Until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which resulted in some reforms in the church's orthodox practices, as a means of adaptation to the 20th century, theology practically only addressed the external Christ, identifying it with the human person of Jesus of Nazareth.
Currently, there are talks of the inner Christ in man. In fact, this inner Christ appears in the gospels, especially in the parable of the vine and its branches: the same divine sap that circulates in the vine’s trunk also circulates in its branches, that is, the holy spirit, which is the Christ in Jesus, is identical to the divine spirit that exists in all human beings. Jesus affirms that the presence of God is a reality in every human being – “the Father is in me, the Father is also in you” - but the awareness and action of the divine spirit vary among people. The presence of God is the same in every man; however, Jesus said that what makes man Christlike is the awareness and experience of this divine presence!
“He that is in me but does not bear fruit will be cut off and thrown into the fire and destroyed, but he who is in me and bears fruit will be pruned (purified) so that he may bear fruit more abundant”.
With these words, Jesus affirms the presence of the divine Christ in all human creation, while the subjective action of this inner Christ depends on man's conscience. Despite this presence, man can perish spiritually if he does not live following that spirit. If the objective presence of Christ in man produces a subjective experience in harmony with that spirit, then that human branch of the divine vine will be pruned or purified to produce more abundantly. The vine branches are pruned at certain times of the year so that the sap is concentrated in an area, producing fruit more intensely. This pruning amounts to a kind of suffering for the plant; the vine “weeps”, as it is popularly said because from the wound in the branch, drops of vital sap fall and moisten the soil. Those who live following the spirit of Christ go through a credit-suffering to become even more spiritual. Spirituality does not preserve a man from suffering; credit-suffering accompanies spiritual evolution. In the beginning, this suffering is compulsory, as the life of spiritual persons shows; only later does this suffering become voluntary suffering, as happened to Jesus, who spontaneously accepted the suffering caused by the process of his Christlike ascension: “No one takes my life; I lay down my life when I want, and take my life back when I want.” Pain, suffering, is a resistance caused by the action of the Self on the ego, as there is no evolution without resistance. Even in the human person of Jesus, there was an evolutionary resistance; Jesus asks that the suffering pass from him; but at the same time, his Christ freely accepts suffering “so that he may enter into his glory”.
In the world of finite existences, the paradox of suffering is the greatest of truths, for it is the process of evolution. In it, two phenomena occur, debt-suffering and credit-suffering, which cannot be confused. The first is unhealthy, the result of guilt, error, and the second is healthy, as it is the voluntary affirmation of the process for greater spiritual ascent.
Avatars, beings of high spiritual evolution who descend to the spheres of the inferior worlds, such as the Earth, spontaneously seek this evolutionary resistance to suffering to promote their future spiritualization. Paul of Tarsus, in the Epistle to the Philippians, attributes this “descent” to Jesus himself, who, from the heights of divine splendour, descended into the valley of human suffering and was thereby exalted.
Awakening and living following the spirit of the inner Christ mark the path of the ascending evolution, of the Christification of man.
The words: “I am the light of the world – you are the light of the world” also express the same identity as the light of Christ in Jesus and other men. However, this identity in light has many degrees of intensity and manifestation; in many men, the light is under the opaque veil of the ego, whereas in Jesus, the light was high up in the lampstand of his Christlike consciousness.
The gospel of Christ is rigorously monistic, admitting a single essence manifested in many existences.
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