Each morning the night dies to the day…
“What has always been basic to resurrection, or Easter, is crucifixion. If you want to resurrect, you must have crucifixion. Too many interpretations of the Crucifixion have failed to emphasize that. They emphasize the calamity of the event. And if you emphasize calamity, then you look for someone to blame. But it is not a calamity if it leads to new life. Through the Crucifixion we are unshelled, we are able to be born to resurrection. That is not a calamity. We must look freshly at this so that its symbolism can be sensed.” ~Joseph Campbell
So, in our end is our beginning… How many new beginnings have you had in your lifetime? I have had quite a few – I have needed to, and been able to, reinvent myself a few times. The resurrection reminds us that to have a new beginning – we must end something. Endings are rarely comfortable, easy, or without pain.
Jesus taught that the kingdom of heaven is within, and the kingdom of heaven is at hand now – which means that the kingdom of heaven is eternally available in the present moment – right here and now, right where we are. We don’t literally have to die to get to the kingdom of heaven – we can awaken to it! We let go of – and let die – what isn’t serving us anymore, and we awaken to our Natural State of being, we awaken to our Christ Consciousness.
Now we can understand the meaning of the statement: He who gains his life shall lose it, and he who loses his life shall find Life Eternal. When we gain a life lived in our ego, in our small self and small mind, we lose our capacity to live as Spirit intended, from our Christ Consciousness. But when we lose our ideas of ego, of lack and limitation, of isolation and separateness, we let go of what is no longer serving us, we allow our ego to die just a bit, we are resurrected or born into our Natural State. We surrender to a greater self which is already within. However, surrender is not a onetime thing. St Paul said, I die daily. He was speaking of course about dying to a lesser idea of himself, a limited idea of himself, and allowing the Christ Presence to flow ever more greater in, through, and as him.
“Awakening is nothing to be gained afresh; it is already there. All that is necessary is to get rid of the thought, ‘I am not Awake.’ There is no moment when the Self is not Awake. You are the Self. You are already that which is Realized and Awake.” ~Sri Ramana Maharishi
Jesus and all the great spiritual masters were pointing to the Truth that we are already perfect, even as the Father in Heaven is perfect. We were created from perfection, and when we start LIVING from perfection, we are realized, we are awake, aware, and truly living our life in Christ.
The essence of who we truly are is already with us, each of us, and we are called and compelled to shed the skin, like a molting snake, to shed our skin of lack and limitation, and self doubt and unworthiness – and be ourselves transformed into that which we were created to be – the Divine Expression of God, of Love, of Light, of Peace and Wholeness and Oneness.
by Elizabeth Cantey