06.02.06
Christmas - Part I (Nov 21, 1997)
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Notes from a talk given by Linda and James Hale Nov. 21, 1997
Contents
- Christmas–Traditional view
- A Reinterpretation
- Where is the Christ?
- Jesus as an idol.
- Rebirth–The Birth of the Christ
- Jesus’ Special Function
The quotations from the Course are given in the second edition format. We have presented only the first few words of the relevant quotes and request that you look them up to read them in full as we do consider them very important.
Christmas–Traditional view
Christmas is one of the three most important festivals in the Christian calendar, the other two being Easter and Epiphany. It is, in this context, the celebration of the birth of Christ, or “Christ’s Mass”. Historically it has been observed in Rome since the early part of the 4th century from where it spread, eventually to the Church of Jerusalem by the middle of the 5th century. This was a time of much debate in the early church regarding dogma concerned with the reconciliation of the humanity and the divinity of Jesus–something not distinct from the celebration of the physical birth of a divine being. However our discussion is not concerned with these historic arguments but rather with the current and somewhat popular interpretation of Christmas, the hidden theology of such interpretations and the re-interpretation of Christmas as offered to us by A Course in Miracles.
We traditionally celebrate it on the 25th of December and see this as a time of goodwill and peace to all. A time of giving and receiving of gifts, of being with our family and friends. So pervasive is this that even people who are not Christian are usually drawn into the celebration or some aspect of it and its associated customs through their friends and neighbours. Although most of the traditional aspects of Christmas are not actually derived from the birth of Jesus, giving gifts for example being an adoption from the Roman festival of Saturnalia (mid December to early January), they have been thoroughly incorporated into our thinking about Christmas. Staying for a moment with the custom of giving gifts, we are immediately reminded of the thought of making sacrifice in order to give to another as a measure or indication of our love. This, you could say, is done in remembrance of the person, Jesus, whose birth we are after all celebrating, making the ultimate sacrifice of his life to pay for our sins. Both the poignancy and the irony of this interpretation has been captured in many stories and tales. One of the most famous being O Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” (1906), where two lovers each sacrifice something to buy a gift for the other, only to find their gift “worthless” because of the sacrifice of the other.
Christmas also helps establish the “specialness” or uniqueness of Jesus in relation to us and although his birth does indeed give reality to the body, the “human condition”, it is a reality that can only come from divine intervention. Jesus’s birth was for centuries believed to be the result of an immaculate conception, a rather cumbersome, device that accommodates the need to have him both divine and human. A device that was accepted without challenge from the 2nd century until the 19th century. It is still accepted within the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and most Protestant churches. It is perhaps of interest to note the virgin birth is also accepted by the Muslims. It is also a device that in many minds has contributed towards giving Mary herself a “godlike” prominence. This confronts head on the male domination of, for example, the Roman Catholic church, yet also is quite understandable, and tolerated, given the fearful place Jesus has within orthodox Christianity. A theme we shall revisit in Part II.
And so, for 2000 years, the Christian world has placed a tremendous amount of significance on the birth of a child. Many rituals and deeply held assumptions and beliefs have become inextricably bound up with the season we call Christmas. In the Course’s teaching, these mean absolutely nothing in a state which exists beyond time but, if reinterpreted and related to correctly, they can be used to lead us back to that state of timelessness.
Neither time nor season means anything in eternity…T-15.X.1:3-7
As always, the Course’s radical re-interpretation of the symbols which seem to define us is not done in the spirit of attack. Rather, we’re gently encouraged to bring our dearly held symbols to a wholly benign presence which will cleanse them of all that is not benign. The promise is that once we have reached the stage of being able to do this, we are also able to use the symbols to embrace the truth which lies beyond them. Then we will be the Truth, and no longer in need of symbols.
So, in the spirit of gently questioning every value we hold, let us turn our attention to the symbol of a birth, a birth which was especially significant because it has become a symbol of the birth of something holy into the profane. That holiness is called the Christ and is our true Self. It is not restricted to a birth some 2000 years ago but a birth much closer to “home.” The awakening of our awareness of It is like the discovery of a Child within, a Child of profound significance:
Where this Child shall go is holy ground. It is His Holiness…W-pI.182.4:5-6
These words would probably have a ring of truth to many Christians, and yet the Course is here to teach us that they can only be truly understood if we fundamentally let go many deeply held traditional religious concepts. The ways in which the Course departs from these concepts will be a continuous theme throughout our discussion.
