Who Do You Say I Am?

                                

"Who do you say I Am?" ~Luke 9:20

I called you my Lord, but this was not the whole truth. I called you my Self, but this was not the whole truth. I called you Christ, but the Mystery was deeper. Then I called you Friend, and this was enough. This was everything.

Here is the portrait of "Christ at 33" by Hoffman. Please don't tell me this is not how he really looks, because this is very much how he looks when he looks at me. How he looks at you is your business. Incidentally, for what it's worth, Paramhansa Yogananda said that this portrait of Jesus was the closest portrayal of his likeness ever made. How would he know? Who really knows? Nobody. 

Your own heart reveals the countenance of the Friend according to the mystery of the divine will, and the clarity of your inmost Eye. No one has any right to tell others how to perceive the face of Christ. No one has any right to tell others whether, perceiving the face of Christ, they perceive the face of an Other, or their own radiance, beheld in the mirror of pure consciousness. 

To insist that the Friend has a personal form is to miss the point. To insist that the Friend does not have a personal form is to miss the point. On this subject, I have noticed that "non-dualists" can be just as dogmatic as fundamentalists.

Saint Porphyrios of Mt. Athos said, "Do not seek peace in the world, you will not find it. Seek peace in Christ, and you will find peace everywhere." Some would interpret this to mean: Seek peace in Christ Consciousness, a state of enlightened cosmic awareness. Others would interpret it to mean: Seek peace in a personal relationship with the Lord. 

Why must Christianity be either-or? Why not both? Where did we get the notion that an impersonal Christ Consciousness is superior to a personal relationship? Is this not but the prejudice of new-age advaitist elites? 

Some of the warmest, most joyful people I know have a personal relationship with Christ, and aren't at all interested in getting "enlightened." Who is to say that friendship with Jesus isn't their own heart-connection to the one all-pervading Logos at the heart of the cosmos?

Honor the Mystery. Then honor the Mystery within the Mystery.