Here’s the article I wrote for the December issue of the Lourdes Shrine magazine…
It’s December and though we are in the midst of a pandemic, one can’t help but feel the excitement in the air. As we set up the nativity crib and string lights around the Christmas tree, we know for certain that things are going to get better. That’s why Christmas is celebrated year after year, in the hope that Christ Consciousness will awaken in us. Jesus Christ was already born ages ago. He has already manifested in human form long ago, and that’s when time split into A.D. (Anno Domini which is Latin for ‘in the year of the Lord’ and refers specifically to the birth of the Jesus Christ) and B.C. (Before Christ). As we gear up to celebrate another Christmas, let us not merely glorify the outward appearances and symbols of Christmas, instead let us look inwards and discover that Christ came to reveal the greatest secret that stays locked within our being.
We are not unworthy or lowly beings created by God. When we begin to conceive of ourselves as unworthy or inferior, then we bring God down to our level of understanding. We tend to think of God as someone who allows wars, killing, rampages and every evil deed to go on unheeded. Why would God create us to watch us destroy each other, or why would a virus come into the picture and create unprecedented havoc? It’s all part of how humankind has been living through the ages. When we lose sight of who we really are, then problems will arise as we give in to our more basic human nature. Genesis clearly states that we are made in the image and likeness of God, which means our core is made of God’s essence, and only the external covering is the human flesh.
When we pay heed to this core essence in us, then we’ll realise that we are indeed made in the image and likeness of the Almighty and that’s how we’re born again in Spirit. Which means, we lead a life according to the inclinations of the Spirit, a spiritual life. And that’s what Christmas should really mean, a new birth in Spiritual Consciousness or Christ Consciousness. The baby in the manger came to let us know that our human natures (the ones that keep us from achieving our true potential like jealousy, greed, desire, fear, addictions and the like) can easily be discarded if we give priority to the spiritual centers at the core of our being. The Kingdom of Heaven is within you, Jesus says and that is the greatest secret that stays locked within us as we go around searching for solace in external gratification. All the lights of Christmas and all the gifts in the world will pale in comparison to this heaven that is right inside us, waiting to be realised.
This Christmas let us discover the Kingdom of Heaven in our midst and spread this wondrous light of the new born divine child. Merry Christmas and a Blessed Year Ahead.