It is the line which follows the above quote which reveals one of the most fundamental ways in which the Course departs from traditional Christian views.
It is this Child in you your Father knows as His Own Son. W-pI.182.5:1
Jesus, the person who walked this earth 2000 years ago was not the only son of God, with the rest of humanity being at best, adopted sons of God. According to the Course, we are all the equal sons of God, or to put it more accurately, we are all aspects of the One Son, the Christ, which only appear to be separate. There is only one Father and there is only one Son, the Christ, and the truth of our being is that.
Jesus debunks the traditional Christian notion that he has a special and qualitatively different relation to the Father very early in the text, which has direct implications as to the appropriate way of relating to him as a guide, teacher or “saviour.”
Equals should not be in awe of one another because awe implies… T-1.II.3:5-13
If Jesus was special in having a unique relationship to the Father, which only he could express, then our attention would necessarily need to be focused outside of ourselves and put upon this singular vessel of light and truth that he represents. He would become an indispensable link in the chain leading back to God, without which we would be lost.
The Course has a term to describe any relationship in which the parties see their salvation as existing outside themselves–a special relationship. Even a cursory understanding of traditional Christian practice will reveal that at least three of the dynamics of specialness have become inextricably bound up with the way many Christians relate to Jesus.
* Salvation is seen as lying in something other than one’s own change of mind.
* Salvation is seen outside oneself.
* Salvation is affected by separating out particular aspects of the sonship as having exclusively held attributes.
Special relationships are described by the Course as any relationship made to substitute for the awareness of one’s own eternal relationship of love to the Source of love, God. The act of substituting in this way is described as idolatry. In the Clarification of Terms Jesus speaks of himself in the third person:
Some bitter idols have been made of him who would be only brother to the world. C-5.5:7
These words can be understood to not only refer to more overt symbols of bitterness, such as the sacrifice of his body for our sins in the crucifixion but also to the whole egoic thought system in which we sacrifice our oneness with God and our brothers to make a world of idols–a world in which we seem to be separate bodies which are inherently sinful and guilty, whose only hope is the fleeting happiness sometimes found in special relationships but which eventually turn to dust. Idolatry is a theme which runs through the bible and is one that is picked up by the Course, albeit in a radically different way.
An idol is any substitute we set up to replace the truth of our reality. So in this case, the singular person of Jesus is related to as being a unique and exclusive expression of the truth–a symbol of all we are not. Further, what he has is to be somehow magically appropriated by relating to him, and only, him for without him our connection to the divine would be lost.
To make such an idol of Jesus, we need to deny who we are as God created us, which according to the Course can only be known by wholly accepting the truth of our equality and inclusiveness as an inherent part of the Christ. Equality is denied by putting Jesus on a pedestal, upon which only he is privy to the full favours of the Father; inclusiveness is denied by suggesting that the Father has degrees of relationship with His creation, some aspects being closer to his nature, more special, than others. The Course teaches that God’s nature is singular and constant. All His creation shares His attributes equally and wholly. That is in fact what makes creation creation.
Creation is the holy Son of God, for in creation is His Will complete…. W-pII.11.3:2-3
The above passage clearly shows that the Course’s metaphysics does not allow for a theology in which some sons of God fall from the state of grace and therefore need redemption by other aspects which are more pure. Sins cannot be atoned for by these pure ones unless one believes that sin is possible. In other words, there can be no hierarchy in the Creation’s relation to the Father, just as there can be no hierarchy in illusions. The Course’s teaching is that there is only one difference in creation that can be meaningfully spoken of and that is the difference between the Creator and the created. So lesson 326 states, “I am forever an effect of God.” The Father is forever the Cause. This lesson goes on to say:
And all Your attributes abide in me, because it is Your …W-pII.326.1:5-6
According to the Course, the Father gave of Himself so totally to the Son, that the Son shares all His attributes such that there is no place the Father ends and the Son begins.
We can talk about this, yet clearly the experience of the divine relationship between God and the Christ is beyond the capability of our verbal, linear, rational mind to comprehend. Suffice it to emphasise at present that there is no hierarchy amongst the aspects of Creation, and to relate to one aspect as if it were so is to effectively obliterate the possibility of remembrance of the eternal relationship we do have to our Source. Rather than getting closer to the awareness of Christ, in idolising Jesus [or any other spiritual teacher for that matter] we are actually participating in what the Course describes as the antichrist.
