“In taking up our divine agency, if we truly believe and experience ourselves as participants in the divine nature, then we will increasingly feel more and more compelled from our divine source to do what God does—create in love.”
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When we come to discover and begin to inhabit the presence of God as intimately interwoven with our very own being, we recognize that just as God is not separate, neither is our source of motivation. Our will, so long held in either surrender or independence (and the tension between the two), can come into a deeper and harmonious integration.
We experience a deeper source of will rooted in the depths of our soul. It arises with holy longings and sacred charges—not necessarily in the traditional sense of what is “holy” and “sacred,” as all of the earth and any of our actions can be spiritually inspired. Everything is sacred, and this is ever more apparent as we welcome divine presence into more conscious engagement with any and all settings and situations.
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It was seven years ago, on Epiphany in 2019, Integral Christian Network was first launched. What a wonderful marker to reflect on all of the life and goodness that has come forth from this community over the years!
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In this Christophany advent and Christmas, we have engaged in the process of the birth of God-Being-Us. This brings us into a Christmas that is not solely about celebrating the birth of Jesus two thousand years ago. We enter a celebration as well of the ongoing and eternal birth of Christ.
Richard Rohr speaks well to this distinction,
“The historical Jesus was one man, and Christ is not his last name. The Christ includes the whole sweep of creation and history joined with him—and us too. We call this the Cosmic Christ. We ourselves are members of the Body of Christ and the Cosmic Christ, even though we are not the historical Jesus.”
Christophany is all about this “and us too.”
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As we approach the end of this advent season, the time for birth draws near.
The birthing of our Christophanies is eternal and particular, always ongoing and right here, right now.
We have said yes to the life divine, and the human life we live each day. We are rooted and sourced in the heritage of God, and so the life we bring forth is also divine. Here and now, in this time and place, in the particular incarnations we are. Life begets life.
In this advent of Being, from the life and energy of divine vitality, Christophany takes its form and shape in and through us. Even and particularly in the singular form of you. Yes, you.
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The divine life does not come to take over, cast aside, or banish our humanity. Our human personhood is not a fallen nature, an overriding ego, nor a shrouded veil. The human life we are given is the palpable substance of the Really Real, the exquisite space and time in which we are bestowed the gift of being in our pointed particularity, our precious personhood.
Following the yes of “let it be done unto me,” we are offered the chance to say yes to “what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
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Tracing Our Mystical Christ Lineage
Both the gospels of Matthew and Luke trace Jesus’ lineage. They give different records, which has caused some consternation in trying to account for the discrepancy. While outlining the biological line of Jesus most likely served different purposes for the authors of these gospels, for our focus here we will consider the heritage of divine vitality in the mystical lineage of Christ—all the way down to us.
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Divine Vitality is the primary energetic of this advent, this arrival of the divine being born anew in the most elemental substance of matter itself. It suffuses and grows into many shapes and forms, each as expressions of Christ. And even in ourselves we can inhabit, bear, and bring forth expressions of Christ in and from our very being—charged with the energy of God, the vibratory light of Christ permeating and illuminating our embodied presence as divine creation.
Do we believe it?
Do we feel it?
Can we welcome it?
Can we be here with it in the annunciation of the gift of our divine being within?
Might we consent to receiving this conception of Christ in us too?
The beckoning to divine vitality is an invitation to welcome the experiential inhabiting of a reality that already is present. It is already here. You are already living in divine vitality right this very moment.
Our human vitality subsists and sustains us so long as we are alive and breathing, yet there are times when we feel more alive. We have the experience of vitality charging and energizing our sense of being alive. Perhaps you’ve felt this in the midst of the beauty of nature, or in a precious moment in relationship with a loved one. Or we maybe have felt it in the midst of great pain—the strength of our will to live, even if small and covered over by suffering. The birth of a child is charged with vitality, and often experienced in the vividness of pain and joy. So too in the sacred moment of death.
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Practices to help us move in our evolving faith journey.
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