto harm at all because it literally does not see harm. It does not know harm.

And thus, there is no harm.

In other words, forgiveness is the practice of a mind that has chosen to remember perfectly that what is real cannot be threatened and that nothing unreal exists (T-in.2:2-3).

The miracle but shows the past is gone, and what has truly gone has no effects. Remembering a cause can but produce illusions of its presence, not effects (T-28.I.1:8-9).

Forgiveness recognizes that fear is merely an effect of mistaking what is an illusion for what is real. This recognition is the basis for choosing again, which is another way of saying - as Jesus does in the Course - to let the Holy Spirit decide for us.

And thus are miracles as natural as fear and agony appeared to be before the choice for holiness was made. For in that choice are false distinctions gone, illusory alternative laid by, and nothing left to interfere with truth (T-31.VIII.5:6-7).

This peace - this holiness, this strength, this creativity - is given to us whenever we choose to listen to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks for the Mind that was in Jesus because it knows that Mind is in us as well. It knows that the transformation of fear into Love is not made in a body - Jesus's or anybody else's. As the Manual for Teachers observes with respect to changes in the lives of God’s teachers: “changes are required in the minds of God’s teachers” (M-9.1:1).

This transformation is deeper than individual thought. It is not personal. It is not concerned about effects. It knows the difference between a symptom and its cause, and it knows that true healing undoes the cause of illness. It does not just shuffle the various symptoms around and call it salvation.

Our connection to Jesus is not physical or mental. It is spiritual in a very literal sense. The invitation A Course in Miracles makes is to remember this spiritual connection and bring it into application. The context is not critical - we are not Jewish peasants in antiquity. Imperial legions are not going to crucify us for feeding the poor and criticizing religious and social conventions.

But we are here together. We are hurting together. We are in need of help together. And the help is given. If you are still and quiet, if you open your mind to the Voice for God and Love, then you will remember something true about yourself - something you can use in the world that is not of the world. And healing is always the sure result.

What is that something? I cannot answer that question for you - nobody can. But I can suggest that the answer lies less in your relationship with Jesus as such, and more in your understanding of what it means to be Christ or, more specifically, to "put on Christ" as Saint Paul said.

Therefore a question: what is Christ? How do you know?

And perhaps more to the point, what are we - together - waiting for?

Love,
Sean