Idols are but substitutes for your reality. In some way, you believe…T-29.VIII.2:2-7
As Course students, much of our practice is focused on accepting more and more completely that the only solution to all our problems exists within our mind and that we, and we alone, are responsible for what is within our mind. So in our relating to Jesus, part of our lesson involves letting go all magical tendencies to see him as the answer above and beyond what we conceive ourselves to be. The movement is always one of withdrawing attention from the outside as an end in itself, and placing it within. The question then becomes, if Jesus is not an intrinsically special being, who or what is he, and what is and enlightening way of relating to him?
Rebirth–The Birth of the Christ
Where the Christ is, and what it is, is alluded to in the following excerpt from the Course:
The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness….T-15.XI.2:1-2
That light symbolises what we are as God created us and the “time of Christ” is the reawakening of the knowledge of what we are in the midst of the darkness of our delusional self concepts. Behind the darkness of the hell we have made, our Heavenly home awaits our choice to return to it wholly. In Lesson 182, the image is used of Christ becoming an innocent child, Who constantly pleads to us to take Him back to His heavenly home, in which He can simply be what He is:
It is this Child in you your Father knows as His Own Son. It is this Child …W-pI.182.5.
The analogy to a child is frequently used in the Course, both to describe our relationship to our Father and our relative state of ignorance! However, in the context of Christmas as the time of Christ we are also reminded that our first glimmering of the truth that we have so long denied, is indeed like a child and needs our protection and care. Moreover, this care is not for the sake of the child, but for our sake, that we do not “lose” sight of Him again. For it is within that sight that we will see the strength that is defencelessness:
For He was willing to become a little Child that you might learn of Him…
W-pI.182.9:2-3
The profound truth that the Course helps us to understand is that until we let go all concepts associated with sin, sacrifice and death we must fear Jesus, and thus, at some level, experience him as an enemy. The theme of sacrifice and how it is linked up to notions inherent in the Christmas celebration will be the focus of Part II of this article.
Lesson 182 is about teaching us how to enter into the present moment, what the Course calls the holy instant, in order to experience the truth which exists outside of time and the world. In the instant we fulfil what the Course teaches:
He rules the universe, and yet He asks unceasingly that you return with Him, and take illusions as your gods no more. W-pI.182.11:5
In the present moment, we let go all our past learning and in that act, let go our presumptions of what the future should or would be.
It is in your power to make this season holy, for it is in your power to make the time of Christ be now. … T-15.X.4.
The ego would have us avoid the present moment because of its dependance on fear which is rooted in the belief in sin and guilt. It is these three pillars that underlie the ego’s use of time.
By the notion of paying for the past in the future, the past becomes the determiner of the future,… T-13.IV.4:4
The time of Christ is the time in which we are presented with the only choice there is–to be host to God or hostage to the ego. Love is total, just as the ego principle is, thus there can be no partiality or attempt to compromise in our decision-making.
It is in the holy instant, when we make the choice for Christ, that we participate in the Second Coming, which is:
…nothing more than the end of the ego’s rule and the healing of the mind. T-4.IV.10:2
Nothing new is created, rather, all that is unreal is let go of, so that what always existed beyond the veil of illusions is free to reveal itself and be itself.
Christ’s Second Coming, which is sure as God, is merely the correction of mistakes…W-pII.9.1:1-2
To celebrate Christmas truly in the spirit of the Course’s teaching is to celibrate each and every day. It is to be willing to let go of all judgements, meaningless thoughts and self-concepts, so that the Christ, that which we are in truth, as God created us, can dawn upon our now empty mind. In our choosing, in the holy instant, to be host only to what God created, we “give birth” to the awareness of that which never left us–it was we who left it in our hallucinatory collective dreams. That is the re-birth, the resurrection or the Second Coming of the Christ.
The holy instant is the method by which we practice giving Christ ascendence in our minds, in acknowledgement that He is the link which keeps us one with God and is the only part of us which has any reality. When we do this, our mind is being healed and we are participating in what the Course calls “the Great Awakening.” [T-15.XI.10.:10]
We have established that the Christ is within us (or more correctly, is us) and that we are all equals in our Christ Self. The time of re-birth of the awareness of the Christ is now; now being the only time free of judgements of the past. However idolising the person of Jesus as if he were an exclusive container of truth in a special relationship to the Father, as is traditionally the case, would be, according to the Course, to miss the point of Jesus’ teaching altogether. Though Jesus is not special in the ways traditionally associated with him, he nevertheless does have a special part to play in what the Course calls the Atonement process. With very few exception students of the Course have all been touched in some way by the Judeo-Christian heritage that permeates Western thought. And so it is that they will, without excpetion, have some specialness or forgiveness issue with the figure of Jesus himself. As students of a teaching that purports to come from Jesus, they would do well to be very clear about their relationship to him and what role he is to play in their awakening or journey back to God.
