"O Night Divine"

[Marcella Womack]

Christmas Eve 2010

It is the night we celebrate the birth of Christ. 

 

http://worriersanonymous.org/Share/Christmas/Holynite.htm

 

 

The story is told that he was conceived through Divine inception and was born to a husband and wife who had pledged to be the parents to this “miracle” sent from God.  Said to have been born in lowly circumstances because there were no rooms left in the Inn, he was welcomed into his earth life in a stable.  His arrival, however, had been heralded by amazing astrological signs that many said, were to signal a great Being’s birth.  Wise men had traveled from afar – from Egypt to Bethlehem – to bring gifts to this wonderful Child.  They had come a great distance, following the brilliant Light of a Star that seemed to light up the whole Earth. 

 

Like us, we reach for the Light that seems to shine down upon us from time to time and marvel that Life contains vivid moments where we fell uplifted and blessed.  When we come back “down to Earth,” we feel humble in the face of the marvels we take so for granted: our human body at work, life pulsing through our veins, the life cycle that occurs year round when all of nature moves to a rhythm that is beyond our understanding, and the moments that take our breath away from small unexpected surprises of beauty and grace.

 

On that evening, too, the shepherds watching their flocks  on the hillside not only could see the brilliance of the Light of that Star but swore they were in the company of a host of Angels singing their Joy at the long-awaited coming of this special Child.  Angelic voices resounded in the night and all who were there could feel Their presence among them.  They, too, knew something miraculous was occurring and wanted to move closer to the place where the Light shown most brightly.

 

Like us, we seem to hear the Inner Voice that guides us forward when we are afraid, assuring us that we will survive and, in fact, that we will thrive if we reach for the Unknown in trust and faith that “all is well.”  As we experience a breakthrough instead of the  breakdown that we so feared, we seem to hear the “angels sing” celebrating our perseverance and our triumphs.  Then in those surprising moments we know we are not alone in the world.  We are touched by “The Spirit” – we sense the spiritual dimension that is closer than hands and feet, nearer than breathing.

 

His family was a normal human family, his father a carpenter and his mother was devoted to raising their several children, with Jesus being one among them.  They lived a simple life, once they had escaped the obsession of King Herod to make sure no one would replace him as “ruler.”  He, as later men after him, misunderstood why this One of Jesus had come.  They, because of their own conditioning. thought he would want to be King.

 

Those of us who were brought up in a Christian church or live in a culture built on many of the Christian values, know Jesus was born and lived a fairly normal life until we read in the New Testament that he began his ministry when he reached 30.   We, who are familiar with the Bible scriptures know of  his  life among the Jews and the ancient prophecies that said a Messiah would come in time and would be sent from God and be the King of Kings!

 

Reading more widely in ancient manuscripts we find that there are other aspects of Jesus’ life that we hardly hear about in our mainstream churches.  Did you know that there are records that Jesus went on a long pilgrimage of many years between childhood and his return to Nazareth in his late 20s?  There are records in monasteries in Tibet that tell of one Spiritual Teacher who came and both taught and learned from the Spiritual Masters of other faiths there.   These Masters were as impressed with the first-hand knowledge of the Divine that Jesus had as did the Jewish priests when he visited them in the Temple when he was twelve.

 

These records, as well as records found among all the world religions with which we are acquainted, speak of spiritual knowledge passed down through thousands of years.  These are the Mysteries that men and women have discovered as they sought for Knowledge and Experience of the Divine and the origin and sustenance of both the Universe and the Earth.   Every  several thousand year cycle, it seems that MORE knowledge is discovered and MORE becomes known and passed on to the next generation. 

 

Many of us have heard of Mystery Schools.  We can find that there were always those who had determined to explore the Inner Realms of Spirit and the closer we have gotten to contemporary times, the more these “knowings” have come  into common knowledge.  Even if you simply take the history of the founding of this Country, you find that many of the Founding Fathers had studied sacred writings and gathered together in groups to try to discern the Nature of Reality and the purpose for humans being on the Earth.  They brought with them a commitment to place into our government’s design certain Truths that, if followed, would create a new kind of government – based on freedom, equality, and justice for all.  They believed most assuredly that they were following the Hand of the Divine and could create structures that would encourage men and women to live together in “spiritual ways” – those that  spoke of God’s Plan for all of humanity.

 

Let us return to the events of the One whom was said to be destined to be the “King of Kings.”  His life was an EXAMPLE of what it means to be a Son of God.  He also said that since we each have Souls – a spark of the Divine – that we, TOO, are meant to be LIKE HIM.  He spoke of God as his “father” and said that since we were all “God’s children” that we, too, could approach the Father and that if our intent was to know God directly that we, too, could become “One” with the Father.  Did he not say: “I and the Father are One”?   He said his life, intentioned and given by God to humanity, was meant to show us who we “really are.”  His Coming was not about fulfilling a prophecy that was aimed at one group of people, but to ALL PEOPLE.   And it certainly was not meant to create a Kingdom on Earth where some men would rule over others.  In fact, God’s Message as conveyed by Jesus was that LOVE was the underlying Principle in the Universe!

 

The Kingdom that Jesus spoke about – the Kingdom of Souls – is a spiritual Kingdom that is meant to be lived HERE on the earth plane.  It is not a faraway place where one goes when one dies.  God is not a faraway vague spirit or a “white man” on a “throne.”  The whole Universe is made of that Divine Essential Presence that IS GOD – and is LOVE - and IS in US. 

 

Have you been as enlivened as I have when watching the youtube  videos of the Flash Mobs singing the “Hallelujah Chorus”  this year?  Have you felt a thrill in your heart when people of every diverse walk of life and race and probably religion sing together?  Have you marveled at the resounding music that booms through places such as Grand Central Station, the food courts, Macy’s in New York and even our own Crown Center?  Have you watched the faces on the children and the elderly – the families together – and those who had come together to declare: “Glory to God in the Highest!  …and He shall reign forever and ever”?

 

On this night, in a land faraway, over 2,000 years ago, an incredibly important birth took place.  Through his life the one of Jesus grew up and lived in constant attunement with the Divine and by so doing, he grew in knowledge and compassion for humanity, and agreed to “give over” his Life to God.  He agreed to do whatever was called upon him to do, even sacrifice himself.  In his commitment to do the Will of the Divine and serve his fellow humans, he reached the Christ-Consciousness and became the One we call The Christ. 

 

I close with a quote from a body of Spiritual Teachings called The Aquarius Materials:

 

“Those of you who have lit your lamps are being pushed along rapidly.  For does not one flame quickly fan another?  You must stay this way, for these Energies (incoming 4^th dimensional LIGHT) are going to take you up, and expand you into that of a NEW BEING.  And this New Being is the Christ child within you.  This is the birth of YOU.”

                                                                                                “The Resurrection Fire,” Chapter 11, page 73

 

Linked in LIGHT and LOVE and SERVICE

Marcella Womack