{"id":20408,"date":"2021-08-24T08:23:43","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T12:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20408"},"modified":"2021-08-24T08:26:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T12:26:57","slug":"20408","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20408","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zt15EgCuYi8\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mirroring the Mind of Christ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>For in him were created&nbsp;<\/em>all things<em>&nbsp;in heaven and on earth, everything visible and everything invisible . . .&nbsp;<\/em>\u2014Colossians 1:16<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The true and essential work of all religion is to help us recognize the divine image in&nbsp;<em>everyone and every thing<\/em>. It is to mirror things correctly, deeply, and fully until all things know who they are. A mirror by its nature reflects impartially, equally, effortlessly, spontaneously, and endlessly. It does not produce the image, nor does it filter the image according to its perceptions or preferences.&nbsp;<em>Authentic mirroring can only call forth what is already there.<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can enlarge this idea of mirroring to give us another way of understanding the Universal Christ. For example, there is a divine mirror that might be called the very \u201cMind of Christ.\u201d The Christ mirror fully knows and loves us from all eternity and reflects that image back to us. I cannot logically prove this to you, but I do know that people who live inside this resonance are both happy and healthy. Here\u2019s how the Franciscan mystic Bonaventure (c. 1217\u20131274) described this mirroring: \u201cWe can contemplate God not only outside us and within us but also above us: outside through his vestiges [creations], within through his image and above through the light which shines upon our minds, which is the light of Eternal Truth.\u201d [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Can we then also see the lovely significance of John\u2019s statement, \u201cIt is not because you do not know the truth that I write to you, but because you know it already\u201d (1 John 2:21)? He is talking about&nbsp;<em>an implanted knowing&nbsp;<\/em>in each of us\u2014an inner mirror, if you will. Today, many would just call it \u201cconsciousness,\u201d and poets and musicians might call it the \u201csoul.\u201d The prophet Jeremiah would call it \u201cthe Law written in your heart\u201d (31:33), while Christians would call it the \u201cIndwelling Holy Spirit.\u201d For me, these terms are largely interchangeable, approaching the same theme from different backgrounds and expectations. In that same letter, John puts it quite directly: \u201cMy dear people, we are&nbsp;<em>already&nbsp;<\/em>the children of God\u201d and in the future \u201call we will know is that we are like God, for we shall finally see God as God really is!\u201d (1 John 3:2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201cimage of God\u201d is absolute and unchanging; it is pure and total gift, given equally to all. There is nothing we humans can do to increase or decrease it. It is not ours to decide who has it or does not have it, which has been most of our problem up to now\u2014deciding who is in and who is out, who is up and who is down, who is \u201cgoing to heaven\u201d and who is not. Only the tiny mind would want such a strange and horrible \u201ccomfort.\u201d The great mind hands such questions back where they belong, to the only mind where everything belongs, which is of course the Mind of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"343\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/image-10-500x343.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20410\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/image-10-500x343.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/image-10-300x206.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/image-10-768x527.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/image-10.png 1896w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mirroring the Mind of Christ For in him were created&nbsp;all things&nbsp;in heaven and on earth, everything visible and everything invisible . . .&nbsp;\u2014Colossians 1:16 The true and essential work of all religion is to help us recognize the divine image in&nbsp;everyone and every thing. It is to mirror things correctly, deeply, and fully until all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20408"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20408"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20412,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20408\/revisions\/20412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}