A Christian is an
1 — empathetic person
2 — who experiences his (or her) oneness with everyone he (or she) meets,
3 — and a person of wisdom who experiences one-ness with the timeless cosmic reality in Jesus Christ, the universal Saviour.
Jesus admonishes us to find those experiences also, in order that we may become sons and daughters of God.
How may we do this?
We ourselves are responsible for the realization of the son- and daughtership of God. This is our universal endowment through the timeless, ongoing fulfillment of God’s promise to His creation. We must see, feel, and deeply understand the teaching of Jesus to carry out that responsibility. We must become deeply aware of the dynamic, transforming power of God’s promise, which assures universal salvation to all.
No matter who we are, young or old, male or female, rich or poor, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, we are all followers of Christ, because we all seek to experience what is true and real. We live to become sons and daughters of God the Father.
We wrongly assume we can achieve this without changing our present interests and habits, without opening ourselves to inner change. We should ask ourselves whether we want to settle for a human existence in which discrimination, bigotry and ignorance abound, where hate, racism, sexism and selfishness flourish, where we live as if we believe that we will never die.
Or, whether, instead, we would rather feel an all-embracing love and respect for all of our fellow beings including ourselves – “Love thy neighbour as yourself” – , where we live in a daily awareness of the transient nature of life, living fully each precious unrepeatable moment. We cannot possibly settle for a blind, hateful existence, for we would be surrendering the ideal of what we know we can become if we become manifestations of Christ.
When we are willing to remove all prejudice from our thinking, and when we are willing to see the truth, to love to be both free and responsible at the same time, listening to the Gospels and the apostolic letters of the New Testament can contribute to the realization of our ideals.
Since the NT was originally written in the Middle East during the early part of the first century, the gist of what the authors meant became more and more obscure with time. This was due partly to the result of the changes in words' meanings, partly the result of translation, and partly that of having been copied innumerable times and partly through doctrinal conflicts and the splitting up of Christian churches. And though we may smile away the ancient world view, we somehow cannot dismiss the NT itself. Its power to move us persists. What remains constant as we read it here and now is the profound power of the story and teaching of Jesus Christ.
Jesus vowed that all human beings would experience their one-ness with Him. Our (human) wishes are only desires unaccompanied by action, but his vow is a desire expressed in the successful effort of saving us all. He is infinite Light and Eternal Life, He is the Way and the Truth. His Kingdom is the Land of Bliss, and the Name of of Jesus is the means by which we can understand the true human ideal. God the Father, the Kingdom and the saving Name are symbols applicable to the human condition as it exists everywhere and at all times.
So, today, we read the NT not as a historical description of how Jesus became the Saviour of mankind and established his Kingdom of God, His land of bliss, but as the work of the Saviour and Teacher, through various apostolic authors, who help us become conscious of our finitude in our inward, forward movement towards the achievement of our true, authentic, infinite selves with total unconditional freedom as sons and daughters of God.
In this process of dynamic growth and change we become thoroughly aware of ourselves and our situation. We are awakened to the reality that each of us is both sinner and, surprisingly, at the vary same instant, Christ living us as our own savior.
If we approach the NT in this light it ceases to be a "dead" classic and becomes a spirited book that reminds us we are able to encounter Jesus Christ only because we are Him. It is in the inward flight towards our true selves that we discover Him. But even then we cannot discover Him as an object, an 'it' since He is a Divine Person. We become aware of Jesus Christ not by some mystical or supernatural experience, but only in the authentic exercise of our freedom, in being persons. As one with Him we are truly and wholly what we are.
If those who have been alienated from their true selves want to drive to find their way home, the NT can illuminate the way for Jesus the Saviour vowed through the Cross and the Resurrection to those who are in need of help and guidance, who are lost and confused, that they will be enabled to restore their confidence, to awaken to their identity, their one-ness with He who is the Light and the Life.
