As we enter this second week of the Advent Season, peace is our thematic focus. In Unity, Advent symbolizes an “inner search of mind and heart” in order to connect with and express our own Christ potential. During Advent, we are not only acknowledging and celebrating the birth of Christ into the world, but also the birth, and ongoing rebirth, of the Christ within the consciousness of our own being.
Advent reminds us to nurture a sense of expectancy for the “coming” of the Christ into not only our own consciousness, but also into the consciousness of all of humankind. Unity’s co-founder Charles Fillmore taught that the “second coming” is “here right now.” It is not out there, at some future point in time, but ever present in this eternal, now moment. A Course In Miracles similarly teaches that the “holy instant,” which is always present, is “the time of Christ.” In this sense, the “second coming” is always coming. The “time of Christ” is always now.
Awakening to the Christ Is Ongoing
The moment is always at hand to awaken to our own Christ potential. This is not a one-time event, but rather an ongoing process. We are, in effect, forever awakening to our Christ potential. For this reason, a seasonal “advent” is useful as a practical reminder to remain vigilant for the “awakening Christ” within each one of us, for it is ever present in every moment.
In every single moment, there is forever the potential for you and me to awaken, or reawaken, to our own Christ potential. This is not something we do or experience for one time only. Connecting with and expressing the Christ we are requires us to cultivate a sense of expectancy in consciousness and a readiness to allow the “vision of Christ” to lead the way in all of our ways throughout all of our days.
The Vision of Christ
In this ongoing pursuit to express the Christ we are, we have been given many useful teaching aids along the way. One of the most profound in my own experience has been A Course In Miracles (ACIM). The entirety of ACIM has but one goal in mind: peace. Specifically, ACIM intends to be a “correction” that facilitates the experience of your personal peace. To achieve that end, ACIM teaches the necessity of relying on the expansive truth of “Christ’s vision” to supplant our own limited and faulty errors in perception, grounded in our physical senses. It is a choice between reliance on physical sight or spiritual vision.
“There is a peace that Christ bestows on us.” – ACIM, Lesson 305
In Lesson 305, ACIM states: “Who uses but Christ’s vision finds a peace so deep and quiet, undisturbable and wholly changeless, that the world contains no counterpart.” There is literally nothing in the world that compares to the peace to be experienced when the “vision of Christ” is all we are willing to see. This applies both to when we look within and when we look without.
Peace, Love & the Christ Vision
“Christ vision” is purely grounded and sourced in God’s Love. Where love is, there also is peace. In this way, where the “Christ vision” is allowed to lead, peace is inevitable. In effect, the vision of Christ is peace. Love is the creative power that nurtures the vision into expression. Without the creative power of God’s Love, peace is wholly impossible. In reality, without God’s Love, nothing is possible.
John 3:16 famously states: “God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believed in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” God’s “only begotten” is the Christ. The same Christ that was in Jesus is also in you and me. So we could restate John 3:16 to say: God so loves you that he gave you the Christ. If you believe in the Christ you have been given, you will not perish and will have eternal life.
Don’t know about you, but that idea brings me peace. So in this Advent Season, make a resolution to yourself to not only celebrate the birth of Jesus, or the Christ, into the world. Resolve also to celebrate and nurture the ongoing birth and rebirth of the Christ in you. Acknowledge that gift for the miracle it is. Honor the creative power of God’s Love that gave it to you, and feel the emergence of the peace of Christ that passes all understanding from deep within your own being. I can’t think of a better gift to either give or receive.
Peace…