We have already referred to an excerpt in which Jesus describes himself as an elder brother, with greater experience and wisdom. We can therefore, turn to him as a guide or a teacher, who acts as a link in helping us bridge the distance we think exists between us and God:
“No man cometh unto the Father but by me” does not mean that I am in any way separate or different …T-1.II.4:1-6
Jesus tells us that he is in charge of the Atonement process (the undoing of all errors in the mind of God’s Son.) This is so because he was the first to complete his part perfectly–that is he saw the false as false and so became completely identified with the truth:
In his complete identification with the Christ–the perfect Son of God…C-5.3
Jesus stands at the end of the process we all must go through in case we fail temporarily:
The reason you come before me is that I do not need miracles for my own Atonement…
T-1.III.1:3-5
In other words, when we have become completely unwilling to accept error of any kind in our mind we will no longer need to relate to Jesus as an elder brother for we will at least let go the awareness of a gap between he and we.
Another way of describing Jesus’ function is that of a Teacher of teachers. Recall that a teacher of God is anyone who, for one moment, did not perceive his or her own interests as separate from another’s. In other words, they have become, if only momentarily, willing to join with another, letting go of their perception of difference. Their understanding however, of their true identity in God, is not yet complete because their willingness to join is still partial and that is why they need a Teacher of teachers.
There are those who have reached God directly, retaining no trace of worldly limits… M-26.2.
This is Jesus’ special function for many, especially in the Christian world. We are told that our learning will be helped if we can accept Jesus into the pains and joys of our life, that is, by developing a conscious relationship with him.
It is possible to read his words and benefit from them without accepting him into your life. Yet he would help you yet a little more if you will share your pains and joys with him, and leave them both to find the peace of God. C-5.6:6-7
By developing such a relationship we are undoing the very problem–the problem of the belief in separation and aloneness. If our end is the reawakening of the knowledge we are all joined in the Kingdom, it makes sense that the means would also reflect that joining.
Jesus is a Teacher of teachers, and has become so completely identified with God that God’s power is his; God’s name is his:
He has recognized himself as God created him… M-23.2:6-8
In remembering Jesus, therefore, we are remembering God.
The whole relationship of the Son to the Father lies in him… M-23.3:3-4
“Jesus Christ”, the name of Jesus and the Christ, have become a symbol, so close to that which they symbolise, that the space between them is all but lost. When Jesus fully accepted the lesson of the Atonement, the remembrance of Christ was complete. Given that the sons of God are One in Christ, when Jesus awoke, we all awoke with him. This is what is meant when the Manual says that only one teacher of God is needed to save the world, and why it asks us:
Why would you choose to start again, when he has made the journey for you? M-23.5:11
In turning to Jesus with as much honesty and willingness as we can have in any moment, we are literally turning to the power which underlies the illusory manifestation of the entire universe. That is why the Course so frequently says that so little of us is required in return for the gift of everything.
The problem is not that we can’t love another but that we do not love ourselves. We do not believe that perfect love exists in us. That is why we need a reflection which shows us a different image of ourselves than the one seen in the dark, twisted mirror of the ego.
You do not love yourself… M-23.5:4-10
The whole spiritual process may be seen as one of calling upon different witnesses. As teachers of God, we can be witnesses to each other which teach the lesson that we are much more than what we appear to be, and that the truth of our being exists beyond the limitations that separation would try to prove. Great beings like Jesus, not only facilitate that level of learning, but witness to what is beyond all learning, when at last knowledge may dawn once again upon the mind of God’s Son.
No one on earth can grasp what Heaven is, or what its one Creator really means. Yet we have witnesses. It is to them that wisdom should appeal. There have been those whose learning far exceeds what we can learn. Nor would we teach the limitations we have laid on us. No one who has become a true and dedicated teacher of God forgets his brothers. Yet what he can offer them is limited by what he learns himself. Then turn to one who laid all limits by, and went beyond the farthest reach of learning. He will take you with him, for he did not go alone. And you were with him then, as you are now. M-23.6.
Linda & James Hale
“Portions from A Course in Miracles Copyright © 1975, 1985, 1992 reprinted by permission of the Foundation for Inner Peace, Inc. The ideas represented herein are the personal interpretation of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the copyright holder.”