Friday, August 16, 2013

Fr. Richard Rohr - Jesus Is Smaller than Christ

RichardRohr

I post a lot of Buddhist material here, so when possible, I want to try to balance that with wisdom teachings from other traditions. Today, I offer this "daily meditation" from Father Richard Rohr, one of the next generation of teachers in the mystical tradition of Christianity (following Father Thomas Keating and Brother David Steindl-Rast).

Fr. Rohr is the author of Adam's Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation (2004), From Wild Man to Wise Man: Reflections on Male Spirituality (2005), The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See (2009), and Unitive Consciousness: Beyond Gender (2013, An Essay, Kindle only).

Jesus Is Smaller Than Christ 


Fr. Richard Rohr
Meditation 21 of 53

To understand Jesus in a whole new way, you must first know that Christ is not his last name, but the pre-existent Christ Consciousness that existed from all eternity (Colossians 1:15-20) and his omnipresent identity after the Resurrection—which now includes humanity and all of creation along with it (Ephesians 1:9-11). Jesus became the Christ (Acts 2:36) by his own process of transformation, and now wonderfully includes us in this sweeping, historical, and victorious identity!

That’s why Paul will then create a shocking new term: “the body of Christ,” which clearly now includes all of us (1 Corinthians 12:12-30) and all of creation, too (Romans 8:18-21). What hope this offers everything!

So think of the good Jesus, who has to die to what seems like him—so that he can rise as the larger Christ. It is not a “bad” man who must die on the cross, but a good man (false self)—so that he can be a much larger man (True Self), or Christ. Jesus dies, Christ rises. The false self is not a bad self; it is just not the true self. It is inadequate and small, symbolized by Jesus’ human body, which he readily lets go of.

~ Adapted from Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, p. 191

The Daily Meditations for 2013 are now available in Fr. Richard’s new book Yes, and...: Daily Meditations

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