{"id":17733,"date":"2019-01-29T09:09:29","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T14:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17733"},"modified":"2019-01-29T09:24:08","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T14:24:08","slug":"jesus-human-and-devine-the-jesus-paradox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17733","title":{"rendered":"Jesus: Human and Devine; The Jesus Paradox"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Jesus: Human and Divine<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cac.org\/the-jesus-paradox-2019-01-29\/\"><strong>The Jesus Paradox<\/strong><\/a><br>\n<strong>Tuesday, January 29, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xfvximi7aqw\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>If we are humble and honest, Christians must acknowledge that most of our churches and leaders have not consistently read the Gospels in a contemplative way or with \u201cthe mind of Christ\u201d (1 Corinthians 2:16). Without contemplative consciousness, we severely limit the Holy Spirit\u2019s capacity for inspiration and guidance. We had arguments to win, logic to uphold, and denominational distinctions to maintain, after all. Without the contemplative mind, humans\u2014even Christians\u2014revel in dualisms and do not understand the dynamic unity between seeming opposites. <em>The Jesus Paradox <\/em>(i.e., Jesus being at once God and human) was meant to teach and exemplify this union. [1] The separate self fears and denies paradoxes\u2014which is to deny our own self, which is always filled with seeming contradictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUnless the single grain of wheat dies\u201d we see everything as a mirror of our separate and small selves, rather than whole. As Jesus put it, we \u201cwill not yield a rich harvest\u201d (John 12:24). We are unable to comprehend that <em>Christ is our wholeness <\/em>(see 1 Corinthians 1:30)\u2014set forth for all to imagine, trust, imitate, and comprehend. He is the Exemplar of Reconciled Humanity, the Stand-In for all of us. At this wondrous level, Christianity is hardly a separate religion but simply an organic and hopeful message about the nature of Reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I believe the world\u2014and the West in particular\u2014is experiencing a rapid evolution of consciousness in recent centuries. Only in the past few decades have Western Christians even had the capacity to think nondually! While mystics throughout history have recognized the power of Christ to overcome dualisms, dichotomies, and divisions, many Christians are just now realizing what this means. As Augustine said, we are being offered something \u201cforever ancient and forever new.\u201d It is revolutionary because it is so traditional and yet so hidden. This traditional teaching can still create a revolution of mind and heart\u2014and history itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Amos Smith writes: \u201cMy core truth about Jesus isn\u2019t rooted in mainstream Christian tradition. It\u2019s rooted in Jesus\u2019 essence. It\u2019s about the deep stillness of silent prayer and a theology big enough to give that blessed stillness words.\u201d [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus has always been so much bigger than our ideas about him, our readiness to surrender to him, and our ability to love and allow what he clearly loves and allows in creation. He is the microcosm of the macrocosm. He is the Great Coincidence of Opposites as St. Bonaventure taught. Only the Jesus Paradox gives us the permission and freedom to finally and fully love the paradox that everything already and always will be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus: Human and Divine The Jesus Paradox Tuesday, January 29, 2019 If we are humble and honest, Christians must acknowledge that most of our churches and leaders have not consistently read the Gospels in a contemplative way or with \u201cthe mind of Christ\u201d (1 Corinthians 2:16). Without contemplative consciousness, we severely limit the Holy Spirit\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17733"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17736,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17733\/revisions\/17736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}